Figure 5.7: The decline and disappearance of the Aral Sea, 1960–2011. (A) Once the fourth-largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea is disappearing as a result of large-scale irrigation projects in Central Asia. Since 2005, Kazakhstan officials have worked to improve the situation, and the northern Aral Sea is slowly increasing in size and depth. However, as (B) and (C) show, the southern sections of the sea continue to decline dramatically. The scale of both photos is the same.

[Sources consulted: National Geographic, February 1990, pp. 72, 80–81; NASA Earth Observatory, at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/aral_sea.php]

NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earth Observatory