What is the history of the Aral Sea?
What is the history of the Aral Sea?
Geology. The Aral Sea depression was formed toward the end of the Neogene Period (which lasted from about 23 to 2.6 million years ago). Sometime during that process the hollow was partially filled with water—a portion of which came from the Syr Darya.
What was the original problem with the Aral Sea?
The change in water quality in the Aral Sea basin reduced the number of fish in the river and in the sea, and destroyed most of fauna (2,3). International experts confirm that most water sources in Karakalpakstan are polluted, and that the pollution is mainly caused by the agro-industry and mining industries.
What happened to the Aral Sea and who was responsible?
Formerly the fourth 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.
Who destroyed the Aral Sea?
Soviet
In October 1990 Western scientists confirmed the virtual disappearance of the Aral Sea in Soviet Central Asia, formerly the fourth largest inland sea in the world. The loss of sea water was the result of 60 years of intensive agriculture and pollution by the Soviet authorities.
What specifically caused the Aral Sea disaster?
The Aral Sea disaster was caused by human mismanagement of a natural resource. In the beginning, the Soviet Union simply did not care, and the Aral Sea was one of many Soviet projects with the stated goal of taming nature.
Who is responsible for the Aral Sea disaster?
By establishing a program to promote agriculture and especially that of cotton, Soviet government led by Khrouchtchev in the 1950s deliberately deprived the Aral Sea of its two main sources of water income, which almost immediately led to less water arriving to the sea.
What killed the Aral Sea?
“Once the world’s fourth-largest freshwater lake … the Aral Sea became the victim of the Soviet Union’s agricultural policies in the 1950s. Water from its two river sources—the Amu Darya and Syr Darya—was intentionally diverted for cotton cultivation.” The cotton industry was not sustainable in the long-term.
How was the Aral Sea destroyed?
In October 1990 Western scientists confirmed the virtual disappearance of the Aral Sea in Soviet Central Asia, formerly the fourth largest inland sea in the world. The loss of sea water was the result of 60 years of intensive agriculture and pollution by the Soviet authorities.
What did humans do to the Aral Sea?
Intensive irrigation of cotton plantations in the deserts of the western Soviet Union prevented water reaching the Aral Sea, leading to the drastically low levels we see today. This in turn meant the highly-salty waters killed off many plants and animals.
What is the fourth largest lake in the world?
The Greatest Lakes
| Rank | Lake Name | Surface Area |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caspian Sea | 143,000 sq mi (371,000km²) |
| 2 | Superior | 31,700 sq mi (82,100km²) |
| 3 | Victoria | 26,590 sq mi (68,870km²) |
| 4 | Huron | 23,000 sq mi (59,600km²) |
What was once the Aral Sea?
Stretching across Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea was once the fourth largest lake in the world , similar in size to the island of Ireland. For decades now, however, its size has been greatly reduced as a result of Soviet-era mismanagement, poor maintenance, and the worsening effects of the climate crisis.
Why was the Aral Sea diverted?
Background. The Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union decided that the two rivers feeding it, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya , would be diverted in order to irrigate cotton and food crops in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan . In 1987, due to an accelerated loss of water, the Aral Sea was split into northern…
What is the Aral Sea, which was in Central Asia?
The Aral Sea, what once was the fourth largest inland body of water in the world, and now more aptly dubbed Aralkum, is in Central Asia, divided between Northern Uzbekistan and Southern Kazakhstan.
Why has the Aral Sea evaporated?
Slowly less water got to the Aral sea from the rivers and those are the only sources of water the Aral sea has. By the 1980s the rivers basically dried up at the base before they reached the Aral sea. Then because no water got to the Aral sea, the water was slowly evaporating and that caused the Aral sea to shrink.