Aral Sea

Aral Sea Latest News

Drying of the Aral Sea has released more than 200 teragrams of carbon from exposed lake-bed sediments, turning a once-stable carbon reservoir into an active source of greenhouse gases, according to a new study.

About Aral Sea

• It is a saline lake in Central Asia straddling the boundary between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to the south and north.  
• It was once a large saltwater lake in Central Asia and the world’s fourth-largest body of inland water.
• The remnants of it nestle in the climatically inhospitable heart of Central Asia, to the east of the Caspian Sea. 
• Formation:
  • The Aral Sea depression was formed toward the end of the Neogene Period (which lasted from about 23 to 2.6 million years ago). 
  • It was made by waters from the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya rivers that were dependent on glacial melt.
• Climate: 
  • The Aral Sea is located within the harsh climate region of Central Asia. 
  • The area experiences a desert-continental climate, characterized by hot summers, cold winters, and varying diurnal air temperature.
• Reason for its Disappearance:
  • The lake once covered 68,000 sq.km. between the Kyzylorda and Aktobe regions in Kazakhstan and the Karakalpakstan region of Uzbekistan. 
  • However, the lake started shrinking in the 1960s, when the Soviet government decided to divert the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya, to irrigate the surrounding desert region.  
  • By the 1980s, the Aral Sea had shed 80% of its volume, resulting in the extinction of native fish species and severe ecological degradation, including the emergence of the Aralkum Desert. 
  • Today it is on the verge of complete disappearance.

News: BIO

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