{"id":353767,"date":"2026-01-12T16:48:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T11:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=353767"},"modified":"2026-01-12T16:48:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T11:18:50","slug":"aral-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/aral-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Aral Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>News: <\/strong>The Aral Sea is discussed due to long-term human-induced environmental damage caused by river diversion for agriculture during the Soviet period.<\/p>\n<h2>About Aral Sea<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_353773\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-353773\" style=\"width: 349px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-353773\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Source-Save-Aral.jpg?resize=349%2C330&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Aral Sea\" width=\"349\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Source-Save-Aral.jpg?resize=300%2C284&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Source-Save-Aral.jpg?resize=768%2C726&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Source-Save-Aral.jpg?w=933&amp;ssl=1 933w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 349px) 100vw, 349px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-353773\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; Save Aral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Aral Sea is an <strong>endorheic<\/strong> <strong>salt lake<\/strong>, meaning it&#8217;s a <strong>closed basin with no outflow to the ocean.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Borders:<\/strong>\u00a0It marks the border <strong>between Kazakhstan to the north<\/strong> and <strong>Uzbekistan to the south.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It was once served as a <strong>vast saltwater lake in Central Asia<\/strong> and ranked as the <strong>world\u2019s fourth largest inland water body<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Formation: <\/strong>The Aral Sea depression <strong>emerged towards the conclusion<\/strong> of the <strong>Neogene Period<\/strong>, spanning from approximately <strong>23 to 2.6 million years ago.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Climate:<\/strong>\u00a0It is known for its <strong>harsh<\/strong> climate with <strong>hot<\/strong> <strong>summers, cold winters, and temperature changes throughout the day.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Important river: <\/strong>The two rivers that feed the Sea are the <strong>Amu Darya from the south<\/strong> and the<strong> Syr Darya from the north.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Drainage:<\/strong>\u00a0It encompasses drainage from <strong>Uzbekistan and parts of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Kyrgyzstan.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Salinity:<\/strong> Due to <strong>high evaporation<\/strong> and <strong>lack of outflow<\/strong>, its <strong>salt content became extremely high, killing off freshwater fish.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Historical collapse<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>From the <strong>1950s onward<\/strong>, the Soviet government promoted large-scale <strong>cotton farming by diverting<\/strong> the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, which sharply <strong>reduced water reaching the Sea, <\/strong>causing a <strong>rapid fall in water level<\/strong> from the 1960s.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Environmental Degradation: <\/strong>Over half a century, the Aral Sea <strong>lost about 60,000 sq. km<\/strong>, nearly <strong>90 % of its total area<\/strong>, a crisis termed by the United Nations as \u201c<strong>the dry tears of the Aral<\/strong>.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Restoration Efforts<\/strong><strong>:<\/strong> Restoration efforts <strong>now focus on regional projects<\/strong>, including <strong>the Kok-Aral Dam in Kazakhstan <\/strong>and <strong>water-saving irrigation initiatives in the Amu Darya delta<\/strong> to reduce agricultural water use.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: The Aral Sea is discussed due to long-term human-induced environmental damage caused by river diversion for agriculture during the Soviet period. About Aral Sea Aral Sea is an endorheic salt lake, meaning it&#8217;s a closed basin with no outflow to the ocean. Borders:\u00a0It marks the border between Kazakhstan to the north and Uzbekistan to&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/aral-sea\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Aral Sea<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,11209,12039,11211],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-353767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-geography-in-news","category-knolls","category-places-in-news","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}