The Aral Sea (/ˈærəl/ARR-əl)[4][a] was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south which began shrinking in the 1960s and largely dried up by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhstan and the Karakalpakstan autonomous region of Uzbekistan. The name roughly translates from Mongolic and Turkic languages to "Sea of Islands", a reference to the large number of islands (over 1,100) that once dotted its waters. The Aral Sea drainage basin encompasses Uzbekistan and parts of Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.[1]
Formerly the third-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. By 2007, it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into four lakes: the North Aral Sea, the eastern and western basins of the once far larger South Aral Sea, and the smaller intermediate Barsakelmes Lake.[5] By 2009, the southeastern lake had disappeared and the southwestern lake had retreated to a thin strip at the western edge of the former southern sea. In subsequent years occasional water flows have led to the southeastern lake sometimes being replenished to a small degree.[6] Satellite images by NASA in August 2014 revealed that for the first time in modern history the eastern basin of the Aral Sea had completely dried up.[7][8] The eastern basin is now called the Aralkum Desert.
In an effort in Kazakhstan to save and replenish the North Aral Sea, the Dike Kokaral dam was completed in 2005. By 2008, the water level had risen 12 m (39 ft) above that of 2003,[2] to 42 m (138 ft).[9] As of 2013[update], salinity dropped, and fish were again present in sufficient numbers for some fishing to be viable.[10]
After the visit to Muynak in 2011, former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the shrinking of the Aral Sea "one of the planet's worst environmental disasters".[11] The region's once-prosperous fishing industry has been devastated, bringing unemployment and economic hardship. The water from the diverted Syr Darya river is used to irrigate about two million hectares (5,000,000 acres) of farmland in the Ferghana Valley.[12] The Aral Sea region is heavily polluted, with consequent serious public health problems. UNESCO has added historical documents concerning the Aral Sea to its Memory of the World Register as a resource to study the environmental tragedy.
^ ab"DRAINAGE BASIN OF THE ARAL SEA AND OTHER TRANSBOUNDARY SURFACE WATERS IN CENTRAL ASIA" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). 2005. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
^ ab"The Kazakh Miracle: Recovery of the North Aral Sea". Environment News Service. 1 August 2008. Archived from the original on 12 April 2010. Retrieved 22 March 2010.
^JAXA. "South Aral Sea shrinking but North Aral Sea expanding"
^"Aral Sea | Definition of Aral Sea in English by Lexico Dictionaries". Archived from the original on 31 January 2018.
^Philip Micklin; Nikolay V. Aladin (March 2008). "Reclaiming the Aral Sea". Scientific American. Retrieved 17 May 2008.
^"Satellite image, August 16, 2009 (click on "2009" and later links)". 24 September 2014.
^Liston, Enjoli (1 October 2014). "Satellite images show Aral Sea basin 'completely dried'". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
^Rosenberg, Matt (8 December 2022). "Why Is the Aral Sea Shrinking?". ThoughtCo. Archived from the original on 29 June 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
^Stephen M Bland. "Central Asia Caucasus". stephenmbland.com.
^"Aral Sea Reborn". Al Jazeera. 21 July 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
^"Aral Sea 'one of the planet's worst environmental disasters'". The Daily Telegraph. London. May 2010. Archived from the original on 8 April 2010.
^"Syr Darya river, Central Asia". Encyclopedia Britannica. 19 July 2023.
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The AralSea (/ˈærəl/ ARR-əl) was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south which began shrinking in the 1960s...
The North AralSea (Kazakh: Солтүстік Арал теңізі, Russian: Северное Аральское море) is the portion of the former AralSea that is fed by the Syr Darya...
agriculture. In 2003, the South AralSea itself split into eastern and western basins, the Eastern Sea and the West AralSea, connected by a narrow channel...
and flows from there north-westwards into the southern remnants of the AralSea. In its upper course, the river forms part of Afghanistan's northern border...
northern remnants of the AralSea. It is the northern and eastern of the two main rivers in the endorheic basin of the AralSea, the other being the Amu...
the dried up AralSea basin". The Guardian. 1 October 2014. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2019. AralSea Crisis Environmental...
testing sites, the shrinking of the Aralsea, and desertification of former agricultural land. These issues are due in large part to Kazakhstan's years...
and Turkmenistan, resulted in the AralSea losing 85% of its land cover and 90% of its volume. The loss of the AralSea has had a significant effect on...
Ocean is called Tethys Sea, Western Tethys Ocean, or Paratethys or Alpine Tethys Ocean. The Black, Caspian, and Aralseasare thought to be its crustal...
the time the agreement expired in 2013, it was largely forgotten. The AralSea was historically a part of Karakalpak culture, and the region is commonly...
of the AralSea. Because of excessive irrigation, Turkmen agriculture contributes to the steady drawdown of sea levels. In turn, the AralSea's desiccation...
the AralSea is situated on the "highway" where strong currents of air are blowing from the west to the east. ... That is why pesticides from the Aral region...
Ysyk-Köl is the second largest body of water in Central Asia, after the AralSea, but the saline lake has been shrinking steadily, and its mineral content...
: Salt lakes with "Sea" in the name: AralSea, Dead Sea, Salton Sea Freshwater lakes with "Sea" in the name: Sea of Galilee Bodies of water identified...
Black Sea and with Lake Aral. A recession of Lake Akchagyl completed stage one. The earliest hominid remains found around the Caspian Seaare from Dmanisi...
sits east of the Caspian Sea which has a steep east bank. It adjoins, to the north, the long delta feeding the South AralSea further north, another endorheic...
dissolved minerals accumulate. The AralSea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and Pyramid Lake in the western United States are further examples of large, inland...
Water portal Asia portal AralSea List of drying lakes List of places on land with elevations below sea level Mediterranean–Dead Sea Canal Benjamin Elazari...
Sargasso Sea (/sɑːrˈɡæsoʊ/) is a region of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by four currents forming an ocean gyre. Unlike all other regions called seas, it has...
Uzbekistan. It is the seat of the Moynaq district. Formerly a sea port on the AralSea, it is now 150 km from the water in the Aralkum Desert and thus...
of salts reportedly are carried as far as 800 kilometers away. Regional experts assert that salt and dust storms from the AralSea have raised the level...
support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols. The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection...
This is a list of rivers that flow wholly or partly in Afghanistan, arranged geographically by river basin. Indus River (Pakistan) Gomal River Kundar River...
The common carp's native range extends to the Black Sea along with the Caspian Sea and AralSea. Like the zebra mussel, the common carp is an invasive...
replenishment of the North AralSea. The system now provides close to original flows into the North (Small) AralSea, by which dams are being built to divorce...
Aladin, Nikolai V. (2010). "The AralSea and the Dead Sea: Disparate lakes with similar histories: AralSea - Dead Sea comparisons". Lakes & Reservoirs:...
test at a Soviet biological weapons (BW) facility on an island in the AralSea. The incident sickened ten people, of whom three died, and came to widespread...
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