Cental Asian landscapes
The shrinking Aral sea
The biggest sea turns into the smallest lake!
1973
This image shows what the Aral sea looked like is 1973. At this time the North and South Aral sea were filled with water.
2009
This image shows what the Aral sea looked like in 2009. The picture reveals that efforts to save the north Aral sea has worked.
Why This Happened
The rivers that fed the Aral sea were redirected in to farms to water the crops.
How It Got Were It Is Today
In the 1960's, the Soviet Union undertook a major water diversion project on the arid plains of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The region’s two major rivers, fed by snow melt and precipitation in faraway mountains, were used to transform the desert into farms for cotton and other crops.