NASA’s Terra satellite documented the slowly shrinking Aral Sea over the course of the past fourteen years starting in 2000.
The Aral Sea in Central Asia used to be the fourth largest land locked body of water in the world with its tributary rivers the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya.
After being irrigated and diminished by drought, the eastern basin of the Southern Sea has dried up for the first time in an estimated 600 years.
NASA’s Terra satellite documented the slowly shrinking sea over the course of the past fourteen years starting in 2000.
Philip Micklin, a geographer emeritus from Western Michigan University and an expert on the Aral Sea is quoted as saying: "This part of the Aral Sea is showing major year-to-year variations that are dependent on flow of Amu Darya. I would expect this pattern to continue for some time."
During the 1950s and 60s the Soviet Union irrigated the two tributary rivers of the lake for agriculture, which significantly lowered the water level, splitting the water into two parts known as the South Aral Sea in the country of Uzbekistan, and the North Aral Sea located in Kazakhstan.
Over the years, the water level has continued to go up and down depending on the precipitation in the area and run off carried by the tributary rivers.