SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW ARAL SEA BASIN 'COMPLETELY DRIED' (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by STANews , Thursday, October 02, 2014, 11:01

The Aral Sea in 2000 on the left and 2014 on the right. Photograph: Atlas Photo Archive/NASA

A large section of the Aral Sea has completely dried up for the first time in modern history, according to Nasa.

Images from the US space agency’s Terra satellite released last week show that the eastern basin of the Central Asian inland sea – which stretched across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and was once the fourth largest in the world – was totally parched in August. Images taken in 2000 show an extensive body of water covering the same area.

“This is the first time the eastern basin has completely dried in modern times,” Philip Micklin, a geographer emeritus from Western Michigan University 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.”

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/01/satellite-images-show-aral-sea-basin-completely-dried