Vanishing Lake
The Middle East’s largest lake is drying up—and it’s not because of drought.
Iran’s Lake Urmia is one of the largest saltwater lakes in the world. With eight times as much salt as seawater, it’s the globe’s largest habitat for brine shrimp, which attract flamingos, egrets and other birds as they migrate across Asia. But the lake is disappearing. Using images captured by USGS-NASA Landsat satellites, researchers determined that its area has decreased by 88 percent since the 1970s. Many blamed severe drought, but climate data from satellites and other sources demonstrated that the lake is shrinking even in wet years. Instead, researchers attribute the vanishing water to the region’s increasing agriculture and development. The drying of the lake affects more than animal life. As water retreats, it leaves behind a salty crust that is swept into the air by dust storms. These particles can cause respiratory problems in humans and wreak havoc on nearby agricultural lands. Watch the video to see how Lake Urmia’s footprint has changed in recent decades.
USGS-NASA Landsat satellites captured these false-color images of Lake Urmia between 1972 and 2014.
Once the sixth largest salt lake in the world, Lake Urmia covered nearly half a million hectares in 1989.
By 2012, the lake had lost many of the islands that provided feeding and breeding grounds for migrating birds.
The lake covered around 62,000 hectares by 2014—a decrease of nearly 90 percent since the 1970s.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Cover image courtesy of NASA/JSC/Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth
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Writer
- Kerry Klein (USRA)
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Scientist
- Amir AghaKouchak (University of California, Irvine)
Release date
This page was originally published on Tuesday, February 17, 2015.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:49 PM EDT.