These images show the Aral Sea, in Central Asia. Because rivers that used to flow into the Aral Sea have been diverted for irrigation, this inland sea has shrunk dramatically.

The sea declines

For more than 30 years, water has been diverted from the Amu-Darya and the Syr-Darya Rivers feeding the Aral, to irrigate millions of acres of land for cotton and rice production in Central Asia. This has caused a loss of more than 60% of the lake's water. The lake has shrunk from over 65,000 sq km to less than half that size, exposing large areas of the lake bed.

From 1973 to 1987 the Aral dropped from fourth to sixth among the world's largest lakes.

The lake's salt concentration increased from 10% to more than 23%, contributing to the devastation of a once thriving fishery. The local climate has reportedly shifted, with hotter, drier summers and colder, longer winters.

As the water retreated, salty soil remained on the exposed lake bed. Dust storms have blown up to 75,000 tons of this exposed soil annually, dispersing its salt particles and pesticide residues. This air pollution has caused widespread nutritional and respiratory ailments, and crop yields have been diminished by the added salinity, even in some of the same fields irrigated with the diverted water.

References

Perera, Judith, 1993, A sea turns to dust: New Scientist, New Scientist Publications, London, England, vol. 140, no. 1896, October 23, p. 24-27.

Micklin, Philip, P., 1992, The Aral Crisis: Introduction to the Special Issue, Post-Soviet Geography, V. H. Winston and Son, Inc., Silver Spring, Maryland, vol. 33, no. 5, May, p. 269-282.

Rich, Vera, 1991, A new life for the sea that died?: New Scientist, New Scientist Publications, London, England, vol. 130, no. 1763, April 13, p. 15.

Ellis, William S., and Turnley, David, C., 1990, A Soviet Sea Lies Dying: National Geographic Magazine, vol. 177, no. 2, February, p. 7393.

New Scientist, 1989, Soviet cotton threatens a region's sea--and its children: New Scientist Publications, London, England, vol. 124, no. 1691, November 18, p. 22.

Perera, Judith, 1988, Where glasnost meets the greens: New Scientist, New Scientist Publications, London, England, vol. 120, no. 1633, October 8, p. 25-26.

United Nations Environment Programme, 1992, World Atlas of Desertification: Edward Arnold, London, 69 pp.

Satellite images

DS09066A014MC020 (Argon photograph, 21 August 1964)

1973 mosaic (Landsat 1 MSS. 172/28 and 174/28 are scanned film.):

        path 174      path 173      path 172
row 28  30 Apr 1977   29 May 1973   28 Apr 1977
row 29  10 Aug 1973   29 May 1973   13 Sep 1973
row 30  10 Aug 1973   29 May 1973   13 Sep 1973

1987 mosaic (MSS, 10 August - 22 September 1987)

1999 mosaic (Landsat 7 ETM+):

        path 162      path 161      path 160
row 28  19 Aug 1999   16 Nov 1999    5 Aug 1999
row 29  19 Aug 1999   12 Aug 1999    5 Aug 1999
row 30  19 Aug 1999   12 Aug 1999    5 Aug 1999

Map

Defense Mapping Agency, 1973 [compiled 1973, aeronautical and CHUM information revised 1988], Jet Navigation Chart 23: scale 1:2,000,000. (Note: all Aral scales are approximated by this map's scale at 45 degrees north.)

How to cite this article

Campbell, Robert Wellman, ed. 2001. "Aral Sea, Central Asia: 1964, 1973, 1987, 1999." Earthshots: Satellite Images of Environmental Change. U.S. Geological Survey. http://earthshots.usgs.gov. This article was released 14 February 1997 and revised 14 August 2000 and 14 August 2001.