The Aral Sea These images from NASAs Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) compare the change in size of the Aral Sea from August 25, 2000 (left) to August 19, 2014 (right). For the first time in recorded history, the eastern basin of the South Aral Sea has disappeared. The lake in Central Asia has been losing water since the 1950s to farmland irrigation programs. In the late 1950s, the Aral Sea was the Earths fourth-largest inland body of water with respect to surface area. In 1960 the mean level of the Aral Sea was measured at 53.4 metres, its surface area at 66,000 km2, and its volume at about 1,090 km3. A flourishing sea fishery industry existed, based on the exploitation of a variety of commercially valued species. During the past three decades, the Aral Sea region has become a major world-class ecological and socio-economic problem. The demise of the Aral Sea in central Asia was caused primarily by the diversion of the inflowing Amu Dar’ya and Syr Dar’ya rivers to provide irrigation water for local croplands. These diversions dramatically reduced the river inflows, causing the Aral Sea to shrink by more than 50%, to lose two-thirds of its volume, and to greatly increase its salinity. At the current rate of decline, the Aral Sea has the potential to disappear completely by 2020 foxnews/science/2014/10/01/nasa-images-reveal-shocking-scale-aral-sea-environmental-disaster/
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 07:21:28 +0000
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