Aral Sea Totaly Dry
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Academic
Shocking NASA Images Show Aral Sea Basin Now Completely Dry
Once the fourth-biggest lake in the world, the eastern basin of the Aral Sea in central Asia is now completely dry. It is the result of a Soviet-era project to divert rivers for agriculture and a lack of rainfall at its source.
"This is the first time the eastern basin has completely dried in modern times,"Philip Micklin, an Aral Sea expert from Western Michigan University told NASA's Earth Observatory, which captured fresh satellite images of the lake."And it is likely the first time it has completely dried in 600 years, since Medieval desiccation [drying out] associated with diversion of Amu Darya to the Caspian Sea."
In a bid to drive up production of cotton in nearby steppes, Soviet engineers diverted the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, the two rivers flowing into the lake, as part of massive irrigation projects for water-hungry crops in the 1950s and '60s.
As a result, the bed of the lake - polluted by the chemicals used in crop-growing - has become exposed, while the water has turned increasingly salty, killing off the majority of wildlife, and decimating the fishing industry in the region.
This particular retreat has been a consequence of poor rainfall in the Pamir Mountains that has exacerbated the shortfall of water flowing into the lake, which lies between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but it could not have happened without the constant decline.
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