Shrinking Aral Sea

  • Released Thursday, February 16th, 2012
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:53PM
  • ID: 10862

In the 1960s, the Soviet Union undertook major water diversion projects on the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, capturing water that once fed into the Aral Sea. Irrigation projects made the desert bloom, but they spelled doom for the natural freshwater lake. As the Aral Sea dried up, fisheries collapsed, as did the communities that depended on them. The remaining water supply became increasingly salty and polluted with runoff from agricultural plots. Dust blowing from the exposed lakebed eventually degraded the soils, forcing further water diversion efforts to revive them. On a larger scale, loss of the Aral Sea's water influenced regional climate, making the winters even colder and the summers much hotter. Fifty years later, the lake is virtually gone. View the dramatic changes that took place over decades in this collection of satellite images.

Abandoned boats now rest on sandy scrubland that was once the basin of the world's fourth largest lake.

Abandoned boats now rest on sandy scrubland that was once the basin of the world's fourth largest lake.

Satellite images show the changing water levels in the Aral Sea from 2000 through 2011.

A satellite image from 1964 shows the Aral Sea before the dramatic decline in lake levels altered the shoreline.

A satellite image from 1964 shows the Aral Sea before the dramatic decline in lake levels altered the shoreline.

False-color images taken by USGS-NASA Landsat satellites show what was once an island gradually becoming part of a peninsula.

False-color images taken by USGS-NASA Landsat satellites show what was once an island gradually becoming part of a peninsula.

Southern parts of the Aral Sea nearly vanished between 2000 and 2009, though a dam helped stabilize areas in the north.

Southern parts of the Aral Sea nearly vanished between 2000 and 2009, though a dam helped stabilize areas in the north.

Heavy spring rains briefly returned water to the Aral Sea in 2010, but lake levels visibly dropped just a year later.

Heavy spring rains briefly returned water to the Aral Sea in 2010, but lake levels visibly dropped just a year later.

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NASA Earth Observatory
Aral Sea abandoned boats photograph courtesy of Ismael Alonso, Copyright 2011