The massive lake was formed 5.5 million years ago, following a fall in sea level coinciding with the uplift of the surrounding Elburz and Caucasus Mountains. One of the lake’s two main tributaries, the Amu Darya didn’t flow into the depression that now forms the Aral Sea until the start of the Holocene.
Why is the Aral Sea called a sea?
Why is the Aral Sea called a sea? The Aral Sea is an endorheic lake, which means that although it has surface inflow, there is no surface outflow of water. The inflow into the sea is because of two rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya.
Why did the people in the Aral Sea get sick?
Why did the people in the Aral Sea get sick? As the Aral Sea has dried up, fisheries and the communities that depended on them collapsed. The increasingly salty water became polluted with fertilizer and pesticides. The blowing dust from the exposed lakebed, ...
What was the Aral Sea like before it shrunk?
With an overall average content of oxygen of 6.3 ml/l, the Aral Sea was oversaturated with oxygen. Before the desiccation of the Aral Sea, the lake actually played a big part in the local climate, regulating it by softening strong Siberian winds during the winter and cooling the area during the hot summer months.
What caused damaged to the Aral Sea?
Why Is the Aral Sea Shrinking?
- The Main Cause—Soviet Canals. In the 1940s, the European USSR was going through a widespread drought and famine, and as a result, Stalin launched what is known as the Great ...
- The Destruction of the Aral Sea. ...
- End of the Fishing Industry. ...
- Restoring the Northern Aral Sea. ...
- Low Hopes for the Western Sea. ...
- Environmental and Human Catastrophe. ...
- Sources. ...
What caused Aral Sea to shrink?
Once the fourth largest lake in the world, Central Asia's shrinking Aral Sea has reached a new low, thanks to decades-old water diversions for irrigation and a more recent drought. Satellite imagery released this week by NASA shows that the eastern basin of the freshwater body is now completely dry.
Who caused the Aral Sea to begin to dry up in 1960?
The amount of the water being redirected increased heavily as the production of cotton in the farmlands doubled between 1960 and 2000. As a result, the shrinking of the sea occurred at maximum pace; at an average of 20cm in a year between 1961 to 1970, 50-60cm in 1970's and it reached 80–90cm in 1980's.
When did the Aral Sea start to dry up?
The Destruction of the Aral Sea Thus, in the 1960s, the Aral Sea began shrinking quite rapidly, with the lake's level dropping 20-35 inches yearly. By 1987, it dried up so much that instead of one lake, there were now two: the Large Aral (south) and the Small Aral (north).
Is the Aral Sea man made?
Although the Aral Sea disaster—a human-made environmental catastrophe—was realised in the late 1990s, its consequences are becoming even more evident today. In the 1960s, the depth of the lake was 68 metres. Today, it is less than 10 metres.
Who is to blame for the Aral Sea shrinking?
In October 1990 Western scientists confirmed the virtual disappearance of the Aral Sea in Soviet Central Asia, formerly the fourth largest inland sea in the world. The loss of sea water was the result of 60 years of intensive agriculture and pollution by the Soviet authorities.
What is the main cause of the shrinking of the Aral Sea quizlet?
What is the primary reason for the shrinking of the Aral Sea? Large-scale irrigation projects implemented by the Soviets in the 1950s have diverted water from the two rivers that feed the sea.
How did cotton shrink the Aral Sea?
The soil around the sea has become more saline as well. In order to prepare fields for cultivation, which are mostly desert lands, farmers must first leach or rinse them, which brings salty minerals to the surface. Moreover, as a result of the increased soil salinity, cotton harvests began to diminish.
What did Russia do to the Aral Sea?
By establishing a program to promote agriculture and especially that of cotton, Soviet government led by Khrouchtchev in the 1950s deliberately deprived the Aral Sea of its two main sources of water income, which almost immediately led to less water arriving to the sea.
Is the Aral Sea shrinking because of climate change?
Consequently, concentrations of salts and minerals began to rise in the shrinking body of water. That change in chemistry has led to staggering alterations in the lake's ecology, causing precipitous drops in the Aral Sea's fish population.
Can the Aral Sea be refilled?
Every river in this vast area drains into dusty deserts, or lakes like the Caspian and Aral Sea. The Aral Sea has been dwindling for decades, but one part of the lake is now growing again.
What was the reason humans impacted the Aral Sea?
Intensive irrigation of cotton plantations in the deserts of the western Soviet Union prevented water reaching the Aral Sea, leading to the drastically low levels we see today. This in turn meant the highly-salty waters killed off many plants and animals.
What happened to the Aral Sea and why?
Formerly the fourth largest lake in the world with an area of 68,000 km2 (26,300 sq mi), the Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects.
What was the Aral Sea?
The Aral Sea was part of the western frontier of the Chinese Empire during the Tang dynasty. The Russian expedition of Alexey Butakov performed the first observations of the Aral Sea in 1848. And the first steamer arrived in the Aral Sea three years later.
What are the bivalves in the Aral Sea?
There were several native bivalves in the Aral Sea, including members of the genera Dreissena (including an endemic subspecies of zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorph a aralensis ), Hypanis, and the lagoon cockle ( Cerastoderma glaucum) (formerly considered distinct species Cerastoderma rhomboides and C. isthmica ).
What is the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea?
The International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) was developed on 23 March 1993, by the ICWC to raise funds for the projects under Aral Sea Basin programmes. The IFAS was meant to finance programmes to save the sea and improve on environmental issues associated with the basin's drying.
What are the nematodes in the South Aral Sea?
In contrast, in the South Aral Sea only a few nematodes, rotifers, and parthenogenic brine shrimp ( Artemia parthenogenetica) exist. The future prospects for aquatic invertebrates in all remaining Aral Sea fragments depend on their future changes in salinity.
How much did it cost to restore the Aral Sea?
Redirecting water from the Volga, Ob and Irtysh rivers to restore the Aral Sea to its former size in 20–30 years at a cost of US$30–50 billion. Pumping sea water into the Aral Sea from the Caspian Sea via a pipeline, and diluting it with fresh water from local catchment areas. Cotton picking in Uzbekistan.
What is the name of the crustacean in the South Aral Sea?
Zebra mussel ( Dreissena polymorpha ), a former dominant member of the sea's benthic fauna, and has since returned to the North Aral Sea. Parthenogenic brine shrimp ( Artemia parthenogenetica ), the dominant crustacean of the South Aral Sea and its fragments.
How high was the Aral lake in 2010?
In the first half of the 20th century prior to the irrigation, the sea's water level above sea level held steady at 53 m. By 2010 the large Aral was 27 m and the small Aral 43 m above sea level. The disappearance of the lake was no surprise to the Soviets, they expected it to happen long before.
What happened to the Aral Sea?
As the Aral Sea has dried up, fisheries and the communities that depended on them collapsed. The increasingly salty water became polluted with fertilizer and pesticides. The blowing dust from the exposed lakebed, contaminated with agricultural chemicals, became a public health hazard.
When did the South Aral Sea retreat?
Especially large retreats in the eastern lobe of the South Aral Sea appear to have occurred between 2005 and 2009, when drought limited and then cut off the flow of the Amu Darya. Water levels then fluctuated annually between 2009 and 2018 in alternately dry and wet years.
Where did the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers flow?
Before the project, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya rivers flowed down from the mountains, cut northwest through the Kyzylkum Desert, and finally pooled together in the lowest part of the basin. The lake they made, the Aral Sea, was once the fourth largest in the world.
What was the Soviet Union's water diversion project?
In the 1960s, the Soviet Union undertook a major water diversion project on the arid plains of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The region’s two major rivers, fed by snowmelt and precipitation in faraway mountains, were used to transform the desert into farms for cotton and other crops.
Why did the Aral Sea shrink?
Once the fourth largest lake on Earth, the Aral Sea has shrunk dramatically over the past few decades as the primary rivers that fed the Sea have been diverted and tapped nearly dry for cotton farming and other agriculture.
How did the drying out of the sea affect the agricultural land?
The drying out of the Sea’s southern part exposed the salty seabed. Dust storms increased, spreading the salty soil right into the agricultural lands. As the agricultural land becomes contaminated by the salt, the farmers try to combat it by flushing the soil with huge volumes of water.
When was the Aqua satellite captured?
The image at right was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite on August 12, 2003, and it shows the rapid retreat of the Sea’s southern half, now separated into a western and eastern half, both of which may face the same bleak future.
Which lake fed the southern part of the Sea?
The southern part of the Sea was fed by the Amurdar'ya and the northern part was fed by the Syrdar'ya, forming a large inland lake that moderated the region’s continental climate and supported a productive fishing industry.
Is the Aral Sea still being updated?
Aral Sea. This page contains archived content and is no longer being updated. At the time of publication, it represented the best available science. In July 2003, the Kazakhstan government, with funding from the World Bank, began a massive restoration project for the Aral Sea.
Will the Aral Sea refill?
The northern Small Aral Sea will be allowed to refill from the inflow of the Syrdar'ya, and though it is never expected to regain its former extent, planners think that it will refill enough to support a robust fishing again.
What is the Aral Sea?
The Aral Sea is an endorheic lake lying between the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhstan and the Karakalpakstan autonomous region of Uzbekistan. Once known as the 4th largest lake in the World, the Aral Sea is famous today as one of the worst environmental disasters in the World.
What was the main water source in the Aral Sea?
Before the 1960’s the Soviet Government decided to divert the two main water sources of the Aral Sea, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, with the goal of irrigating the desert, aiming to grow rice, melons, cereals and especially cotton in the dry land area. The plan was to grow massive amounts of cotton, so that it can be exported.
What happened to the Aral Sea in 2003?
By 2003 the Aral Sea was vanishing in a fast pace. Its increase in salinity practically meant that the water became undrinkable. What’s worse, the deeper waters were much saltier than the water on the surface, and since it didn’t mix, the top of the lake evaporated rapidly.
What was the name of the lake that formed in the Kyzyl Kum?
Beforehand, it made its way into the Caspian Sea through the Uzboy Channel. The lake’s other tributary, the Syr Darya, formed an expansive lake in the Kyzyl Kum during the Pliocene period, which was known as the Mynbulak depression. The Aral Sea depression was formed at the end of the Neogene Period.
How much did the Aral Sea drop in the 1970s?
Until 1970 the Aral Sea’s level fell with an average of 20 centimeters each year, and this amount only increased to 80-90 centimeters per year by the 1980s.
When did Russia start a naval presence in the Aral Sea?
The Russian presence at the Aral Sea began in 1847 with the founding of the small town of Aralsk, close to the mouth of the Syr Darya. The Navy of the then Imperial Russia deployed its vessels on the huge lake, and since it wasn’t directly connected to other bodies of water, the ships were disassembled in Orenburg and were shipped nearly 1000 kilometers overland to the city of Aralsk, to be reassembled once again.
Where is the Aral Sea located?
The Aral Sea drainage basin is located mainly in Uzbekistan, but also in parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan.
How has the Aral Sea changed?
Even the climate in the region has changed, with the loss of so much water, becoming more arid, with significantly decreased precipitation. The Aral Sea has seen the surface area decline by 90%, and had its volume decrease by 85%, an amount equal to Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined.
How did the Aral Sea affect the Soviet Union?
From the early years of the Soviet Union, the region around the Aral Sea was viewed as being ideal for the production of cotton. All it needed was water. So irrigation canals were run in from the two rivers that fed the Aral Sea. The results weren’t unexpected, as the poorly-built irrigation canals were pulling between 20 and 60 cubic kilometers of water out of the rivers per year. The Aral simply could not handle the loss of so much water, and the sea level started to drop.
What is the size of the Aral Sea?
Once, the Aral Sea, located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was the fourth largest inland body of water in the world, with a surface area of 68,000 km2. Salinity at the time was measured at 10g/L (grams of salt per litre of water). In comparison, the oceans are about 35 g/L, and the Dead Sea about 300 g/L.
What was the cause of the Aral Sea disaster?
The Aral Sea disaster was caused by human mismanagement of a natural resource. In the beginning, the Soviet Union simply did not care, and the Aral Sea was one of many Soviet projects with the stated goal of taming nature. The nations that inherited this calamity are desperately poor, and need the cash provided by the near-destruction of the lake.
How many basins are there in the South Aral Sea?
The South Aral Sea is divided further into two separate basins, east and west. Salinity in the southern basins is up to over 100 g/L, and has resulted in the death of most of the native flora and fauna of the lake. A fishing industry that once supplied almost a quarter of the fish in Russian markets, and employed 40,000 people, ...
At its peak, the Aral Sea's fishing industry employed 40,000 people. Those jobs vanished when the sea itself did
NASA The current state of the Aral Sea as seen from space. The black border shows the largest extent of the lake in 1960.
Death Of The Aral Sea
The area was already a dry, arid part of the world. The Aral Sea maintained a delicate balance between a lot of evaporation due to the hot summers and replenishing waters from the rivers. The lake kept near-constant water levels if left untouched.
Attempting To Restore Balance
Luckily, restoration efforts are taking hold. Fishing communities along the North Aral Sea are making a comeback. Fishermen haul in catches of more than 100 pounds of pike, perch and bream in just a few hours’ of work. Although this is just in a small portion of the once-mighty lake, a little progress is better than none.
Overview
History
Climate shifts have driven multiple phases of sea-level rise and fall. Inflow rates from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya are affected by glacial melt rates at the rivers' headwaters as well as precipitation within the river basins and cold, dry climates restrict both processes. Geologically driven shifts in the course of the Amu Darya between the Aral Sea and the Sarykamysh basins and anthropogen…
Formation
The Amu Darya river flowed into the Caspian Sea via the Uzboy channel until the Holocene. Geographer Nick Middleton believes it did not begin to flow into the Aral Sea until that time.
Ecology
Despite its former vast size, the Aral Sea had relatively low indigenous biodiversity. However, the Aral Sea basin had an exceptional array of endemic fish subspecies (as well as the three endemic sturgeon species). Most of these still survive in the North Aral Sea, but some, such as the sturgeons, have been decimated or even driven to extinction by the lake's shrinkage. Native fish spec…
Impact on environment, economy, and public health
The Aral Sea is considered an example of ecosystem collapse. The ecosystems of the Aral Sea and the river deltas feeding into it have been nearly destroyed, largely because of the drastically higher salinity. The receding sea has left huge plains covered with salt and toxic chemicals from weapons testing, industrial projects, and pesticides and fertilizer runoff. Due to the shrinking water sourc…
Solution
Many different solutions to the problems have been suggested over the years, varying in feasibility and cost, including:
• Improving the quality of irrigation canals
• Using alternative cotton species that require less water
Institutional bodies
The Interstate Commission for Water Coordination of Central Asia (ICWC) was formed on 18 February 1992 to formally unite Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the hopes of solving environmental, as well as socioeconomic problems in the Aral Sea region. The River Basin Organizations (the BVOs) of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers were institutions called upon by the ICWC to help manage water resources. According to the ICWC, the main obje…
Vozrozhdeniya Island
Vozrozhdeniya (Russian for rebirth) Island is a former island of the Aral Sea or South Aral Sea. Due to the ongoing shrinkage of the Aral, it became first a peninsula in mid-2001 and finally part of the mainland. Other islands like Kokaral and Barsa-Kelmes shared a similar fate. Since the disappearance of the Southeast Aral in 2008, Vozrozhdeniya Island effectively no longer exists as a …