In 1960 the Aral Sea was the fourth-largest lake on Earth. Then Soviet planners sent its two rivers into cotton fields. By 2009 it had split into four separate lakes, and a new desert had spread across the old seabed.
88%
of the Aral Sea's surface gone between 1960 and Sept 2009: 67,500 km² → 8,409 km². Source: Micklin (2009).
92%
of the water volume lost: 1,090 → 84.5 km³
26.5 m
Large Aral level in 2009, down from 53.4 m above sea level
2014
the year the eastern basin dried out completely (NASA)
Schematic · 1960 shoreline (dashed) over the lakes of Sept 2009 · not survey-accurate
01 · The rivers
Two rivers, rerouted to cotton
The Syr Darya and Amu Darya once delivered about 55 km³ a year. By the 1980s only about a ninth of that reached the sea.
Average annual inflow, Syr + Amu, km³/yr. These are Micklin's estimated period averages.
02 · The split
One sea became four lakes
As the level fell, the ridges on the seabed surfaced and cut the sea into separate basins. The four lakes left in 2009 add up to one-eighth of the 1960 sea.
Surface area, km², 1960 vs Sept 6, 2009 (Micklin).
03 · The salt
Brackish, then brine
The salt stayed while the water left. The West basin is now about three times saltier than the ocean, and the East basin is saltier still. In 2009 Micklin counted zero fish species in either.
Salinity, grams per litre. The marked positions are the published values or thresholds.
04 · The dike
A 2005 wall saved the north
The Kok-Aral dike, finished in 2005, holds the Syr Darya's water in the Small Aral. Within months the level settled at 42 m. The Large Aral, cut off, kept falling.
Lake level, metres above sea level. 1960 vs Sept 2009 (Micklin).
40×
North Aral fish harvest, 2004→2007: from 50 t to about 2,000 t (World Bank)
<10 g/L
North Aral salinity by 2007, about half its pre-dike level (World Bank)
17
fish species in the Small Aral in 2009, against none in the Large Aral (Micklin)
05 · The new desert
The Aralkum, a desert born in a lifetime
The dried seabed has become a desert of its own, the Aralkum. Its storms carry salt and dust across the region.
≈60,000
km² of new desert on the former seabed (World Bank study via UNCCD)
15–75 Mt
of sand, dust and salt blown out each year. This is a modeled range.
$44M
a year in storm damage, about 2% of Karakalpakstan's GDP
Why it matters · what to notice on the map
Read the dashed line, then the dots
The dashed line is the 1960 sea. Everything stippled inside it is seabed that is now dry land, and most of the sea's footprint is now stipple.
The two lakes went separate ways. The Small Aral (dark teal, north) sits behind the rust-coloured Kok-Aral dike and holds steady at 42 m. The narrow West basin keeps shrinking toward the Ustyurt cliffs.
Moʻynoq was a port. It sat on the 1960 shore at the southern tip. Today the town is surrounded by Aralkum.
This was a water choice. The rivers were diverted for irrigation, not lost to a natural trend. The north's recovery shows that letting some of that water through again can bring a lake back, at least in part.