The Aral Sea is quickly disappearing
| The Aral Sea is actually a huge lake, located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia. In recent decades, much of the water which used to flow into the Aral Sea has been taken for growing crops. As a result, the Aral Sea has shrunk dramatically. Nearly two-thirds of the lake has vanished since 1970. The sequence of images above, taken by the Landsat satellite, show the changes in the size of the lake since 1973. Due to the lower volume of water, the concentration of minerals and salts in Aral Sea has risen to the point where most fish can no longer survive, ruining the local fishing industry. The newly exposed lake bottom has become a source of large amounts of airborne dust, lowering the air quality in the region and decreasing crop yields. Even in the face of such catastrophic effects, local officials have yet to take any action to stop the disappearance of the Aral Sea. |
Credit: Landsat instrument, courtesy USGS Eros Data Center
For more info: http://www.american.edu/ted/ARAL.HTM