eric: geologist carmit ish shalom lived here for a decade, studying a mysterious phenomenon: sinkholes. eric: this area is the first area where the sinkholes caused a big problem? carmit: yeah, here, near the beach. that was the first sinkholes that we found. eric: this former holiday park was abandoned when sections of it started disappearing into the ground. carmit: at the end of the '80s, they found here the first sinkhole, and the resort was just closed immediately. eric: and how do you feel when you see this? carmit: it's really scary to think that children could run here on top of nothing. and that was also the main income source of en gedi, which they can't use anymore. eric: as the dead sea continues to shrink, carmit ish shalom knows more and more sinkholes will come. eric: when the salty water of the dead sea recedes, it lees a thick underground layer of salt. winter floods rush down from the mountains. the fresh water saturates and dissolves that salt, and huge underground caverns form. when they eventually collapse, sinkholes appear. carmit: there are more than 6,000 differ