Aral Sea
A ship lies derelict in the former Aral Sea port of Aralsk June 18, 2008. The Aral Sea has shrunk by 70 percent since 1960 when Soviet planners started siphoning off water from its feeder rivers to faraway farming projects, bringing starvation and misery to traditional fishing communities, but a seven-year project led by the World Bank has helped replenish the smaller northern part of the Aral Sea by trapping water behind a dike -- filling local people with a new sense of optimism and purpose. Picture taken June 18, 2008. Reuters

"The quiet Chernobyl," a massive environmental disaster seems to be taking place in the Aral Sea. Shocking decline of water levels in the sea was observed by a set of satellite images by NASA.

According to Fox News,Terra, a satellite of NASA, started clicking pictures in 2000 with the help of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. When Terra satellite began its mission, the Aral Sea was already a fraction of what it was in 1960.

A NASA spokesman noted that in December, Terra satellite would complete 15 years in space as it went into space on Dec. 18, 1999. He said that it showed the power of a long-term satellite observation from space.

In 2000, the water body has separated into two, the Northern and Southern Aral Seas which is also called the Small and Large Seas. The large sea had a number of connected eastern and western basins. Within a year's time, the Southern Aral Sea was completely lost out.

NASA suggested that for the first time, the dry conditions this year has lead to the basin completely drying out. It added that fertilisers and pesticides polluted the salty water and that the fisheries and communities that depended on the lake collapsed as a result of the lake drying up.

NASA explained that dust from the lakebed was contaminated with agricultural chemicals. This could lead to a public health hazard. It also said that since a large area was missing the influence of water, winters turned out to be colder and summers were hotter and drier.

In 2005, an attempt was made by building a dam to save parts of the lake. NASA commented on the attempt saying that it was a death sentence for the Southern Aral Sea.

Aral Sea, in the middle of the Kyzylkum Desert, currently holds less than ten percent of its original volume of water. It was, at one point of time, considered the fourth largest lake in the world but was later a victim of a Soviet era water diversion undertaken in Kazakhastan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan because of which it shrunk dramatically. Irrigation led to the desert blooming but led to the downfall of the Aral Sea.

Video Source: YouTube/ WochitGeneralNews