Shrinking of the Aral Sea

 These three images show the water cover extent of the Aral Sea in 1977, 1989, and 2006. Water level of the Aral Sea has been steadily dropping over the past several decades as water has been diverted from its tributaries for irrigation, to the point where the lake is now less than half its original size. This over-dependence on the Aral Sea’s water resources has also resulted in an increasingly exposed sea bed, which presents a serious problem both with the salinity level of the lake and the salinization of surrounding areas. Increased salt concentration in the water has spurred massive fish kills in the lake, while the salt left behind on the lake bed is swept up by wind and dust storms and deposited in the neighboring agricultural fields, resulting in reduced crop yield.