Aral Sea's Eastern Basin Has Gone Dry

Zain Haidar
Published: September 29, 2014


In a landmark moment that will go without celebration, the eastern basin of the South Aral Sea has completely dried for the first time in modern history.
According to NASA, the Central Asian lake has been shrinking since the 1960s, when the Soviet government began diverting water in the area for agriculture. However, the lake hasn’t dried to such an extent until this summer.
"This is the first time the eastern basin has completely dried in modern times," Philip Micklin, a geographer emeritus from Western Michigan University and an Aral Sea expert, told NASA. "And it is likely the first time it has completely dried in 600 years, since Medieval desiccation associated with diversion of Amu Darya to the Caspian Sea."

More than 60 million people now live in the Aral Region, and inflows to the lake have dropped likely due to climate change.
This most recent desiccation is a result of dwindling snow and rain that typically feeds the lake, Micklin said. In addition to dwindling inflows, massive irrigation efforts of the regions two major rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, depleted nearby water levels, according to New Scientist.
What was once the world’s fourth-largest lake is now split into several pieces:  the Northern and Southern Aral Seas, and further, the eastern and western lobes of the larger Southern Aral Sea.
As Slate reports, the lake’s gradual disappearance is making the region’s seasons more extreme.
The South Aral’s eastern lobe almost completely dried in 2009 but made a comeback in 2010, according to NASA.