Images related to Dust Storm over the Aral Sea

Aral Sea Continues to Shrink
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Aral Sea Continues to Shrink

In the first half of the twentieth century, it was the world’s fourth-largest lake. By August 2009, virtually nothing remained of the largest lobe.

Published Aug 27, 2009

Image of the Day Land

Aral Sea, 2000-2008
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Aral Sea, 2000-2008

A Soviet-era plan to turn the arid plains of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan into fertile cropland resulted in the near-total diversion of the water that once fed the Aral Sea. Prior to the scheme, two rivers—the Amudar’ya in the south and the Syrdar’ya in the north—flowed out of distant mountains and pooled in a desert basin in what is now southern Kazakhstan and northern Uzbekistan. The irrigation project began in the mid-1900s, and by 1960, the sea had already begun to dry out.

Published Aug 26, 2008

Image of the Day Land

Aral Sea 2011
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Aral Sea 2011

Once the world’s fourth largest lake, the rapidly shrinking Aral Sea has fragmented into four bodies of water. The Southern Aral Sea and Tsche-Bas Gulf show the most dramatic change in 2011.

Published Sep 11, 2011

Image of the Day Land

Aral Sea Dust Storm
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Aral Sea Dust Storm

Acquired March 26, 2010, this natural-color image shows a plume rising from the eastern lobe of the South Aral Sea. The dust blows toward the southeast, along the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan border.

Published Mar 30, 2010

Atmosphere Land Dust and Haze

Dust Storm, Aral Sea, Kazakhstan
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Dust Storm, Aral Sea, Kazakhstan

stronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) took this image of a major dust storm (image center and right) along the east side of the Aral Sea while passing over central Asia in the spring of 2007. The white, irregular lines along the bottom of the image are salt and clay deposits on the present coastline. The day that the ISS crew shot the image, winds were blowing from the west (lower left).

Published Nov 5, 2007

Image of the Day Atmosphere Land

Aral Sea
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Aral Sea

Published Aug 25, 2003

Image of the Day Land

The Aral Sea Loses Its Eastern Lobe
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The Aral Sea Loses Its Eastern Lobe

Once part of the fourth-largest lake in the world, the eastern lobe of the southern Aral has dried up for the first time in modern history.

Published Sep 26, 2014

Image of the Day Land Water

Dust Storm over the Aral Sea
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Dust Storm over the Aral Sea

large dust storm blew westward from the Aral Sea in late April 2008. Dry lake bed sediments provide plentiful material to be blown by dust storms, and such sediments surround the Aral Sea.

Published Apr 29, 2008

Atmosphere Land Dust and Haze