The Aral Sea in Kazakhstan is now the Aralkum Desert
The Aral Sea is just a shadow of what it has already been, and it is now the Aralkum Desert. How has the third largest lake in the world became the younger desert on the planet?
Until the 1960s, the Aral Sea was one of the largest interior reservoirs of water in the world.
Over seven decades, the lake began by dividing itself into smaller lakes, until most of its original surface has completely evaporated, leaving behind a desert.
The Aral Sea covered an area of 68,000 km2. Currently, it would be considered the third largest lake by surface area, after the Caspian Sea and the upper lake.
The current third largest lake, the Lago Vitória, also changed in size Over the past decades, but not as much as the Aral Sea, whose residual lakes cover less than 10% of the original surface.
The sea is now on the border Between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; but to understand how it reached its current form, We have to retreat to the Soviet Age.
At that time, the two main sources of freshwater from the Aral Sea were the rivers Syr Darya E Amu Daryawho fed the salty lake with freshwater and kept this basin in a mostly arid region.
During the 1960s, the rivers began to be increasingly used to irrigation, reducing the flow of water to the lake and leading to a significant reduction in its dimension.
In the late 1980s, The lake had already divided into two. The great aral was situated south, still on the border, and little aral was now completely in Kazakhstan.
The situation continued to deteriorate. Two more decades and the great aral had divided again into two: an oriental wolf and a western wolf.
Currently, the eastern lobe has disappeared, leaving behind an arid and salty area, the ARALKUM DESERT – Now, the youngest desert on Earth. Those of the new terrain are quite impressive.
Little aral is frozen north, while from Greater Aral there is only a thin strip of the western lobe.
E What happens When does a huge lake become a desert? Good, Problems happen!
In the first half of the twentieth century, the lake had a fishing industry Precise, which has now disappeared.
O Microclimate in the region was completely changed: Winter are colder, summers are warmer; Every year, violent sand storms spread the sand and salt through hundreds of kilometers, affecting the health of the local population; and it is expected that the entire southern section will dry soon.
