Aral Sea facts

While investigating facts about Aral Sea Map and Aral Sea Disaster, I found out little known, but curios details like:

The Aral Sea, formerly the fourth largest lake in the world, has been drying up since the 1960's due to poor water management practices, so much so that the eastern basin is now called the Aralkum Desert, full of ghostly relics of rusting ships and decaying docks.

how aral sea dried up?

Once 4th largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea, has declined to only 10% of its original size since the 1960's. The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called one of the planet's worst environmental disasters.

What caused the aral sea to shrink?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what is the aral sea. Here are 50 of the best facts about Aral Sea 2019 and Aral Sea Before And After I managed to collect.

what happened to the aral sea?

90% of the Aral Sea, the 4th largest lake in the world evaporated and is now a desert, mainly due to the Soviet ambition of turning Central Asia into the largest cotton producer in the world.
The disappearance in our lifetime of the Aral Sea, "one of the planet's worst environmental disasters".
In under 20 years the Aral Sea has shrunk to ten percent of its original size and is so salty that barely any life form remains. The Russians were taught to believe that the sea was an "error of nature" and therefore pointless
The Aral Sea has been nearly fully drained by human irrigation and that this has happened before. Over 600 years ago the Mongols drained the lake too an even lower level than today.
The Aral Sea - once dried up by Soviet agriculture - has been partially restored with a dam financed by the World Bank, and the local communities are growing back
The Aral Sea used to be the fourth largest lake but has been steadily shrinking since 1960. It is draining because the USSR diverted two rivers that fed the sea in order to construct two irrigation canals and build a cotton industry in Uzbekistan.
The aral sea was once the 4th largest lake and has since been almost completely drained. It is considered one of the most significant environmental disasters ever.
Only one fifth of the water in the Aral Sea comes from rainfall. It relied on the two rivers (Syr Darya and Amu Darya) to provide water. Once the rivers were diverted the Aral Sea could not sustain itself by rainfall alone.
The Russian government thought that diverting the water for irrigation to grow cotton would make it a lot of money. It did for a while.
The impact on the environment, public health, and on the economy due to the shrinking of the Aral Sea has included destroyed ecosystems, toxic chemical plains, toxic dust, lack of water, health issues, lost incomes due to the loss of the fishing industry and trapping industry, hotter summers and colder winters, and destroyed river deltas.

aral sea facts — What is the primary reason for the shrinking of the aral sea?

Why aral sea is shrinking?

You can easily fact check why aral sea disappeared by examining the linked well-known sources.

The fishing industry in the Aral Sea provided roughly 40,000 jobs. It also supplied the Soviet's with one-sixth of their fish supply. Today the fishing towns are merely ship graveyards, as many ships can be seen on the dried up sea bed.

In some regions that used to be under water, abandoned ships lay on the ground. Some have been lying there for more than 20 years.

The Aral Sea is believed to have formed approximately 5.5 million years ago when the sea level fell and mountains emerged.

In the 1960s a controversial Soviet decision caused the fourth-largest inland sea -the Aral Sea- to evaporate and recede, leaving behind a salty poisoned wasteland dotted with rusty fishing boats.

Prior to the shrinking of the Aral Sea trappers were able to obtain half a million muskrat pelts each year. This industry has been destroyed.

When did the aral sea dry up?

The impact on public health in the region of the Aral Sea includes increases in kidney and liver problems, eye issues, high cancer rates, high lung disease rates, drug resistant tuberculosis, anemia, digestive issues, and an increase in infectious diseases.

How did the aral sea dry up?

The Aral sea is growing back thanks to a dam built in 2005

The demise of the Aral Sea has led to the demise of the economy and health of the region.

The Aral Sea existed for approximately 5.5 million years before people began to destroy it in the 20th century.

When did the aral sea start shrinking?

The Aral Sea, formerly the 4th largest lake in the world - is now only 10% of its size from the 1960s.

In the 1960s the Soviets determined that the two main rivers that drained into the Aral Sea - the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya - should be diverted to irrigate the desert. The Soviet government believed that cotton, cereals, rice, and melons were more important to the economy than the Aral Sea"

In the 1960s the Russian government decided to irrigate water from the two main rivers feeding the Aral Sea in order to provide water for agricultural use.

The Aral Sea shirking has been referred to as the worst environmental disaster on earth, destroying the fishing industry, negatively affecting public health, the economy, and the way of life in the region.

Health problems common to those living in the Aral Sea region include cancers, digestive issues, lung disease, liver, kidney, and eye diseases, and drug-resistant tuberculosis.

How big was the aral sea?

The Aral Sea basin (area that is drained by the Aral Sea) includes Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan.

Because the Aral Sea relies on groundwater as its major inflow, diverting the river tributaries nearly caused the Aral Sea to dry up.

Most experts do not believe that the Aral Sea will ever be restored to its original size and health. Despite efforts to restore it, Uzbekistan continues to divert a major portion of the tributary river water to cotton production.

The majority of the water diverted for irrigation from the Aral Sea is lost to evaporation or drained away before it can be used for agriculture.

Although global warming is contributing to the Aral Sea's demise, the major cause is the lack of water inflowing due to irrigation.

It is believed that the original inhabitants of the land around the Aral Sea were desert nomads.

As the size of the Aral Sea decreased the salinity of the water increased, from 10 g/l to 45 g/l between 1960 and 1998.

Other factors contributing to the demise of the Aral Sea region is due to toxic chemicals, weapons testing, and runoff from fertilizer and pesticides.

As the Aral Sea decreased in size the amount of salt in the water grew and the number of violent sand storms increased. These factors have greatly affected the residents in the region.

Vozrozhdeniya Island in the Aral Sea. A biological weapons testing site for the USSR, it contained spores of the Bubonic Plague and smallpox and is now a ghost town. Due to improper upkeep and Soviet collapse, over the past decade many dangerous containers have developed leaks.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Aral Sea. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Aral Sea so important!