Aral Sea: history and modernity. The Aral Sea and the reasons for its death

- (Aral; in Kazakh sounds: Aral tenizi, in Uzbek: Orol dengizi, Orol dengizi, in Karakalpak language: Aral ten "izi, Aral tenizi) one of the largest salt lakes in the world in the 60-70s. The Aral Sea is drainless salty sea.
Located in Central Asia on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Since the 1960s, the sea level, as well as the volume of water in it, began to decline sharply due to the fact that local residents and agricultural enterprises in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan systematically, starting from the 70s, increased the number of livestock, as a result of which agricultural land, which in turn, requires a large amount of water for irrigation. A sharp increase in pumped water from the main feeding aquifers of the Aral Sea, namely from the Amu Darya and Syrdarya rivers
led to this disaster. Reservoirs have a limit beyond which they cannot naturally restore. Also, in parallel with this problem, there was increased fishing, which could have an impact as a contributing factor.
In 1989, the Aral Sea was divided into two isolated bodies of water:
- Northern Small Aral Sea
- Southern Great Aral Sea

Aral Sea before and after photos. Dynamics of sea drying since the 60s: (look carefully at the picture and you will see the changes)
Aral Sea satellite photos in dynamics (August 2000 - August 2014)

Before the start of shallowing, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world.
"In June 2013, at a meeting of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Deputy Director of the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Petr Zavyalov, said that drying processes Aral Sea slowed down. “Analysis... shows that the sea has now come close to equilibrium, since its surface has decreased so much that evaporation has also decreased, that even not very significant residual river flows, as well as underground flow, allow the sea to balance.”, - said Zavyalov. Despite the extremely high salinity of the water, the Aral Sea has formed its own ecosystem. “The Aral ecosystem is very specific, but alive”, - said Zavyalov. During expeditions of the Institute of Oceanology, 40 species of phytoplankton were discovered, large mass zooplankton, represented mainly by a single species - the crustacean Artemia parthenogenetica."

Since it seemed to the Uzbek side that it was not enough that the sea was disappearing, they decided to start a search in 2008 oil fields in their part of the Aral Sea, apparently they were greatly encouraged by Zavyalov’s words.
There is another dangerous point associated with this environmental disaster: sea salts remain at the bottom of the dried-up Aral Sea, which are carried by the wind to residential settlements and cities, thereby negatively affecting the human body.

As we know from the above, the main reason for the shallowing of the Aral Sea is intensive irrigation of cotton and rice fields, while the increased salinity of the sea also plays a significant role.
We are now talking about the facts that are happening now, but what happened under the USSR?
And under the USSR, the situation just began; the deteriorating state of the Aral Sea was simply not disclosed to the public, the first who emphasized the environmental disaster was Gorbachev M.S., who threw this issue into the furnace of publicity in order to show how the USSR was changing in the conditions of the future changes and that now it is no longer the USSR, but a new society where everyone can hear the voice of the people; of course, this was heard only because Gorbachev craved PR and of course he got it. Since 1985, after publicity, scientists have closely taken up this issue. Where by 1988 the water level in the Aral dropped to previously unheard of levels, that the Aral Sea was divided into two parts: the northern Small Aral and the southern Great Aral.
And already in 2006, a division was observed between the western and eastern reservoirs of the Aral Sea, with the western one having the largest amount of water due to the basins located there, the eastern part was essentially shallow water. At the same time, the volume of water decreased almost 10 times, and the salinity increased up to 15 times (100 g/l).
When the USSR collapsed, let us remember this happened in 1991, a watershed passed through the Aral Sea and it simultaneously became the possession of two new formed states Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Then the situation continued to worsen because... The struggle for the water resources of the Aral began.

The drying up of the Aral Sea led to the disappearance of spring floods that supplied the floodplains of the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya fresh water and fertile deposits.
The inhabitants of the Aral Sea have also decreased, which is natural from 45 species and subspecies to 5 species of fish, as a rule, this is the consequences of a decrease in water level and an increase in salt concentration, the disappearance of spawning grounds and feeding areas.
Here are some figures on fish catching in the Aral Sea:
- 1960 - 40 thousand tons
- 1970 - 25 thousand tons
- 1980 - 10 thousand tons
- 1990 - industrial fishing did not function.
The most important fish resource of the Aral Sea was the local Black Sea flounder, brought into the sea back in 1972; now, like many other species, it no longer lives in the Aral Sea.
Shipping, as well as fishing in the Aral Sea, ceased because... the main ports of the Aral Sea cities simply became shallow: Muynak in the south and Aral in the north.
Moreover, this became a financially unprofitable business, the ports were closed, and the ships of the Aral Sea were rusting throughout the territory of the once deep sea.
Vegetation has practically disappeared around the Aral Sea due to increased salt concentration and lack of water. The local fauna has also decreased by half, the climate has changed - summers have become hotter, winters have become colder. The temperature range has expanded and sudden temperature changes have become more frequent, the growing season has decreased, droughts have become more frequent, the level of air humidity has decreased, and therefore the number of atmospheric precipitation.
Drainage water for irrigating fields, returning to the beds of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, was filled with huge amounts of pesticides; many scientists consider pesticides to be the cause of the environmental disaster.
Now dust storms carry salts and pesticides, toxic chemicals, which somehow get into people’s lungs, slow down the development of local vegetation, which, of course, is the cause of illness for local residents.

A little history of the Aral Sea
according to archaeologists:
- 21 million years ago, the Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea were one.
- until 1573, the Amu Darya flowed along the Uzboy branch into the Caspian Sea, and the Turgai River into the Aral.
- 1800 years ago - the Zarafshan and Amu Darya rivers flow into the Caspian Sea.
- The 16th - 17th century marks the islands of Barsakelmes, Kaskakulan, Kozzhetpes, Uyaly, Biyiktau, Vozrozhdeniya, which indicates another decrease in sea level.
- The Zhanadarya rivers have stopped flowing into the Aral Sea since 1819, and the Kuandarya rivers since 1823.
- Then, until the mid-1960s, the level of the Aral Sea was practically unchanged.
- in the 1950s, the Aral Sea was the 4th largest in the world (the area was 68 thousand km2)
- in 1930, the construction of irrigation canals began in Central Asia, and reached its climax in the 60s of the last century, after which the sea gradually began to become shallow.

You can see how systematically the Soviet leadership increased the area of ​​irrigated land in Central Asia, they increased from 4.8 million to 7 million hectares,
The demand for water resources in the region increased from 60 to 120 cubic meters of water per year, of which 85% was spent only on irrigation of lands, mainly used for growing feed for agricultural animals.
In fact, the main cause of the environmental disaster of the Aral Sea was, of course, irresponsible human activity; water costs for the meat industry are not comparable to the resources that a person would spend if he grew and used land for his own food, i.e. growing the same grain, beets, corn, potatoes and many other agricultural crops for use as food directly by humans, bypassing animals. It has long been calculated and proven that raising agricultural animals as food leads to great environmental consequences for Planet Earth than if a person used it himself. Only water use is reduced by about a factor. It is clear that humanity will not make such radical conclusions and will deny itself the pleasure of eating meat. Of course, it was not only agricultural animals that caused the disappearance of the Aral Sea and plant crops that were not intended for animal food, this is, of course, cotton - the main income for the budget of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, which also consumes the waters of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya for irrigating cotton. Also, a huge problem and the cause of the death of the Aral Sea were pesticides, which still fly across the nearby territories of the Aral Sea and enter the lungs of the people living there.

Restoring the Aral Sea is, of course, the work of man, just as man had a hand in its destruction, so his task now is to restore it, scientists argue about whether it can be restored or not. And as usually happens, some say that all this is real, others say that it is impossible, especially since the above countries cannot refuse cotton. And the beginning of the restoration of the Aral Sea will, of course, be a reduction in consumption water resources the Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers, which in this economic situation is an impossible task.
Many media outlets report that, following the Aral Sea, Lake Chad in Central Africa and Lake Salton Sea in the US state of California are approaching environmental disaster. Again, the main reason is over-abstraction of water and activities of farmers.

Latest data on the Aral Sea at the end of 2015:
"The water level in the Aral Sea has risen from 38 to 42 meters
Water mineralization decreased 23 decreased to 13 g/liter.
The distance to the main port of Aralsk has been reduced from 90 kilometers to 17 km, which is good news; the northern part of the Aral Sea is gradually arriving.
The amount of fish produced has doubled, and the number of fish processing plants has increased from 3 to 8. Fishermen return from Balkhash to the Aral Sea, 22 species of fish have been restored".
- Akim of the Kyzylorda region of the Republic of Kazakhstan Krymbek Kusherbaev said

It is interesting that after the bottom of the Aral Sea opened up to the gaze of mankind, archaeologists began to excavate at its bottom and found... And they found the Kerderi Mausoleum (dating back to the 11th-14th century AD) and the settlement of Aral-Asar (dating back to the 14th century from R.H.)

Singer Yulia Savicheva and the T-9 group filmed a video for the song “Ships” on the dried-up Aral Sea

Linkin Park's "What I've Done" also featured ships from the Aral Sea.

Photos of the Aral Sea

Aral Sea

The Aral is an endorheic salt sea-lake located in the desert region of Central Asia, on the territory of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The border between these states runs along it. On geographical map it can be found between 46° 53" and 43° 26" northern latitude and 58° 12" and 61° 58" east longitude. This lake lies at an altitude of 48.5 m above sea level. The Aral Sea-lake is one of the largest lakes in Asia. The maximum depth mark is 68 m, the average depth does not exceed 16 m. Due to insufficient depth and lack of connection with the ocean, the reservoir is called a lake, but salty water makes it possible to conditionally call it a sea. Therefore, it is often said that the Aral is a lake-sea.

The Aral Sea occupies a fairly large depression located on the territory of the Turan Lowland. The shores of the Aral Sea differ significantly from each other. The western coast is steep and rocky, the eastern coast is sandy lowlands, and the southern regions are mainly swamps and wet lands, gently sloping down to the lake.

There are quite a large number of large and small islands in the Aral Sea. In total there are up to a thousand of them. However, there are not many particularly large islands. Among them it is necessary to mention the following: Revival, Barsa-Kelmes and Kos-Aral. The total area of ​​the Aral Islands is up to 3.5% of the total surface area of ​​the lake.

Locals often call the Aral Sea Aral-Tengiz, which means “island sea” in Kazakh. This name did not arise by chance. This is how the territory adjacent to the mouth, as well as the nearby Amu Darya delta, was once called. And now there are a large number of islands that were formed by numerous branches and channels. After some time, the lake-sea began to be called the Aral.

The climate of the Aral Sea coast can be described as continental. It is usually distributed in temperate inland desert regions. However, in the Aral Sea it has its own, unique features. That is why the natural conditions on the Aral coast are most often called the Aral type climate. IN summer time of the year Maximum temperature air in the shade often exceeds 40–43° C. The Aral winters can only be compared with the polar ones. Often there are frosts of such severity that the thermometer drops to 35–37° C. At the same time, as a rule, heavy snowfalls on the coast of the Aral Sea are an extremely rare phenomenon.

The water of the Aral Sea is so transparent that the sky is reflected in its waters, as if in a mirror. In clear sunny weather, the bottom of the sea is quite clearly visible. You can see the bottom topography even at a depth of 15–27 m.

Everyone who has ever been to the Aral Sea claims that they have never seen such blue water in nature. Indeed, the waters of the Aral Sea are bright blue in color. Moreover, when viewed from an airplane, the deepest parts of the sea appear deep blue, and the shallow parts appear emerald green. ABOUT this property The lakes were written by the ancient Russians, who called the Aral the Blue Sea.

Unlike central regions Aral, where clear water has a bright blue color, the water at the mouth is somewhat cloudy. The reason for this is small clay particles that color the water beige and even light brown.

Aral Lake

The Aral Sea is a body of salt water. Its salinity level is three times lower than in the ocean. And the composition of salts is represented mainly by sulfates and carbonates (i.e., salts of sulfuric and carbonic acids). Thus, scientists have the right to define the water of the Aral Sea as half-sea and half-river.

For a long time, scientists were interested in the question of where does it go? most of salts coming into the sea-lake.

Experts were able to calculate that annually the Amudarya and Syr Darya bring 18 million tons and 10 million tons of dissolved salts into the Aral Sea with their waters, respectively. According to hydrologist L.S. Berg, the total flow of salts from the rivers mentioned above was once at least 33 million tons. Indeed, even fifty years ago the flow of salts turned out to be much greater than now, since at that time there was no the same number of irrigation systems has been erected as at present.

Later, the same scientist Berg said that total stock salts in the Aral Sea reached 10.854 million tons. Today this value is already approximately 11 million tons. This figure corresponds to the mass of salts that could accumulate in the waters of the lake over 350–400 years. However, one should take into account the fact that the Amu Darya and Syr Darya have been carrying their waters to the Aral Sea for several thousand years. In this regard, a logical question arises: where do the dissolved salts brought to the sea by rivers disappear?

Scientist L.K. Blinov was able to find an answer to this question. In the course of numerous studies, he found out that part of the salt water leaves the sea in nearby lakes, which act as a kind of filters. It is these reservoirs that take away excess dissolved salts from the sea. This phenomenon is still being studied.

Secret Aral Lake, associated with the disappearance of salts, is not the only one. Other mysterious phenomenon, characteristic of the Aral Sea, is the disobedience of lake currents to known physical laws. The flows of all rivers located in the Northern Hemisphere deviate to the right. The currents of the Aral Sea deviate to the left and are directed clockwise. What is the reason for this phenomenon? Modern scientists have been able to answer this question. It turns out that the movement of the Aral currents, directed clockwise, is caused by the direction of the prevailing winds in the given territory, as well as by the features of the topography of the seabed. The Amu Darya River, which flows into it from the south, is also of no small importance for the movement of currents in the Aral Sea.

Another mystery of the Aral Sea is related to the level of oxygen in the water. The fact is that at great depths the oxygen content in water decreases. In the Aral water, the opposite process occurs: the specific mass of oxygen increases with increasing depth. Hydrobiologists and hydrochemists were able to determine the reasons for this process. The fact is that the underwater fauna of the Aral Sea is represented by only a small number of species of marine animals. There is very little plankton and bottom-dwelling animals in the Aral water. This is what determines the high degree of transparency of sea water, and also explains the fact that very little oxygen is used to oxidize organic residues.

Relatively large areas of the sea bottom are occupied by underwater plants. The development of flora is greatly facilitated by Sun rays, which easily reach the seabed. As you know, plants produce oxygen. Algae are no exception, which also produce oxygen, which is concentrated in the deep layers of the Aral water.

Another miracle of the Aral Sea is the peculiarities of the ebb and flow of the tides. Scientists have noticed that at a time when the Caspian Sea is shallowing, the water level in the Aral Sea is rising. When water leaves the Aral Sea, there is a rise in the water level in the Caspian Sea. It seems that there is a connection between these lakes.

Modern hydrologists have almost managed to explain this phenomenon. They believe that the reason is as follows: the main source of water replenishment in the Caspian Sea is the Volga, which, in turn, is fed by the waters of numerous tributaries located in the European part of Russia. During particularly dry periods, the water flow in the Volga bed is significantly reduced, which then leads to a slight shallowing of the Caspian Sea. The Aral Sea is fed by waters brought by the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. These rivers originate in glaciers and snowfields, which melt at a significant speed during dry and hot periods. Thus, it is at this time that the Aral Sea feeds more intensively, which affects the increase in water levels.

Currently economic importance The Aral Sea for the life of local residents can hardly be overestimated. Since ancient times, the main industry of the Kazakhs and Uzbeks living on the shores of the sea-lake has been fishing, since the Aral Sea is rich in fish. However, the number of different fish species is small. Typical representatives underwater world The Aral Sea species are carp, asp, bream, ide and thorn (the latter belongs to the sturgeon family). In the 20th century, several more species appeared in the sea, brought to the Aral from other regions of the country. Thus, thanks to man, the Caspian herring found its second home in the Aral Sea. Over time, the fauna of the banks of the Aral Sea also changes. Relatively recently, a muskrat appeared there.

Currently great value for the development of the pulp and paper industry there are reed thickets growing on the coast of the Aral Sea-Lake. In a certain way, processed reed is used to make paper, cellulose, cardboard, as well as a number of building materials. Once upon a time, reed thickets became notorious throughout Eastern Europe as a breeding ground for locusts, an insect that causes enormous harm. agriculture not only Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but also nearby territories: southern Russia and even some regions of Ukraine. To date, scientists have managed to partially eliminate this locust outbreak.

There are many amazing places on the Aral Sea. One of these attractions is a natural island, which locals call Barca Kelmes. Translated into Russian, Barsa-Kelmes means “you will go and will not return.” Indeed, the island lives up to its name. Many brave travelers who decided to conquer the uncharted lands of the Aral Sea region remained forever in the waterless sands of Bars-Kelmes.

Currently, the bloodthirsty cannibal island is declared national reserve. There are enough people like that who live there and are protected by law rare species Central Asian animals such as goitered gazelles, as well as wild asses (kulans and saigas). By a strange irony of fate, it was on Barsa-Kelmes that fauna representatives disappearing from the face of the earth found their last refuge. They feed lush grass, growing on the coast, and drink brackish Aral water. Scientists working in the reserve raise goitered gazelles and wild donkeys, and then send them to zoos located in different countries of the world.

Now the Aral Sea is going through hard times. Since the beginning of the 50s of the 20th century, scientists have noted the gradual shallowing of the unique sea-lake. At the same time, the water level decreased annually by 20–40 cm. In 1966, the decrease in water level in the Aral Sea was 60 cm, and some time later, in 1969, it reached a terrifying figure of 2 m.

At the end of the same 1969, due to heavy rainfall, the water level in the sea rose by 70 cm. However, to the great regret of scientists, the very next year the level began to steadily decrease again.

The decrease in water level in the Aral Sea has caused numerous disasters that have occurred on the coast. Many fishing villages found themselves in an arid zone with a climate that can be described as semi-desert. As a result of natural disasters, residents of such villages were forced to leave their homes. For example, the small southern village of Muynak was famous throughout Central Asia as the largest fishing center. Today it found itself thrown back several tens of kilometers from the sea. But there was a time when people had to build a 3-kilometer dam near Muynak, which protected the village from high sea waves. Currently, this structure stands here as a reminder of the former existence of a powerful and merciless element.

Today it is no longer a secret to anyone that the cause of the natural disaster taking place in the Aral Sea is thoughtless human economic activity. Several decades ago, powerful irrigation systems were built in the basins of the two main rivers of the northern regions of Central Asia - the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya. As a result, the Aral stopped receiving a sufficient amount of water from them.

Construction of a large number hydraulic structures has its advantages too. In the Amu Darya and Syr Darya basins, many villages, fields occupied by agricultural crops, industrial enterprises, and reservoirs appeared.

The largest amount of water flows from the Amu Darya into the Karakum Canal, which over time has become a kind of symbol of man's victory over the sandy elements. With the arrival of water in desert areas, life triumphed there. Many deserted areas have turned into blessed oases filled with life-giving coolness.

However, very soon man had to pay for the appearance of oases on the territory of the Karakum Desert. The Aral Sea began to gradually become shallow. Every year the area it occupies invariably decreases. The huge lake is melting like ice cream on a hot summer day, literally before the eyes of the contemporaries of the new millennium.

Unfortunately, people are unable to return the Aral Sea to its previous state. Scientists have calculated that the reconstruction and improvement of the existing irrigation systems on the Amu Darya and Syr Darya will inevitably lead to the Aral Sea disappearing from the face of the earth. According to experts, in the coming years the level of the Aral Sea will drop to 42–43 m. At the same time, the overall decrease in water level (compared to 1960 data) will be at least 10–15 m.

Modern scientists have repeatedly raised the issue of saving the Aral Sea. They often said that if the development of irrigation systems in the Amu Darya and Syr Darya basins is not suspended, the Aral Sea will turn into a small body of water, the main supply of which will be provided by wastewater and drainage waters. At the same time, the salinity of the Aral water will increase even more.

In itself, the natural disaster associated with the shallowing of the Aral Sea would not be so terrible if not for the consequences that it inevitably entails. Scientists express their most serious concerns about the ecological situation developing in the territory where the sea once existed.

After the partial shallowing of the Aral Sea, some areas turned from blooming oases into desert and semi-desert areas. Thus, a change in the natural hydrological, hydrochemical and hydrobiological state of the Aral Sea led to a change in climate over a fairly large nearby area. In turn, this caused changes in the soil structure, surface and groundwater, as well as the composition of the flora and fauna of the Aral Sea region. Scientists' forecasts regarding the further development of the situation related to the drainage of the Aral Sea cannot be called comforting. They argue that after shallowing reaches its critical point, two bodies of water of different size may be formed: the Small and Large Seas. After this, the Small Sea will quickly become shallow and dry up very soon.

One of the consequences of the shallowing of the Aral Sea, according to experts, will be the occurrence of numerous, periodically recurring sand, dust and salt storms in the Aral Sea region, the source of which will be the dry seabed. Currently, scientists are trying to find ways to prevent such natural disasters in order to maximize the safety of local residents.

If the water level in the Aral Sea decreases by 15 m, the ecological and geographical situation will develop as follows. First, the Small and Large Seas are formed. In this case, they will be separated from each other by a small natural channel, the width of which will not exceed 25 km. According to preliminary forecasts by scientists, such a canal will be located at an altitude of no more than 2–5 m above sea level. After this, the eastern and western parts of the resulting Big Sea will be divided by the so-called Amu Darya rampart. According to experts, the width of the shaft will be from 15 to 35 km. And only in two of its sections are small straits formed.

Scientists see one of the ways to prevent the occurrence of dust storms in the formation of three small reservoirs in the Aral Sea. Their water and salt balance is planned to be controlled using specially constructed dams that will separate the western and eastern parts of the Aral Sea from the spillway structures located there. In addition, scientists talk about the need to connect the Small Sea with the eastern regions of the Bolshoi Sea. To do this, it is necessary to build a dam equipped with a spillway structure, with the help of which the volume of water flowing into the Big Aral will be controlled.

The consequence of the above measures will be an increase in the amount of surface and groundwater entering the Great Sea. Moreover, even with a fairly large degree of evaporation of moisture from the surface, the water level in the lake will remain more or less constant.

In addition, the Great Sea will be filtered to prevent salinity levels from increasing. And the collected excess dissolved salts are planned to be delivered through special channels to the Small Sea. With the help of such events, scientists, unfortunately, will never be able to return the Aral Sea to its previous state. However, the measures taken will still help prevent the further development of the environmental disaster in the Aral Sea region.

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“Tablet” (as the locals call the all-wheel drive UAZ), every now and then dangerously tilting and creaking from the effort, drives and drives along the sand. If you break away from the feeling that you are about to be smeared across the seat and realize yourself as some kind of abstraction, and not like a sprat in a jar, then a very strange feeling comes over you. We are driving along the dry seabed. 60 years ago there was 25 meters of water directly above our heads.

This has never happened in the history of the Earth. In just a few decades, the huge lake (the fourth largest in the world) almost entirely turned into desert. In 1960, the area of ​​the Aral water surface was 68,900 square meters. km. In 2009 (this was the absolute minimum) - 7,300.

The drying process of the Aral Sea / Illustration by livingasia.online

Closed sea

It is interesting that the tragedy of the situation is most clearly felt in foreign, and not in Kazakh or Uzbek (the Aral Sea is located on the territory of these states) studies and publications. Here's an example headline: Aral Sea "one of the planet"s worst environmental disasters"("The Aral Sea is one of the largest environmental disasters planets").

Dry bottom of the Aral Sea / Photo livingasia.online

Perhaps the reason that little is said and written about the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is a long period of secrecy. Until perestroika, only scientists, high-ranking officials and local residents knew about the situation with the Aral Sea. Since the late 1970s, the drying sea has been studied by all the largest research institutes of the Kazakh and Uzbek SSR, Moscow and Leningrad. But the research results were published only in collections marked “secret”. They could only be read by those who had the appropriate access.

Or maybe it's all about mentality

"The people of Kazakhstan have always lived in tough natural conditions- climatic, environmental. It was quite difficult for the people to survive, and they got used to these difficulties. This is probably why he does not consider the tragedy of the Aral Sea as catastrophic as it is on international level perceived. The people are accustomed to difficulties and have learned to overcome them,” says Taisiya Ivanovna Budnikova, Candidate of Geographical Sciences, International Fund saving the Aral Sea (IFAS). She has been studying the Aral Sea since 1977 and has written more than 100 scientific papers about this problem. Colleagues jokingly call her “Tais Aralskaya”.

Rescue plans

Taisiya Ivanovna says: “Then, at the end of the 70s, no one could believe that the sea would dry up. It seemed that this was just a fluctuation in the water level, soon everything would fall into place. At first, the sea was losing more than a few centimeters a year. From the beginning of the 80s x in the Eastern Aral Sea region, where the coast was always shallow, the sea receded several kilometers per year.

Photo livingasia.online

When it became clear that the sea would not return on its own, they began to figure out how to save the Aral Sea. The options were sometimes the most unexpected. Stop taking water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya and irrigate the land using wind-powered water-lifting installations. Send water from the Caspian Sea to the Aral Sea. Or here’s another: the famous “gigantomaniacal” project for the transfer of Siberian rivers.”

IFAS Director Bolat Bekniyaz in the 70s was a junior researcher at the Institute of Geological Sciences named after. Satpayeva. He was engaged in research, studying the route along which the canal was supposed to be launched from Siberia to Central Asia. The plans were the most ambitious. The canal was supposed to stretch over a distance of 2,550 km.

Photo livingasia.online

“The canal was supposed to go from under the Russian Kurgan to the region of Kazakhstan’s Kyzylorda,” says Bolat Bekniyaz. “Cross the Syr Darya River and reach the Amu Darya River. The purpose of the canal’s construction is to irrigate fields and provide water to Central Asian cities. The second, additional purpose is to recharge the Aral Sea The project was supposed to be implemented already in 1986. And in 1986 it was closed - there was no funding.

Current situation

Until the mid-2000s, the situation with the sea was catastrophic. Then many scientists prophesied: soon the Aral Sea would dry out completely. In 2005, the Kokaral dam was built on Kazakh territory, between the Big and Small Aral. The construction made it possible to fill the Small Aral up to 42 meters.

The Great Aral Sea can no longer be saved. To restore the entire sea, it is required that 60-70 cubic kilometers of water enter it per year. Now the Syrdarya gives 6 cubic kilometers, the Amu Darya - zero, all the water is used for irrigation.

Photo livingasia.online

After the Small Sea was filled, life in the coastal villages changed dramatically. The fish has arrived. Fish is now at a premium - for one catch from a boat you can earn 100 or 200 thousand tenge.

Photo livingasia.online

New schools, medical posts and fish receiving factories appeared in the villages.

School in the Aral Sea region / Photo livingasia.online

Currently, 8.4 thousand tons of fish are caught in the Small Aral Sea per year (2015); before the disaster, annual catches reached 40 thousand tons.

What will happen to the Aral

The Kazakh side predicts a long but progressive restoration of the Aral Sea.

There are several options for the development of the event. Here are the most feasible ones.

The first is to raise the Kokaral dam by another 6-7 meters. This will raise the level of the Small Aral to 48 meters, and the volume of water will increase by a third.

Dam in the Aral Sea / Photo livingasia.online

The second option is to build another dam at sea, in the Sarashyganak area. This will make it possible to create another reservoir 50 meters deep in the Aralsk region.

Briefly about the Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is located on the territory of two countries - Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Sea levels have begun to decline since the 1960s. Until this time, the Aral Sea provided about 13% of the total fish catch in the USSR. In 1984, fishing at sea ceased completely.

The reason for the drying up of the Aral Sea is the transfer of most of the flow of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya to irrigate fields. In 1960, in the Amu Darya and Syr Darya basin there were 4.1 million hectares of irrigated land, in 1990 - 7.4 million hectares.

Due to the drying up of the Aral Sea in the region, the incidence of typhoid fever, cholelithiasis, chronic gastritis, esophageal cancer, and tuberculosis has sharply increased in the region.

Due to dust blowouts, the turbidity of the atmosphere in the Aral Sea region increased almost threefold. The air became twice as dry.

On former territory The Aral Sea contains about 10 billion tons of salt. If it is scattered on the ground in an even layer of 5 cm, it will cover an area of ​​approximately 10 million hectares.

One of the border objects separating Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan is the endorheic salty Aral Sea. In its heyday, this lake-sea was considered the fourth largest in the world in terms of the volume of water it contained; its depth reached 68 meters.

In the 20th century, when the Republic of Uzbekistan was part of Soviet Union, the waters and bottom of the sea were examined by specialists. As a result of radiocarbon analysis, it was established that this reservoir was formed in the prehistoric era, approximately 20-24 thousand years ago.

At that time the landscape was constantly changing earth's surface. Changed their channels deep rivers, islands and entire continents appeared and disappeared. The main role in the formation of this water body was played by the rivers that at different times filled the sea called the Aral Sea.

Stone basin containing big lake in primitive times, they filled the waters of the Syr Darya. Then it really was no more than an ordinary lake. But after one of the shifts of tectonic plates, the Amu Darya River changed its original course, ceasing to feed the Caspian Sea.

Great waters and periods of drought in the history of the sea

Thanks to the powerful support of this river, the large lake replenished its water balance, becoming a real sea. Its level rose to 53 meters. Significant changes in the water landscape of the area and increased depth became the causes of climate humidification.

Through the Sarakamyshen depression it connects with the Caspian Sea, and its level rises to 60 meters. These favorable changes occurred in the 4th-8th millennium BC. At the turn of the 3rd millennium BC, aridization processes took place in the Aral Sea region.

The bottom again became closer to the water surface, and the waters dropped to 27 meters above sea level. The depression connecting two seas – the Caspian and Aral – is drying up.

The level of the Aral Sea fluctuates between 27-55 meters, alternating periods of revival and decline. The great medieval regression (drying out) came 400-800 years ago, when the bottom was hidden under 31 meters of water

Chronicle history of the sea

The first documentary evidence confirming the existence of a large salt lake, can be found in Arabic chronicles. These chronicles were kept by the great Khorezm scientist Al-Biruni. He wrote that the Khorezmians already knew about the existence of a deep sea from 1292 BC.

V.V. Bartholdi mentions that during the conquest of Khorezm (712-800), the city stood on east coast Aral Sea, about which detailed evidence has been preserved. Ancient writings holy book The Avesta brought to this day a description of the Vaksh River (present-day Amu Darya), which flows into Lake Varakhskoe.

In the mid-19th century, a geological expedition of scientists (V. Obruchev, P. Lessor, A. Konshin) carried out work in the coastal region. Shore deposits discovered by geologists gave the right to assert that the sea occupied the area of ​​the Sarakamyshin depression and the Khiva oasis. And during the migration of rivers and drying out, the mineralization of water sharply increased and salts fell to the bottom.

Facts of the recent history of the sea

The presented documentary evidence is collected in the book “Essays on the history of research of the Aral Sea”, written by a member of the Russian Geographical Society L. Berg. It is interesting to note that, according to L. Berg, neither ancient Greek nor ancient Roman historical or archaeological works contain any information about such an object.

During periods of regression, when the seabed was partially exposed, islands became isolated. In 1963, along one of the islands, Revival Island, a border was drawn between the territories occupied by present-day Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan: 78.97% of Revival Island is occupied by Uzbekistan, and 21.03% by Kazakhstan.

In 2008, Uzbekistan began geological exploration work on Vozrozhdeniya Island in order to discover oil and gas layers. Thus, Renaissance Island may turn out to be a “stumbling block” in the economic policies of the two countries.

It is planned to complete the bulk of geological exploration work in 2016. And already at the end of 2016, the LUKOIL corporation and Uzbekistan will drill two appraisal wells on Vozrozhdenie Island, taking into account seismic data.

Ecological situation in the Aral Sea region

What is the Small and Large Aral Sea? The answer can be obtained by studying the drying up of the Aral Sea. At the end of the 20th century this body of water Another regression has occurred - drying out. It splits into two independent objects - the Southern Aral and the Small Aral Sea.

Why did the Aral Sea disappear?

The water surface has been reduced to ¼ original value, and the maximum depth approached 31 meters, which became evidence of a significant (up to 10% of the initial volume) reduction in water in the already disintegrated sea.

Fishing, which once flourished on the lake-sea, left the southern reservoir - the large Aral Sea - due to the strong mineralization of the water. The Small Aral Sea has retained some fishing enterprises, but fish stocks there have also decreased significantly. The reasons why the sea bottom was exposed and individual islands appeared were:

• Natural alternation of periods of regression (drying out); during one of them, in the middle of the 1st millennium, there was a “city of the dead” at the bottom of the Aral Sea, as evidenced by the fact that there is a mausoleum here, next to which several burials were discovered.
• Drainage-collector waters and domestic wastewater from surrounding fields and vegetable gardens, containing pesticides and toxic chemicals, enter rivers and settle to the bottom of the sea.
• The Central Asian rivers Amudarya and Syrdarya, partially flowing through the territory of the state of Uzbekistan, have reduced the recharge of the Aral Sea by 12 times due to the diversion of their waters for irrigation needs.
• Global climate change: Greenhouse effect, destruction and melting of mountain glaciers, and this is where Central Asian rivers originate.

The climate in the Aral Sea region has become harsher: cooling begins already in August, the summer air has become very dry and hot. Steppe winds blowing across the bottom of the sea carry toxic chemicals and pesticides across the entire Eurasian continent.

Aral is navigable

Back in the XYIII-XIX centuries, the depth of the sea was passable for a military flotilla, which included steamships and sailing ships. And scientific and research vessels penetrated the secrets that were hidden by the depths of the sea. In the last century, the depths of the Aral Sea abounded in fish and were suitable for navigation.

Until the next period of drying out at the end of the 70s of the 20th century, when the sea bottom began to sharply approach the surface, ports were located on the seashores:

• Aralsk is the former center of the fishing industry on the Aral Sea; now here is the administrative center of one of the districts of the Kyzylorda region of Kazakhstan. It was here that the start was given for the revival of fishing. The dam, built on the outskirts of the city, increased to 45 meters the depth of one of the parts into which the Small Aral Sea broke up, which has already made it possible to engage in fish farming. By 2016, fishing for flounder and freshwater fish has been established here: pike perch, catfish, Aral barbel, and asp. More than 15 thousand tons of fish were caught in the Small Aral Sea in 2016.
• Muynak is located on the territory of the state of Uzbekistan, the former port and the sea are separated by 100-150 kilometers of steppe, on the site of which there was a seabed.
• Kazakhdarya is a former port located on the territory of the state of Uzbekistan.

New land

The exposed bottom became islands. The largest islands stand out:

• Renaissance Island, South part which is located on the territory of the state of Uzbekistan, and the northern part belongs to Kazakhstan; as of 2016, Vozrozhdeniya Island is a peninsula on which a large amount of biological waste is buried;
• Barsakelmes Island; belongs to Kazakhstan, located 180 km from Aralsk; as of 2016, the Barsakalme Nature Reserve is located on this island in the Aral Sea;
• Kokaral Island is located in the north of the former Aral Sea on the territory of Kazakhstan; Currently (as of 2016) it is a land isthmus connecting a large sea that has split into two parts.

Currently (as of 2016) all former islands connected to the mainland.

Location of the Aral Sea on the map

Travelers and tourists visiting Uzbekistan are interested in the question: where is the mysterious Aral Sea, the depth of which in many places is zero? What do the Small and Large Aral Seas look like in 2016?

Caspian and Aral Sea on the map

The problems of the Aral Sea and the dynamics of its drying out are clearly visible on the satellite map. On an ultra-precise map depicting the territory occupied by Uzbekistan, one can trace a trend that could mean the death and disappearance of the sea. And the effects of a changing climate on the entire continent, which could result from the disappearing Aral Sea, will be catastrophic.

The problem of reviving a drying water body has become international. The real way to save the Aral Sea could be a project to divert Siberian rivers. In any case, the World Bank, when 2016 began, allocated $38 million to the countries of the Central Asian region to solve the problem of the Aral Sea and mitigate the climate consequences in the region caused by disastrous processes in the Aral Sea.

Video: Documentary film about the Aral Sea

ARAL SEA, Aral (Turkic “aral” - island; the original name of the area at the mouth of the Amu Darya River, and then the entire lake), a large endorheic salt reservoir with characteristic marine and lake features, in the Turan Lowland, in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Aral Sea depression was formed as a result of trough earth's crust in the Upper Pliocene. His age is approx. 140 thousand years. The outlines changed quite significantly as a result of climatic fluctuations, economic activity in its basin, migration of the channels of the main rivers flowing into the sea - the Syrdarya and, especially, the Amu Darya. In Quaternary times, the Amu Darya ended its flow alternately in the Sarykamysh depression, without reaching the Aral Sea, and then in the Aral Basin. Accordingly, the Aral either shallowed or increased in size. Over the past 4–6 thousand years, the amplitude of sea fluctuations has been more than 20 m. A large medieval regression occurred 400–800 years ago, when the level dropped to 31 m. On the shallowed bottom of the Aral Sea, the remains of saxaul thickets, ancient settlements, and the Kerderi mausoleum were found. All R. 20th century sea ​​level was relatively stable (minor fluctuations around 53 m). The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world by area. At this level, the area was 66.6 thousand km 2, volume 1068 km 3, maximum length 428 km, width 235 km, greatest depth 69 m (with an average depth of 16 m and prevailing depths of 20–25 m), medium salinity water 10–12‰. The water of the Aral Sea was highly transparent, especially in its central and western parts, far from the mouths of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, whose water is characterized by increased turbidity. The color of the water in the center of the sea was blue, and off the coast it was greenish. The water was characterized by an alkaline reaction - the pH value was 8.2–8.4. The chemical composition of the water was dominated by sulfate and carbonate with a relatively small amount of chlorine ions. The water was characterized by a low content of basic nutrients, and in terms of trophic level the reservoir was characterized as mesotrophic. In the Aral Sea until mid. 20th century lived approx. 20 species of fish (thorn, bream, carp, roach, pike perch, etc.). In the 1950s–60s. 13 more fish species were introduced. There were more than a thousand islands in the sea, the largest of which were Kokaral, Barsakelmes, Lazareva, and Vozrozhdeniya. In the south was the Akpetka archipelago, which was flooded sea ​​waters sand dunes of the Kyzylkum desert. The northern coast is high in places, low in places, indented by bays, the eastern coast is low-lying, sandy with a large number of small islands and bays, the southern coast is low-lying, occupied by the Amu Darya delta, the western coast is formed by a cliff (cliff) of the Ustyurt plateau up to 250 m high. The climate is continental. average temperature air temperature in summer is 24–26 °C, in winter from –7 to –13.5 °C. The water temperature of the surface layer in summer is 28–30 °C. In winter, the northeastern and northern parts of the sea usually froze. The incoming part of the water balance (64–65 km 3 /year) was mainly (about 90%) the river flow of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. Atmospheric precipitation and a small influx of groundwater accounted for slightly more than 10%. The Amu Darya runoff averaged 44–46 km 3 /year, the Syrdarya - approx. 10 km 3 /year.

From the beginning 1960s the relative stability of the sea state, maintained by the influx of Amudarya and Syrdarya waters, was disrupted mainly due to the rapid increase in water withdrawals, mainly for irrigation needs. From 1960 to 2000, the area of ​​irrigated land in the Aral Sea basin increased from 4.5 to 8 million hectares. The total water intake accordingly increased from 60 to more than 100 km 3 /year. Before this, water intake also increased, but the increase in irrigated land was mainly due to tugai thickets along the rivers, which evaporated a lot of water, and as a result, the river flow changed little. Water intake began to have a noticeable effect on river flows as soon as the mid-day. 20th century Irrigation began, often with excess water, of desert foothill areas remote from rivers, from where only a small part (10–20%) of the taken water was returned to the rivers in the form of collector-drainage waters from irrigation systems. These waters, saturated with fertilizers and pesticides washed out from agricultural fields, made up the bulk of the sharply decreased river inflow into the Aral Sea, which in some years approached zero not only due to water intake, but also due to natural low water, determined climatic conditions. According to most researchers, a 20% decrease in inflow into the Aral Sea is explained by climate change, and 80% by anthropogenic factors.

During the period 1961–89, sea level dropped by more than 14 m, the area of ​​the water area decreased by 2 times, and the volume by 3 times. In 1988–89, at an elevation of 39 m, the Aral Sea was divided into two independent bodies of water - the Big Sea (Big Aral, southern Aral, the Aral Sea itself), fed by the waters of the Amu Darya, and the Small Sea (Small Aral, northern Aral), fed by the waters of the Syr Darya. The area of ​​the Greater Aral during its separation was 33.5 thousand km 2, and the Small Aral - approx. 3 thousand km 2. During 1989–2000, the volume of water decreased from 329 to 175 km 3 , the area decreased from 36.4 to 24.4 thousand km 2, the level decreased from 39.1 to 34.0 m (see table). The coastline has moved away from its previous position in many cases by tens of kilometers (see map). Water salinity increased from 29 to 46–59‰. Subsequently, the drying out of the sea continued (see table). At an elevation of 29 m, the Great Aral was divided into eastern and western parts, and has now turned into a group of several reservoirs with water mineralization in some of them exceeding 200‰.

The drying up of the Aral Sea in recent decades was mainly due to the Greater Aral, mainly due to the fact that the Small Aral was separated by a dam from the Greater Aral. The dam, built in 1994, was washed away in 1999 during a spring storm, but in 2003–05 a more powerful Kokaral earthen dam, 13 km long, 6 m high, 100-150 m wide, was built. The dam includes a concrete dam with a hydraulic gate for passage excess water into the Big Aral. Thanks to this, the flow of the Syr Darya accumulates in the Small Aral. By 2008, the water level in it had risen to 42 m, salinity had decreased to 10–13‰, which made it possible to begin the restoration of the fishery.

Changing parameters of the Aral Sea

Years/parameters	Water level, m	Volume, km³	Water area, thousand km²	Mineralization, ‰	Inflow, km³/year
1960	53,40	1083	68,9	9,9	54–56
1989	39,1	329	36,4	29
1990	38,24	323	36,8	29	12,5
2000	34,0	175	24,4	46–59
2003	31,0	112,8	18,24	78,0	3,2
2004			17,2	91,0
2007		75,0	14,18	100,0
2008			10,58
2009			8,16
2010			13,84
2011			9,28
2012			8,96
2013			9,16
2014			7,30
2015			8,30

In general, the drying out of the Aral Sea is one of the largest environmental disasters of the 2nd half. 20 – beginning 21st centuries, which had an extremely negative impact on the economy of the region. If in mid. 20th century 30–50 thousand tons of fish were caught in the sea, then by the beginning. 1990s it has completely lost its fishing significance. A significant part of the population has lost their jobs. In the beginning. 21st century fish completely disappeared in most of the Aral Sea. Fishing is now carried out only in the Small Aral. In 2007 the catch was approx. 2 thousand tons and tends to grow. Shipping stopped. The remains of ships can be seen tens of kilometers from the shores of the Greater Aral - on the dried seabed, which has turned into a desert with vast salt marshes and highly saline lands. The dried part of the seabed became the source of large dust storms and wind removal (over 100 thousand tons annually) of salt mixed with various chemicals and poisons, adversely affecting all living things at a distance of up to 500 km. The drying out of the sea affected the climate of the region immediately adjacent to the former waters of the sea (at a distance of up to 100 km from the former coastline), which became more continental: summers became drier and hotter, winters became colder and longer.

Economic losses associated with the drying up of the Aral Sea are estimated from several hundred million to several billion US dollars annually.

In the near future, the Great Aral is threatened with complete disappearance, unless the states in its basin take measures to reduce water intake through modernization existing system irrigation, transition to less water-intensive methods of irrigation and cultivation of less moisture-loving crops, transfer of production of some products from irrigated lands to rain-fed ones. It is also important to streamline the use of fertilizers and pesticides. These measures would make it possible to maintain, if not the entire Greater Aral Sea, then the reservoirs and adjacent ecosystems at the mouth of the Amu Darya in an acceptable ecological condition.

The fate of the Small Aral is more optimistic. To maintain it ecological state only 2.5 km 3 /year of clean Syrdarya water is needed. But in the Syrdarya basin, measures to save water and improve its quality are very relevant.

The expected climate warming, leading to a decrease in the supply of snow and ice in the mountainous regions of the Aral Sea basin, the main source of water for the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, makes it difficult to solve the problems of the Aral Sea.