Now the Aral, which at one time was the world's fourth largest lake, is over a hundred kilometes away, and the city's thriving fishing and canning industry has collapsed. The lake has been steadily shrinking since the s.
Water that had flowed into the Aral was diverted to irrigate Uzbekistan's burgeoning cotton sector, as part of the Soviet plant to turn Central Asia into the world's largest producer of cotton. For a time the country exported more cotton than anywhere else. But the diversion, along with hydropower plants and reservoirs, has taken its toll.
It's been an environmental disaster for the people living around the lake and for wildlife too. Visit the new DW website Take a look at the beta version of dw. Go to the new dw. More info OK. Wrong language? Change it here DW. COM has chosen English as your language setting. COM in 30 languages. Deutsche Welle. Audiotrainer Deutschtrainer Die Bienenretter.
Environment Vital lakes disappearing around the world Water scarcity is a growing problem worldwide, with Africa being hit particularly hard. Lake Chad. Climate change has been thinning the glacier, which has allowed a tunnel eight kilometers beneath to repeatedly open and close, draining the lake and letting it refill many times over.
Prior to , the lake was relatively stable. This southern California lake, located near Santa Barbara, is a popular recreation spot and a critical source of drinking water for , people.
But the lake is now at just Persistent drought, water withdrawals for irrigation and other human uses, and climate variability have worked in concert to drain the lake.
Sarah Zielinski is an award-winning science writer and editor. She is a contributing writer in science for Smithsonian. Lake Waiau in Hawaii shrunk to the size of a pond in just a few years. Scientists still aren't sure why the lake began to dry up. Here are nine lakes that no longer exist or are in danger of disappearing: Lake Urmia, Iran This saltwater lake, located in the northwest corner of Iran, was once that nation's largest, but it has quickly retreated from its shores.
Lake Waiau, Hawaii Lake Waiau was never a very big lake. Scott Lake, Florida This central Florida lake drained away in just two weeks in June when a sinkhole opened up. Lake Peigneur, Louisiana Disaster struck this lake on November 20, , when a Texaco oil rig accidentally punctured the roof of a salt mine. Cachuma Lake, California This southern California lake, located near Santa Barbara, is a popular recreation spot and a critical source of drinking water for , people.
During the summer, when rainfall is low, the lake's water drains into lower reservoirs, leaving the lake bed dry. When the rains return, the higher reservoirs fill and water flows back into the lake. Due to the complicated passageways, the water level can be highly irregular. The lake can stay filled for years, or remain dry for up to a year during droughts.
Geologists who visited the lake bed in Patagonia, Chile first hypothesized that an earthquake in a neighboring region had created a crack in the earth, draining the lake. Later, it was discovered that the drainage was caused by a glacial lake outburst flood. The lake is dammed by the Colonia Glacier, which itself had been melting at a higher rate. The increased pressure eventually caused the glacial dam to burst, creating a hidden tunnel five miles beneath the surface and sending million cubic meters of water into Colonia Lake and the Colonia River.
Since the initial burst in , Lake Cachet II has refilled and disappeared several times. Most of Greenland is covered by an enormous ice sheet, which stretches for , square miles and is on average over a mile thick. The ice sheet supports bright, turquoise blue lakes, known as supraglacial lakes, which sometimes disappear rapidly. In , billions of gallons of water in two supraglacial lakes on the ice sheet vanished in a matter of weeks.
Glaciologists have since discovered that the lakes—which had been stable for years—drained rapidly through vertical cracks in the ice leading to the bottom of the ice sheet. Researchers believe the appearance and disappearance of these lakes is connected to warming trends in the ice sheet due to climate change. By summer, though, the lake transforms into a dry meadow.
There's a geological explanation for the bizarre annual occurrence. A lava tube—a narrow underground opening formed by an ancient lava flow—drains water from the lake like a bathtub. Lost Lake is constantly draining, but it only becomes evident in late spring, when the lava tube drains water faster than melting snow and rain can refill the lake. A waterfall in Judge C. Magney State Park in Minnesota has been puzzling scientists for decades. At Devil's Kettle Falls, the Brule River forks at a rock outcropping, and the eastern side of the falls tumbles into the water below while the western side disappears into a large pothole.
Scientists suspect the water in the pothole rejoins the river , since the flow of the river above the falls is nearly the same as it is below. Researchers and other curious people have dropped colored dyes, ping pong balls, and other objects into the hole and searched for signs of them, but none have resurfaced.
In spring , Lake Beloye near the village of Bolotnikovo, Russia disappeared overnight. All that was left was an empty lake bed and a large crater with a hole that led underground. Nearly a year later, the remaining cavity began to fill up with water, but quickly drained again.
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