h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: the Aral Sea - A87768193
Author: shagbark - U170775

A look at what was once a thriving lake, but which due to the intervention of man is struggling to survive.

Thanks for writing this Shagbark, I enjoyed reading it. I find the idea of a sea disappearing really quite creepy to be honest. The only obvious thing I noticed that needed changing was that you needed to capitalise the word 'The' in the title.

You might like to link A2181719

This was a Flea Market rescue and one my first to make the Front Page

There is a Brief mention of the Aral Sea. I hope to get this linked when it gets Edited status.



FS

Link added. I note when that was written in 2004 the sea had lost 50% of its water and that is up to 92% now. However some water has now returned to the North Aral Sea.

I have also added links to rivers, sea salt, and the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

hi Shagbark

A very interesting Entry I think.

I would like to know a bit more about the eco system of the lake. WHich animals and plants were living there? Which are still there today and which have disappeared?

What did the people who lived there do? Did they move with the lake or did they rather leave the area completely? (not sure if you can answer this)

This is a very interesting entry.

However, like Tavaron, I would like to see a few more details. In particular:

In the last section, I'm not sure which 'stretch of desert' you mean - the southern part of the lake? Has this dried up completely now?

Have there been any attempts to stop the damage, or reverse it?

I can imagine there might be political difficulties between Kazakstan and Uzbekistan about the fate of the sea. Do you have any information about this?

If you look at the satelite view from 2010 (first link under word Aral) you can see The middle of the sea is completely gone. Only Northern and Western sections have water left. In the far south where the river still brings a trickle of water it might not be completely dry.
a good article for some answers is http://enrin.grida.no/htmls/aralsoe/aralsea/english/arsea/arsea.htm which said that "from the exposed salty beds up to 100 million tons of salty dust flew out annually and these have been found to travel world-wide, showing up from Greenland to antarctica. Before 1960 there were 70 mammals and 319 types of birds in the region and by the turn of the century that number was cut in half.
before it started drying up the lake had carp, perch, sturgeon,salmon, sheetfish, spike, bream, saryas, vobla, and barbel. Now all that is left is a few bullheads, sprats and salt resistant varieties of flounder. I am not exactly which part of the lake is shown, but One series of pictures about the river that comes from the NE ends with a series of camels on the dry lake bed. Another article talks of the ship graveyard. The Kazak end(North Aral Sea) was saved mainly because the government there struck a deal with the world bank to pay for the series of dikes. these can be seen in google earth, but they occupy a very small area. Another article states some Kazakstan officials say that while measures could be done to save the southern part the Uzbeks seem determined to continue diverting vast quantities of water for their cotton fields.
A reporter went to the capitol of Uzbekistan and reported:
"the ghost of the Aral Sea has hunbg over many a conversation in Tashkent. Once the worlds fourth largest inland sea, king cotton and the command economy have done for it...the uzbek shore has fled some 200 km North. Last year (2006) the south eastern lake vanished...A fishing industry that once employed 40,000 people has vanished also....the Uzbekistan's Karakalpeks that traditionally herded and fished once had a striking culture. Now they are destitute. children are sent out to pick cotton.


I am not sure how much of that needs to go into the article. You ask which part of the lake is now desert. I can only speculate that it is everywhere south of the dike.

A more up to date article http://www.globalissues.org/news/2012/03/22/13092 mentions the dike and how it is bringing new hope to the North Aral Sea.

someone once said a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are some pictures http://englishrussia.com/2012/06/08/the-aral-sea-is-dying/

Thankyou, shagbark.

Thanks to the additions to the last section, this is now an excellent article.

This is a really interesting entry, on an important topic. That's alarming.

I would have just one request: in the opening paragraph, you say 'once' this was a thriving sea. Could you work in an indication of the time scale in the first paragraph? At first, I thought you were talking about a longer period of time.

It will have more immediate impact if you mention right away that these changes took place in the 20th Century, I think.

How about- "Fifty years ago this was"

If you want to future proof the Entry then you need an era, not a timeline marker.

good point. let me check and see what I can find.

OK referencing the Leader in power during the sixties will put it in an era.

And I have replaced the words now, and today. Saying instead at the time this article was written (2012).

This is a good entry. I've only two points.

1. salinity level 1.7% - I don't know what this means. What's the salinity level of the oceans? Is 1.7% a lot of salt or a little?

2. You use the phrase "at the time this entry was written (2012)" twice. You only need to provide the year once, and you could rephrase the second time the phrase is used to avoid it jarring.

I added a footnote to show that 1.7% is about what one finds in the Caspian Sea.
Also I have deleted "At the time of writing." Those had replaced the word "now" which I had been using as a contrast to then. However using the word now won't work when the article ages and now is no longer now .