In 1960 the Aral Sea was one of the four largest lakes on Earth. Then its two rivers were diverted to grow cotton. Half a century later, most of it is salt-crusted sand.
From 68,000 km² to 14,280 km² — and water volume fell 91% too, from 1,093 to 98.1 km³. (Applied Water Science, 2012)
The sea fell 50–60 cm a year in the 1970s, split in two in 1987, and kept going.
By 1998 it had slipped to eighth-largest lake in the world. In August 2014, satellites showed the eastern lobe of the southern sea had dried completely for the first time in modern history.
The Amu Darya and Syr Darya fed the Aral. Soviet planners sent them to cotton instead.
Withdrawals roughly doubled between 1960 and 2000. The Karakum Canal alone runs 1,375 km across Turkmenistan, carrying about 13 km³ of Amu Darya water a year. In a basin where evaporation outpaces rainfall five-to-one, a sea without rivers can only shrink.
As the water left, the salt stayed behind.
At 10 g/L in 1960 the Aral was less than a third as salty as the sea. By 2010 the southern remnant measured about 130 g/L. Most native fish could not survive it.
Harbour towns like Moynaq and Aralsk were left looking at sand.
The new Aralkum desert on the old seabed now covers more than 57,000 km² by one estimate (others say ~40,000), and wind carries its salty dust across the region.
Kazakhstan walled off the North Aral in 2005 and let the Syr Darya fill it.
The 13 km Kok-Aral dam, backed by the World Bank, raised the North Aral about 4 m and grew its volume 42% to roughly 27 km³. Fish returned; the annual catch reached about 8,000 tonnes. A second phase (2026–29) aims to lift the level from 40.4 to 44 m.
North of the Kok-Aral dam, a river still reaches a sea. South of it, the Amu Darya fades out in its delta before it ever touches water.
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