THE DEAD SEA — The motorboat cut through the aquamarine water of the Dead Sea, past dazzling-white formations forged from salt crystals. Jake Ben Zaken, the boat captain, pointed to a patch of darker water nearby indicating a sinkhole beneath the seabed. These are both signs of an unfolding ecological disaster, he said. The Dead Sea sits where Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian land meet and is a place of extremes. It's the lowest point on the planet, around 1,400 feet below sea level.