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Aral Sea |
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Aral Sea (ăr`əl), salt lake, SW Kazakhstan and NW Uzbekistan, E of the Caspian Sea in an area of interior drainage. To the north and west are the edges of the arid Ustyurt Plateau; the Kyzyl Kum desert stretches to the southeast. As recently as the 1970s it was the world's fourth largest lake, c.26,000 sq mi (67,300 sq km) in area and c.260 mi (420 km) long and c.175 mi (280 km) wide. Fed by the Syr Darya Syr Darya or Syrdarya (both: sēr däryä`, –där`yə), ancient Jaxartes or ..... Click the link for more information. and Amu Darya Amu Darya or Amudarya (both: äm ..... Click the link for more information. rivers, it was generally very shallow, attaining a maximum depth of c.180 ft (58 m). In the 1950s the Soviet Union decided to cultivate cotton in the region, and since the early 1960s the Syr Darya and Amu Darya have been used for large-scale irrigation, causing a drop in the flow of freshwater into the sea. The sea is, as a result, now greatly reduced, mainly occupying three basins in the central, western, and northern sections of its lakebed. It is about a third of its former size in area and less than an eighth in volume. The sea formerly supported local fishing and was navigable from Muinak to Aral. As the Aral has retreated from its former shores, due to the combined effects of evaporation and water diversion, major environmental problems have resulted. The quality of the remaining water has deteriorated, increased salinity has killed fish, and the health of those living along the shore has suffered. Regional weather has been affected as well, becoming harsher as the sea's moderating climatic influence has diminished. Vozrozhdeniye, the site of a Soviet germ warfare waste dump, is a former island that is no longer isolated from the surrounding region; in 2001 the United States agreed to help clean up the site. Geologically separate from the Caspian Sea Caspian Sea (kăs`pēən), Lat. Mare Caspium or Mare Hyrcanium, salt lake, c. Aral SeaLarge salt lake between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It once covered some 26,300 sq mi (68,000 sq km) and was the fourth largest inland body of water in the world, but diversion of the waters of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers for irrigation has led to an overall reduction of its surface area by more than half since 1960. Its volume has been reduced drastically, which has led to an increase in salinity. The soil of the dried-up lake bed has been found to contain salts and other toxic substances. |
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| According to data from the University of California-San Diego, today the Aral Sea has lost as much as 75 percent of its former volume and its surface area has shrunk by 50 percent. The Northern Aral Sea is being successfully restored after its surface had shrunk to less than half its original size as a result of a massive diversion of water under the Soviet Union, which had drained the two rivers feeding it and devastated the surrounding environment. In 1990, the Aral split itself into northern and southern seas; by 1996, the smaller North Aral Sea had lost half of its surface area and three-fourths of its volume. |
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