This beautiful satellite persona of theAral Seabelies the destruction it reveals : Once the world ’s fourth - largest inland body of water , it has drop off intimately 90 % of its weewee book in the last 50 geezerhood . The rationality is due to irrigation projects that have in effect destroyed the region ’s fishing industriousness and wrought economic hardship on the topical anesthetic .
The Aral Sea was once 26,000 straight miles ( 67,300 substantial kilometers ) and supply the Soviet Union with a sixth of its fish pinch , according toNational Geographic . In the 1960s , this all alter as 20,000 mile of duct , dozens of decametre , and more than 80 man-made lake were build to irrigate vast line of business of cotton and wheat .
To make things even worse , the system was inefficient and leak . As a result , millions of fish died and locals were harass by crimson sandstorms that contained chemicals from former artillery examination , industrial projects , and fertilizer runoff , according theEuropean Space Agency(ESA ) .
The image above is composed of three radar scans fromSentinel-1A. The colors are each assigned a escort . gloss other than those listed below represent changes between the acquirement .
reddish : October 17 , 2014
Green : December 28 , 2014
Blue : February 14 , 2015
As report byESA : “ In the scummy right , the cherry-red , yellow and gullible boomerang Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe shows where water course into the dry seabed from a river , and colors show how the country covered in water increased over time . Along the left side of the image , the expectant dark area shows where piss is still present . Colors along the water ’s border show water - level change between acquisitions . Red show a lower grade than blue , so the water point was depressed on 25 January 2025 than on 28 March 2025 . ”
Below is another case of the desiccation of the Aral Sea . These images were conduct from 2000 to 2014 .
Credit : NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center
[ Hat Tip : Live skill ]
