The Jordanian Water Ministry deployed technical teams last Saturday to take samples and determine the nature of changes in a pool of water near the Dead Sea, which suddenly turned red, The Jerusalem Post reported.
According to the newspaper, Omar Salama, a spokesman for the ministry, told local media that the pond in question is small and isolated from the Dead Sea’s waters.
Sakhr Al-Nusour, the head of the Jordanian Geologists Syndicate, has reportedly suggested that the change in the water’s colouration might have been caused by algae, iron oxide or perhaps by some substance added by humans.
Some social media users, however, seemed inclined to refer to the Bible, with one of them tweeting: “Straight from Revelations (sic)”.
The newspaper also notes that a somewhat similar incident occurred last year in Israel, when the Alexander river “ran blood-red” because of the blood flowing in from slaughterhouses on the West Bank.