It flows into the Aral Sea. Location of the Aral Sea on the map

In the old days, the Aral Sea was the 4th largest in the world. And at the moment it is called the lake-sea. It is located both in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The sea is endorheic, with salt water. In 1960, this sea occupied an area equal to 66.1 thousand square kilometers. Not particularly deep, the average depth is 10-15 meters, and the largest is 54.5 meters. But by 1990, the sea occupied an area almost half that - 36.5 thousand square kilometers. However, this is not yet a chapel. Just 5 years later, in 1995, the following data were released: the sea surface area was reduced by half, and the sea lost three-quarters of its water volume. At the moment, desertification prevails over more than 33,000 square kilometers of the former seabed. The coastline has decreased by 100-150 kilometers. The water itself also underwent a change: salinity increased by 2.5 times. As a result, the huge sea turned into two lake-seas: the Small Aral and the Big Aral.

The consequences of such a catastrophe have long gone beyond the region. More than 100 thousand tons of salt, as well as fine dust, mixed with various poisons and chemicals, are carried every year from places where the waters of the sea used to be, and now the land. Naturally, such a combination has a very detrimental effect on all living organisms. Any sailor will be surprised at the pictures that the once former is now opening. There are a lot of ghost ships that have found an eternal home on land.

All these facts indicate that by 2015 the sea simply will not become such a pace. In place of the sea, the Aral-Kum desert is formed. Accordingly, it will become a continuation of the Kyzylkum and Karakum deserts. After the disappearance of the sea for decades around the world, the wind will carry various toxic poisons that poison the air. With the disappearance of the Aral Sea, the climate in the adjacent territory will also change. The climate is already changing: summer in the Aral Sea region is drier and shorter every year, and winter, accordingly, is noticeably colder and longer. But climate change is just the beginning. After all, the population of the Aral Sea region is suffering. They are acutely aware of the lack of water. Thus, residents receive only 15-20 liters per day instead of the average norm of 125 liters.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has distributed the latest results of observations from the Envisat satellite, which indicate a significant decrease in the area of the Eastern part of the Large Aral Sea, a REGNUM News correspondent reports in Tashkent.

According to ESA experts, images taken from 2006 to 2009 show that the eastern part of the Aral Sea has lost 80% of its water surface. In many respects, this drying process, which began half a century ago, is associated with the turn of the rivers that fed it. In the last twenty years, the sea has actually divided into two reservoirs, the Small Aral from the north side (located on the territory of Kazakhstan) and the Big Aral from the south (located on the territory of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan). Since 2000, the Big Aral, in turn, has been divided into two parts - eastern and western.

According to ESA experts, the Big Aral may completely disappear as early as 2020. Earlier, REGNUM News reported that the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov at a meeting of the heads of founding states of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea on April 28 in Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan) said that it is hardly practically possible to save the Aral Sea in the full sense of the word. In his opinion, it is necessary to carry out a program of measures thought out in all respects to create normal conditions necessary for a healthy lifestyle for the population living here. The President of Uzbekistan proposed a number of measures to overcome the consequences of the drying up of the Aral Sea and the ecological improvement of the Aral Sea basin. Such measures, according to Karimov, are: the creation of local reservoirs on the already dried-up bottom of the Aral Sea, the flooding of delta reservoirs in order to reduce dust and salt storms, and the restoration of biodiversity and the delta ecosystem. Karimov considers it necessary to carry out forest plantations on the dried bottom of the Aral Sea, fix moving sands, reduce the removal of poisonous aerosols from the dried bottom, provide drinking water and equip communal and medical institutions with water disinfection devices, re-equip water intake facilities with chlorination plants and much more.

The head of Uzbekistan also proposes to systematically study the impact of the growing environmental crisis in the Aral Sea region on the state of health and the gene pool of the population, to prevent and prevent the wide spread of various dangerous diseases specific to this region, to deploy specialized networks of preventive and medical institutions for the population, to implement programs of measures to advancing development of social infrastructure. Karimov stressed that over the past 10 years alone, more than one billion dollars have been spent on the implementation of these projects and programs, including about $265 million through foreign loans, technical assistance and grants.

Speaking about the Aral Sea tragedy and measures to overcome it, we are all, of course, aware that the solution of this problem is most directly related to the problems of rational and reasonable use of water and energy resources, the most careful approach to preserving such a fragile environmental and water balances in the region, the President stressed. I think that in the current very serious, increasingly deteriorating environmental situation in the Aral Sea zone and in the whole region, there is obviously no need to prove or convince someone of taking the most drastic measures to prevent possible negative consequences of the drying up of the Aral Sea, the President of Uzbekistan concluded.

Almost whole inflow of water into the Aral Sea provided by the Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers. For thousands of years, it happened that the channel of the Amu Darya went away from the Aral Sea (toward the Caspian Sea), causing a decrease in the size of the Aral Sea. However, with the return of the Aral River, it was invariably restored to its former borders. Today, the intensive irrigation of cotton and rice fields consumes a significant part of the flow of these two rivers, which drastically reduces the flow of water into their deltas and, accordingly, into the sea itself. Precipitation in the form of rain and snow, as well as underground sources, give the Aral Sea much less water than it is lost during evaporation, as a result of which the water volume of the lake-sea decreases, and the salinity level increases

In the Soviet Union, the deteriorating state of the Aral Sea was hidden for decades, until 1985, when M.S. Gorbachev made this ecological catastrophe public. In the late 1980s the water level dropped so much that the whole sea was divided into two parts: the northern Small Aral and the southern Big Aral. By 2007, deep western and shallow eastern reservoirs, as well as the remains of a small separate bay, were clearly identified in the southern part. The volume of the Big Aral has decreased from 708 to only 75 km3, and the salinity of the water has increased from 14 to more than 100 g/l. With the collapse in 1991, the Aral Sea was divided between the newly formed states: Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Thus, the grandiose Soviet plan to divert the waters of distant Siberian rivers here was put to an end, and competition for possession of the melting water resources unfolded. It remains only to be glad that it was not possible to complete the project for the transfer of the rivers of Siberia, because it is not known what disasters would follow this

Collector-drainage waters coming from the fields into the bed of the Syrdarya and Amudarya caused deposits of pesticides and various other agricultural pesticides, appearing in some places on 54 thousand km? former seabed covered with salt. Dust storms carry salt, dust and pesticides to a distance of up to 500 km. Sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulfate are airborne and destroy or slow down the development of natural vegetation and crops. The local population suffers from a high prevalence of respiratory diseases, anemia, cancer of the larynx and esophagus, as well as digestive disorders. Diseases of the liver and kidneys, eye diseases have become more frequent.

The drying up of the Aral Sea had the most severe consequences. Due to a sharp decrease in river flow, spring floods stopped, supplying the floodplains of the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya with fresh water and fertile sediments. The number of fish species living here has decreased from 32 to 6 - the result of an increase in the level of salinity of the water, the loss of spawning grounds and food sites (which have survived mainly only in river deltas). If in 1960 the fish catch reached 40 thousand tons, then by the mid-1980s. local commercial fishing simply ceased to exist, and more than 60 thousand related jobs were lost. The Black Sea flounder, adapted to life in salty sea water and brought here back in the 1970s, remained the most common inhabitant. However, by 2003, it also disappeared in the Great Aral, unable to withstand water salinity of more than 70 g / l - 2-4 times more than in its usual marine environment.
Aral Sea

Navigation in the Aral Sea has ceased. the water receded for many kilometers from the main local ports: the city of Aralsk in the north and the city of Muynak in the south. And keeping ever longer canals to ports navigable proved too costly. With the lowering of the water level in both parts of the Aral Sea, the level of groundwater also fell, which accelerated the process of desertification of the area. By the mid 1990s. instead of the lush greenery of trees, shrubs and grasses, on the former seashores, only rare bunches of halophytes and xerophytes were visible - plants adapted to saline soils and dry habitats. At the same time, only half of the local species of mammals and birds have been preserved. Within 100 km of the original coastline, the climate has changed: it has become hotter in summer and colder in winter, the level of air humidity has decreased (respectively, the amount of precipitation has decreased), the length of the growing season has decreased, and droughts have become more frequent.

Despite its vast drainage basin, the Aral Sea receives almost no water due to irrigation canals, which, as the photo below shows, take water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya for hundreds of kilometers of their flow through the territory of several states. Among other consequences - the disappearance of many species of animals and plants

However, if we turn to the history of the Aral, the sea has already dried up, while again returning to its former shores. So, what was the Aral Sea like for the last few centuries and how did its size change?

In the historical era, there were significant fluctuations in the level of the Aral Sea. So, on the retreating bottom, the remains of trees that grew in this place were found. In the middle of the Cenozoic era (21 million years ago), the Aral was connected to the Caspian. Until 1573, the Amu Darya flowed into the Caspian Sea along the Uzboy branch, and the Turgai River into the Aral. The map compiled by the Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemy (1800 years ago) shows the Aral and Caspian Seas, the Zarafshan and Amu Darya rivers flow into the Caspian. At the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries, the islands of Barsakelmes, Kaskakulan, Kozzetpes, Uyaly, Biyiktau, and Vozrozhdeniye were formed due to lowering of the sea level. The rivers Zhanadarya since 1819, Kuandarya since 1823 ceased to flow into the Aral. From the beginning of systematic observations (XIX century) and until the middle of the XX century, the level of the Aral practically did not change. In the 1950s, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world, occupying about 68 thousand square kilometers; its length was 426 km, width - 284 km, maximum depth - 68 m.

In the 1930s, large-scale construction of irrigation canals began in Central Asia, which was especially intensified in the early 1960s. Since the 1960s, the sea has become shallow due to the fact that the water of the rivers that flowed into it was diverted in increasing volumes for irrigation. From 1960 to 1990, the area of irrigated land in Central Asia increased from 4.5 million to 7 million hectares. The needs of the national economy of the region for water have increased from 60 to 120 km? per year, of which 90% is for irrigation. Beginning in 1961, the sea level decreased at an increasing rate from 20 to 80–90 cm/yr. Until the 1970s, 34 species of fish lived in the Aral Sea, of which more than 20 were of commercial importance. In 1946, 23 thousand tons of fish were caught in the Aral Sea, in the 1980s this figure reached 60 thousand tons. In the Kazakh part of the Aral Sea there were 5 fish factories, 1 fish cannery, 45 fish receiving points, in the Uzbek part (Republic of Karakalpakstan) - 5 fish factories, 1 fish canning factory, more than 20 fish receiving points.

In 1989, the sea broke up into two isolated reservoirs - the North (Small) and South (Big) Aral Sea. In 2003, the surface area of the Aral Sea is about a quarter of the original, and the volume of water is about 10%. By the early 2000s, the absolute sea level had dropped to 31 m, which is 22 m lower than the initial level observed in the late 1950s. Fishing was preserved only in the Small Aral, and in the Big Aral, due to its high salinity, all the fish died. In 2001, the South Aral Sea split into western and eastern parts. In 2008, exploration work was carried out in the Uzbek part of the sea (search for oil and gas fields). The contractor is the PetroAlliance company, the customer is the government of Uzbekistan. In the summer of 2009, the eastern part of the South (Big) Aral Sea dried up.

The receding sea left behind 54,000 km2 of dry seabed covered with salt and, in some places, also with deposits of pesticides and various other agricultural pesticides, once washed away by runoff from local fields. Currently, strong storms carry salt, dust and pesticides to a distance of up to 500 km. North and northeast winds have an adverse effect on the south of the Amudarya Delta, the most densely populated, economically and ecologically most important part of the entire region. Airborne sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, and sodium sulfate destroy or slow down the development of natural vegetation and crops—in a bitter irony, it is the irrigation of these crop fields that has brought the Aral Sea to its current deplorable state.

Another, very unusual problem is connected with the Renaissance Island. When it was far away at sea, the Soviet Union used it as a testing ground for bacteriological weapons. The causative agents of anthrax, tularemia, brucellosis, plague, typhoid, smallpox, as well as botulinum toxin were tested here on horses, monkeys, sheep, donkeys and other laboratory animals. In 2001, as a result of water withdrawal, Vozrozhdeniye Island joined the mainland from the south side. Doctors fear that dangerous microorganisms have retained their viability, and infected rodents may become their distributors in other regions. In addition, dangerous substances can fall into the hands of terrorists. Waste and pesticides, once thrown into the water of the harbor of Aralsk, are now in full view. Severe storms carry toxic substances, as well as huge amounts of sand and salt, throughout the region, destroying crops and causing damage to people's health. You can read more about Renaissance Island in the article: The most terrible islands in the world

Restoration of the entire Aral Sea impossible. This would require four times the annual inflow of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya compared to the current average of 13 km3. The only possible remedy would be to reduce the irrigation of the fields, which accounts for 92% of water withdrawals. However, four of the five former Soviet republics in the Aral Sea basin (with the exception of Kazakhstan) intend to increase their farmland irrigation, mainly to feed their growing population. In this situation, switching to less moisture-loving crops, such as replacing cotton with winter wheat, would help, but the two main water-consuming countries in the region - Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan - intend to continue to grow cotton for sale abroad. It would also be possible to significantly improve the existing irrigation canals: many of them are ordinary trenches, through the walls of which a huge amount of water seeps and goes into the sand. The modernization of the entire irrigation system would help save about 12 km3 of water annually, but would cost $16 billion.

Within the framework of the project “Regulation of the bed of the Syrdarya River and the North Aral Sea” (RSRSAM), in 2003-2005, Kazakhstan built the Kokaral dam with a hydraulic gate (which allows excess water to pass to regulate the level of the reservoir), which separated the Small Aral from the the rest of the (Greater Aral). Due to this, the flow of the Syrdarya accumulates in the Small Aral, the water level here has risen to 42 m abs., salinity has decreased, which makes it possible to breed some commercial fish varieties here. In 2007, the catch of fish in the Small Aral was 1910 tons, of which 640 tons fell to the share of flounder, the rest - freshwater species (carp, asp, pike perch, bream, catfish). It is assumed that by 2012 the catch of fish in the Small Aral will reach 10 thousand tons (in the 1980s, about 60 thousand tons were caught in the entire Aral Sea). The length of the Kokaral dam is 17 km, height 6 m, width 300 m. The cost of the first phase of the PRRSAM project amounted to $85.79 million ($65.5 million falls on a World Bank loan, the rest of the funds were allocated from the republican budget of Kazakhstan). It is assumed that an area of 870 square km will be covered with water, and this will allow the restoration of the flora and fauna of the Aral Sea region. In Aralsk, the Kambala Balyk fish processing plant (capacity 300 tons per year) is currently operating, located on the site of a former bakery. In 2008, it is planned to open two fish processing plants in the Aral region: Atameken Holding (design capacity 8,000 tons per year) in Aralsk and Kambash Balyk (250 tons per year) in Kamyshlybash.

Fishing is also developing in the delta of the Syr Darya. A new hydraulic structure with a capacity of more than 300 cubic meters of water per second (Aklak hydroelectric complex) was built on the channel of the Syrdarya - Karaozek, thanks to which it became possible to water lake systems that contain more than one and a half billion cubic meters of water. In 2008, the total area of lakes is more than 50 thousand hectares (it is expected to increase to 80 thousand hectares), the number of lakes in the region has increased from 130 to 213. As part of the implementation of the second phase of the RRSSAM project in 2010-2015, it is planned to build a dam with a hydroelectric complex in the northern parts of the Small Aral, separate the Saryshyganak Bay and fill it with water through a specially dug channel from the mouth of the Syr Darya, bringing the water level in it to 46 m abs. It is planned to build a navigable channel from the bay to the port of Aralsk (the width of the channel along the bottom will be 100 m, length 23 km). To provide a transport link between Aralsk and the complex of facilities in the Saryshyganak Bay, the project provides for the construction of a category V highway with a length of about 50 km and a width of 8 m parallel to the former coastline of the Aral Sea.

The sad fate of the Aral begins to be repeated by other large water bodies of the world - primarily Lake Chad in Central Africa and Lake Salton Sea in the south of the US state of California. Dead tilapia fish litter the shores, and because of the immoderate water intake for irrigating the fields, the water in it is becoming saltier. Various plans are being considered to desalinate this lake. As a result of the rapid development of irrigation since the 1960s. Lake Chad in Africa has shrunk to 1/10 of its previous size. Farmers, shepherds and locals from the four countries surrounding the lake often fight fiercely among themselves for the last of the water (bottom right, blue), and the lake is today only 1.5 m deep. restoration of the Aral Sea can benefit everyone.

Between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is the Aral Lake, which has a rich history, being one of the largest salt lakes in the world. But since the middle of the last century, it began to shrink due to the human factor, people needed water to water their livestock and irrigate the land.

Aral Lake: origin

More than 20 million years ago, the lake was a sea and connected to the Caspian Sea. However, scientists found that it once became shallow and then filled with water again, since human remains dating back to the 1st millennium, as well as the remains of trees that grew on this site, were found at the bottom.

An interesting find after the shallowing was the discovery of several mausoleums and the remains of two settlements. Scientists believed that peoples lived here, and the Kerderi mausoleum, dating back to about the 11th-14th centuries, and the remains of the Aral-Asar settlement, dating back to the 14th century, have been preserved.

The change in the water level was associated with natural cycles, when it either waxed or waned, some rivers stopped flowing, and small islands formed. However, this did not affect the depth of the Aral Lake, continuing to be the largest body of water in the world, although not connected to the World Ocean. The Aral military flotilla was located on the sea, research was carried out, the reservoir was studied.

In 1849 the first expedition led by A. Butakov was carried out. Then an approximate measurement of the depth was made, the islands of Barsakelmes were photographed and part of the Renaissance islands was studied. These islands were formed at the end of the 16th century, when the water level was lowered. In the same expedition, meteorological and astronomical observations were carried out, and samples of minerals were also collected.

Research was carried out even when there were military operations for the annexation of the Central Asian states, and the Aral Flotilla participated in these battles.

At the end of the 19th century, another expedition was created led by A. Nikolsky in the south, and academician Lev Berg in the north. They mainly studied climate, flora and fauna. In 1905, industrial fishing began, when the merchants Lapshin and Krasilnikov created fishing unions.

Catastrophe

In the 30s of the last century, people began to be highly active in agriculture. But the reservoir was still safe, and the water level did not decrease. In the 60s, its decrease began, and already in 1961 the level decreased by 20 cm, and after 2 years by 80 cm. it was unambiguous to answer: Aral Lake - fresh or salty?

In 1989, it completely split into two reservoirs, and they began to call it the Big Aral and the Small Aral. All this affected the number of fish that remained only in Maly.

Aral Sea-Lake: why did the disaster happen?

Upon learning that this reservoir had become so shallow, people wondered why this happened? After all, many people live off rivers and lakes, use their waters not only for agriculture, but also for construction, for drinking, and they do not shrink.

Once the area of the sea was 428 km long and 283 km wide. The inhabitants, located along the coast, lived off the water, fished and earned in this way. For them, grinding turned into a tragedy, and by the beginning of the 21st century, the area amounted to only 14 thousand square meters. km.

Experts believe that this situation has developed due to the fact that resources were incorrectly distributed. The Aral was fed at the expense of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, due to which up to 60 cubic meters of water entered the reservoir. km of water, and now this figure is only 5.

The rivers flowing in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan are mountain reservoirs that have been used for land irrigation. Initially, it was planned to irrigate about 60 million hectares, and then this figure increased to 100 million hectares, and the reservoir simply did not have time to replenish.

Fauna

The catastrophe for the inhabitants of the shores of the Aral Sea came even when it was divided into two parts, it became more and more salty, which made it impossible for the fish to survive. As a result, there were no fish left in the Big Aral at all due to the high concentration of salt, and in the Small Aral, its number has sharply decreased.

The situation was completely different before drying up, once more than 30 species of fish, worms, crayfish and mollusks were found in the sea, 20 of which were commercial. People made a living by fishing, for example, in 1946 23 thousand tons were caught, in the early 80s 60 thousand tons.

Since salinity increased, the biodiversity of living organisms began to decrease sharply and first invertebrates and freshwater fish died, then brackish water fish disappeared, and when the concentration increased to 25%, species of Caspian origin also disappeared, leaving only euryhaline organisms.

In the 80s, they tried to improve the situation a little and created hydraulic structures, which reduced the salinity in the Small Aral and even fish such as grass carp and pike perch appeared, that is, the fauna was partially restored.

Things were worse in the big Aral, and the salt concentration reached 57% in 1997, and the fish began to disappear gradually. If by the beginning of 2000 there lived 5 species of fish and 2 species of gobies, then in 2004 the entire fauna died completely.

Environmental consequences

If you see the animation of satellite images from 2000 to 2011, you can understand how rapidly the reservoir has decreased, that now, looking from the satellite, you ask yourself: where is Aral Lake, why is it disappearing and what could it threaten?

The fact that the fauna died due to the high concentration of salt is one of the consequences. This led to the fact that residents lost their jobs, and the ports of Aralsk and Kazakhdarya also ceased to exist.

In addition, pesticides and pesticides coming from the fields into the channel of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya fell into the sea, and now everything is left on the shallow salty bottom, and because of the winds it all spreads for many kilometers.

Small Aral Sea

In 1989, when the Berg Strait dried up, the Small Aral Lake was formed, but a few years later, when the use of the Syr Darya River was sharply reduced, the strait began to fill with water again, because of which the Small Lake was filled, from where it flowed into the Large. This situation led to the fact that literally in a second more than 100 m³ of water came in, this led to the deepening of the channel, the erosion of the natural barrier, and subsequently the complete drying of the North Sea.

In 1992, experts came to the conclusion that it was necessary to create an artificial dam. The level of the Small Aral Lake increased, the salinity of the water decreased, and the Saryshyganak Strait revived, and the separation of the Butakov and Shevchenko bays was also prevented. Flora and fauna began to recover.

The natural dam was fragile, and it often collapsed during floods, and in 1999 it was completely destroyed by a storm. This again affected the sharp decline in water, and the leadership of Kazakhstan came to the conclusion that it was necessary to build a capital dam in the Berg Strait. The construction lasted for a year, and already in 2005 the Kokaral dam was created, which meets all technical requirements. The difference between this dam and a dam is that it has a culvert, which allows excess water to be discharged during floods and maintain the level at a safe level.

Big Aral Sea

Things are quite different with the Great Sea, significant changes have taken place literally over the past 15 years. In 1997, the salinity level exceeded 50%, which led to the death of the fauna.

In the same year, the island of Barsakelmes joined the land, and in 2001, the island of Vozrozhdenie, where biological weapons were tested.

The whole sea was first divided into 2 parts: northern and southern, but in 2003 the southern part was divided into east and west. In 2004, Lake Tushchibas formed in the eastern part, and when the Kokaral dam was built in 2005, the inflow of water from the Small Aral Sea stopped, and the Large began to decrease sharply.

In subsequent years, the East Sea completely dried up, the salinity in the West was 100%, the area of the South Aral changed with varying degrees of success. In 2015, all parts have decreased in size, and it is possible that the western reservoir may soon be divided into 2 parts.

Climate

The change in the area and size of the Aral Sea also affected the climate - it became drier and colder, continental, and where the sea receded, a salt desert appeared. In winter, frosty time, when water does not freeze on the surface, the so-called “snow lake effect” appears. This is the process of cumulonimbus when cold air moves over warm lake water and this leads to the development of convective clouds.

Land in the sea

The Aral Lake in the last century began to decrease sharply, as a result of which new lands were formed. Some of them have become of particular interest to scientists and researchers:

The island of Barsakelmes, which is distinguished by its amazing nature, where one of the largest reserves is located. This territory belongs to Kazakhstan.
Kokaral Island, also belongs to Kazakhstan, and in 2016 it was an isthmus that connected the two parts of the former sea.
The Renaissance Island belongs to two countries - Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. A lot of biological waste is buried on this island.

Facts of recent history

Even in the ancient Arab chronicles, the Aral Lake was mentioned, which was once one of the largest in the world. Today it is even difficult to say right away where the Aral Lake is located, which is so difficult to find on the map.

Scientists are studying this natural object, and someone finds the cause of the disaster in a completely different way. Some believe that this happened due to the destruction of the bottom layers, and the water simply does not reach the place, others consider a different point of view, believing that due to climate change, negative changes occur in the glaciers, due to which the Syr Darya and Amu Darya feed.

Once the former wastewater Aral Lake was well studied by a member of the Russian Geographical Society L. Berg, who wrote a book about it “Essays on the history of the Aral Sea research”. He believed that in ancient times, none of the ancient Greek and Roman peoples described this reservoir, although it had been known about it for a very long time.

When the sea began to shallow, and land appeared in the 60s of the last century, the Renaissance Island was formed, which is divided into the territory of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, 78% and 22%, respectively. Uzbekistan has decided to carry out exploration work in search of oil, many experts believe that if minerals are found, this could lead to a clash between the two countries.

Lessons for the whole world

Until quite recently, many experts believed that it was not possible to restore the salty Aral Lake. However, progress has been made in the restoration of the northern Small Aral, including thanks to the built dam.

Before destroying nature, it is worth thinking about what the consequences might be, and the Aral Sea is a good example for everyone. People can easily destroy the natural environment, but then the recovery process will be long and difficult. So, Lake Chad in Central Africa and Lake Salton Sea in the US may suffer the same consideration.

The tragedy of the Aral Sea was also touched upon in art. In 2001, the Kazakh rock opera "Takyr" was staged, and the book "Barsakelmes" by the Uzbek writer Jonrid Abdullahanov was written. Similar relationships between man and nature are revealed in the film "Dogs".

Once upon a time, the Aral Sea was indeed a sea. Back in the 50s of the XX century, this reservoir, located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, had an area of 68 thousand square meters. km. Its length was 428 km, and its width was 283 km. The maximum depth reached 68 meters. At the beginning of the 21st century, the situation was completely different. The area of the reservoir was 14 thousand square meters. km, and the deepest places corresponded to only 30 meters. But the sea has not only decreased in area. It also broke up into 2 reservoirs isolated from each other. Northern became known Small Aral, and the southern Big Aral because it has more area.

20 million years ago, the Aral Sea was connected to the Caspian Sea. At the same time, at the bottom of the reservoir were discovered ancient burials dated to the middle of the 1st millennium. Therefore, the sea became shallow, and then again filled with water. Experts believe that the change in water level is subject to certain cycles. At the beginning of the 17th century, another of them began. The level began to decrease, islands formed, and some rivers stopped flowing into the reservoir.

But that didn't mean disaster. The sea, or rather a lake with salt water, since it is not connected with the World Ocean, continued to be a large body of water. Both sailing ships and steamships sailed along it. The salt lake even had its own Aral military flotilla. Her ships fired from cannons and reminded the Kazakhs that they were subjects of the Russian emperor. In parallel, research and scientific work was carried out to study a huge deep reservoir.

Once the Aral Sea was a full-flowing reservoir

An alarming herald of a future tragedy was the start of the construction of irrigation canals in Central Asia. Popular enthusiasm flared up in the 30s of the XX century, but for another 30 years the reservoir was in relative safety. The water level in it was kept at the same level. Only from the beginning of the 1960s did it begin to decrease at first slowly, and then more and more rapidly. In 1961, the level decreased by 20 cm, and after 2 years by 80 cm.

In 1990, the area of the reservoir was 36.8 thousand square meters. km. At the same time, the salinity of the water increased 3 times. This, of course, had a negative impact on the local flora and fauna. At all times, fishermen hunted on the sea. They caught thousands of tons of a wide variety of fish a year. Along the banks of the reservoir, fish factories, canning plants and fish receiving points worked around the clock.

In 1989, the Aral Sea ceased to exist as a whole. Having broken up into 2 reservoirs, it ceased to be a source of fishing. There are no more fish in the Big Aral today. She all died because of the high concentration of salt. Fish are caught only in the Small Aral, but in comparison with the past abundance, these are tears.

The reason for the drying up of the Aral Sea

The fact that the Aral has ceased to exist as a full-flowing reservoir is a big problem, first of all, for those people who live along its banks. The fishing industry is practically destroyed. As a result, people lost their jobs. This is a tragedy for the natives. And it is aggravated by the fact that the fish that is still found in the lake is “stuffed” with pesticides above any norm. This is not good for people's health.

But why did the tragedy happen, what is the reason for the drying up of the Aral Sea? Most experts point to the incorrect distribution of those water resources that have fed the Aral Sea at all times. The main water sources were the Amudarya and Syrdarya. In the year they gave the reservoir 60 cubic meters. km of water. Today this figure is 5 cubic meters. km per year.

This is what the Aral Sea looks like on the map today
It broke up into two reservoirs: the Small Aral and the Big Aral

These Central Asian rivers start their journey in the mountains and flow through such states as Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Since the 1950s, river flows have been diverted to irrigate agricultural land. This also applied to the main rivers and their tributaries. According to the original project, people wanted to irrigate up to 60 million hectares of land. But taking into account water losses and irrational use of diverted flows, 10 million hectares are irrigated. Almost 70% of the withdrawn water is lost in the sands. It does not fall either on the fields or in the Aral Sea.

But there are, naturally, supporters of other theories. Someone sees the reason in the destruction of the bottom layers of the reservoir. As a result, water flows into the Caspian Sea and other lakes. Some experts sin on the global climate change of the blue planet. They also talk about the negative processes going on in the glaciers. They are mineralized, which has a deplorable effect on the Syrdarya and Amudarya. After all, they originate from mountain streams.

Climate change in the Aral Sea region

In the 21st century, the process of changing climatic conditions in the Aral Sea region began. It largely depended on the huge water mass. The Aral Sea was a natural regulator. It softened the cold of the Siberian winds and reduced the summer temperature to a comfortable level. Today, the summer has become dry, and a significant drop in temperature is observed already in August. Accordingly, the vegetation dies, which does not affect the livestock in the best way.

But if everything was limited to the Aral Sea region, then the problem would not look so global. However, the drying up reservoir affects a much larger area. The fact is that powerful air currents pass over the Aral Sea. They raise thousands of tons of a dangerous mixture of salt, chemicals and poisonous dust from the bare bottom. All this gets into the high layers of the atmosphere and spreads not only over the territory of Asia, but also over Europe. These are whole salt streams that move high in the air. With precipitation, they fall to the ground and kill all living things.

Once upon a time, the sea splashed in this place

Today, the Aral Sea region is known throughout the world as a territory prone to environmental disaster.. However, the states of Central Asia and the international community are concerned not with the restoration of the reservoir, but with smoothing out the conflict situation that arose as a result of its drying up. Money is allocated to maintain the living standards of the population, to preserve infrastructure, which is only a consequence, but by no means the cause of the tragedy.

One cannot discount the fact that the Aral Sea is located on a territory rich in natural gas and oil. International corporations have been conducting geological developments in this area for a long time. If global investment flows like water, then local officials will become very rich people. But it will not bring any benefit to a dying reservoir. Most likely, the situation will become even worse, and the ecological situation will worsen.

Yuri Syromyatnikov

The Aral Sea is an endorheic salt lake in Central Asia, on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Since the 1960s of the XX century, the sea level (and the volume of water in it) has been rapidly decreasing due to the withdrawal of water from the main feeding rivers of the Amudarya and Syrdarya. Prior to the start of shallowing, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world.

Excessive withdrawal of water for irrigation of agricultural land has turned the world's fourth largest lake-sea, formerly rich in life, into a barren desert. What is happening with the Aral Sea is a real ecological catastrophe, the fault for which lies with the Soviet government. At the moment, the drying Aral Sea has moved 100 km from its former coastline near the city of Muynak in Uzbekistan.

Almost the entire inflow of water into the Aral Sea is provided by the Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers. For thousands of years, it happened that the channel of the Amu Darya went away from the Aral Sea (toward the Caspian Sea), causing a decrease in the size of the Aral Sea. However, with the return of the Aral River, it was invariably restored to its former borders. Today, the intensive irrigation of cotton and rice fields consumes a significant part of the flow of these two rivers, which drastically reduces the flow of water into their deltas and, accordingly, into the sea itself. Precipitation in the form of rain and snow, as well as underground sources, give the Aral Sea much less water than it is lost during evaporation, as a result of which the water volume of the lake-sea decreases, and the salinity level increases

In the Soviet Union, the deteriorating state of the Aral Sea was hidden for decades, until 1985, when M.S. Gorbachev made this ecological catastrophe public. In the late 1980s the water level dropped so much that the whole sea was divided into two parts: the northern Small Aral and the southern Big Aral. By 2007, deep western and shallow eastern reservoirs, as well as the remains of a small separate bay, were clearly identified in the southern part. The volume of the Big Aral has decreased from 708 to only 75 km3, and the salinity of the water has increased from 14 to more than 100 g/l. With the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the Aral Sea was divided between the newly formed states: Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Thus, the grandiose Soviet plan to divert the waters of distant Siberian rivers here was put to an end, and competition for possession of the melting water resources unfolded. It remains only to rejoice that it was not possible to complete the project for the transfer of the rivers of Siberia, because it is not known what disasters would follow this

The drying up of the Aral Sea had the most severe consequences. Due to a sharp decrease in river flow, spring floods stopped, supplying the floodplains of the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya with fresh water and fertile sediments. The number of fish species that lived here decreased from 32 to 6 - the result of an increase in the level of salinity of the water, the loss of spawning grounds and food sites (which were preserved mainly only in river deltas). If in 1960 the fish catch reached 40 thousand tons, then by the mid-1980s. local commercial fishing simply ceased to exist, and more than 60 thousand related jobs were lost. The Black Sea flounder, adapted to life in salty sea water and brought here back in the 1970s, remained the most common inhabitant. However, by 2003, it also disappeared in the Greater Aral, unable to withstand water salinity of more than 70 g / l - 2–4 times more than in its usual marine environment.

Navigation in the Aral Sea has ceased. the water receded for many kilometers from the main local ports: the city of Aralsk in the north and the city of Muynak in the south. And keeping ever longer canals to ports navigable proved too costly. With the lowering of the water level in both parts of the Aral Sea, the level of groundwater also fell, which accelerated the process of desertification of the area. By the mid 1990s. instead of the lush greenery of trees, shrubs and grasses, only rare bunches of halophytes and xerophytes, plants adapted to saline soils and dry habitats, were visible on the former seashores. At the same time, only half of the local species of mammals and birds have been preserved. Within 100 km of the original coastline, the climate has changed: it has become hotter in summer and colder in winter, the level of air humidity has decreased (respectively, the amount of precipitation has decreased), the length of the growing season has decreased, and droughts have become more frequent.

In the 1930s, large-scale construction of irrigation canals began in Central Asia, which was especially intensified in the early 1960s. Since the 1960s, the sea has become shallow due to the fact that the water of the rivers that flowed into it was diverted in increasing volumes for irrigation. From 1960 to 1990, the area of irrigated land in Central Asia increased from 4.5 million to 7 million hectares. The needs of the national economy of the region for water have increased from 60 to 120 km? per year, of which 90% is for irrigation. Since 1961, the sea level has been decreasing at an increasing rate from 20 to 80-90 cm/year. Until the 1970s, 34 species of fish lived in the Aral Sea, of which more than 20 were of commercial importance. In 1946, 23 thousand tons of fish were caught in the Aral Sea, in the 1980s this figure reached 60 thousand tons. In the Kazakh part of the Aral Sea there were 5 fish factories, 1 fish cannery, 45 fish receiving points, in the Uzbek part (Republic of Karakalpakstan) - 5 fish factories, 1 fish canning factory, more than 20 fish receiving points.

The receding sea left behind 54,000 km2 of dry seabed covered with salt and, in some places, also with deposits of pesticides and various other agricultural pesticides, once washed away by runoff from local fields. Currently, strong storms carry salt, dust and pesticides to a distance of up to 500 km. North and northeast winds have an adverse effect on the south of the Amudarya Delta, the most densely populated, economically and ecologically most important part of the entire region. Airborne sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulfate destroy or retard the development of natural vegetation and crops - in a bitter irony, it was the irrigation of these crop fields that brought the Aral Sea to its current deplorable state.

According to medical experts, the local population suffers from a high prevalence of respiratory diseases, anemia, cancer of the throat and esophagus, and digestive disorders. Diseases of the liver and kidneys have become more frequent, not to mention eye diseases.

Restoration of the entire Aral Sea is impossible. This would require four times the annual inflow of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya compared to the current average of 13 km3. The only possible remedy would be to reduce the irrigation of the fields, which accounts for 92% of water withdrawals. However, four of the five former Soviet republics in the Aral Sea basin (with the exception of Kazakhstan) intend to increase the amount of farmland irrigation - mainly to feed the growing population.

In this situation, switching to less moisture-loving crops, such as replacing cotton with winter wheat, would help, but the two main water-consuming countries in the region - Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan - intend to continue to grow cotton for sale abroad. It would also be possible to significantly improve the existing irrigation canals: many of them are ordinary trenches, through the walls of which a huge amount of water seeps and goes into the sand. The modernization of the entire irrigation system would help save about 12 km3 of water annually, but would cost $16 billion.

Within the framework of the project “Regulation of the bed of the Syrdarya River and the Northern Aral Sea” (RSRSAM) in 2003-2005, Kazakhstan built the Kokaral dam with a hydraulic gate from the Kokaral peninsula to the mouth of the Syrdarya (which allows excess water to pass to regulate the level of the reservoir), which fenced off the Small Aral from the rest of the (Greater Aral). Due to this, the flow of the Syrdarya accumulates in the Small Aral, the water level here has risen to 42 m abs., salinity has decreased, which makes it possible to breed some commercial fish varieties here. In 2007, the catch of fish in the Small Aral was 1910 tons, of which 640 tons fell to the share of flounder, the rest - freshwater species (carp, asp, pike perch, bream, catfish).

It is assumed that by 2012 the catch of fish in the Small Aral will reach 10 thousand tons (in the 1980s, about 60 thousand tons were caught in the entire Aral Sea). The length of the Kokaral dam is 17 km, height 6 m, width 300 m. The cost of the first phase of the PRRSAM project amounted to $85.79 million ($65.5 million falls on a World Bank loan, the rest of the funds were allocated from the republican budget of Kazakhstan). It is assumed that an area of 870 square km will be covered with water, and this will allow the restoration of the flora and fauna of the Aral Sea region. In Aralsk, the Kambala Balyk fish processing plant (capacity 300 tons per year) is currently operating, located on the site of a former bakery. In 2008, it is planned to open two fish processing plants in the Aral region: Atameken Holding (design capacity 8,000 tons per year) in Aralsk and Kambash Balyk (250 tons per year) in Kamyshlybash.

Fishing is also developing in the delta of the Syr Darya. A new hydraulic structure with a capacity of more than 300 cubic meters of water per second (Aklak hydroelectric complex) was built on the channel of the Syrdarya - Karaozek, thanks to which it became possible to water lake systems that contain more than one and a half billion cubic meters of water. In 2008, the total area of lakes is more than 50 thousand hectares (it is expected to increase to 80 thousand hectares), the number of lakes in the region has increased from 130 to 213. As part of the implementation of the second phase of the RRSSAM project in 2010-2015, it is planned to build a dam with a hydroelectric complex in the northern part of the Small Aral, separate the Saryshyganak Bay and fill it with water through a specially dug channel from the mouth of the Syr Darya, bringing the water level in it to 46 m abs. It is planned to build a navigable channel from the bay to the port of Aralsk (the width of the channel along the bottom will be 100 m, length 23 km). To provide a transport link between Aralsk and the complex of facilities in the Saryshyganak Bay, the project provides for the construction of a category V highway with a length of about 50 km and a width of 8 m parallel to the former coastline of the Aral Sea.

Tour of the villages of fishermen of the Eastern Aral Sea.

“Aral is a sad sea. Flat shores, along them wormwood, sands, erratic mountains.Islands in the Aral - pancakes poured into a frying pan, flat to a gloss, spread out on the water - you can see the shore, and there is no life on them. No birds, no cereal, but the human spirit is felt only in summer. The main island in the Aral Barsa-Kelmes. What it means is unknown, but the Kyrgyz say that "human death." In summer, people from the Aralsk village go to the fishing island. Rich fishing at Bars-Kelmes, water boils from the fish passage. But, as the autumn sailors roar with foamy bunnies, fishing is saved in the quiet bay of the Aral settlement and they don’t show their noses until spring. If the entire catch from the island is not brought to the sailors, the fish will remain to spend the winter in wooden through sheds with salted stacks. In severe winters, when the sea freezes from the Chernyshev Bay to Bars itself, expanse for chekalki. They run across the ice to the island, gorge themselves on salted barbel or carp to the point that they die without leaving the spot. And then, returning in the spring, when it breaks the ice crust of the Syr Darya with the yellow clay of the flood, they do not find anything from the salting abandoned in the fall. Roaring, seamen ride on the sea from November to February. And the rest of the time, storms only occasionally fly in, and in the summer the Aral stands motionless - a precious mirror. Boring sea Aral. One joy in the Aral Sea - blue-color, extraordinary "

Lavrenev Boris Andreevich "Forty-first".

A trip to the Aral Sea in the Eastern Aral Sea.

Ancient history Aral, knew the periods of falling and rising levels. Now this history is quite reliably reconstructed by various methods. Experts have disagreements in some details and dates, but, in general terms, the evolution of the Aral Sea looks something like this.
Originally a basin Aral Sea fed only on the waters of the Syr Darya, which formed a small lake in it. Amu Darya at the same time fell into Caspian Sea(its ancient dry channel towards the Caspian called Uzboy well preserved to this day).
Then, according to various researchers, from 10 to 25 thousand years ago, the channel of the Amu Darya changed, and it went to the Aral Sea. The reason for this was the tectonic movement of the Earth's surface. The fact is that the relief features in the watershed area between the Caspian and the Aral Sea are such that a very slight tectonic uplift is enough to redirect the river from one reservoir to another.
As a result of the inflow of the waters of the Amu Darya, the level of the Aral Sea rose to approximately the level we are used to at the beginning of the 20th century (53 meters above sea level). Then, from 4 to 8 thousand years ago, the climate became humid, and the river flow into the Aral almost tripled.

As a result, the level rose to record levels of 58-60 meters, and the Aral Sea through Sarakamysh the depression again "flowed" into the Uzboy and connected through it with the Caspian. After some time, a new era of climate aridization followed, and more than three thousand years ago, the level of the Aral again dropped to 35 meters (connection with the Caspian was interrupted again), and then rose to 45 - 55 meters and fluctuated between these marks until 1500 - 1900 years ago, a new regression (drying out) did not occur - so far the deepest in history. At this time, the level dropped to 27 meters, that is, even lower than now. Later, the level gradually rose again, and 400 - 600 years ago there was a new, so-called medieval regression, when the surface of the Aral Sea was at around 31 meters above sea level, which roughly corresponds to the recent situation in the early 2000s. This medieval regression is confirmed not only by geological data, but also by archaeological finds and even chronicle sources. In the ancient history of the Aral Sea, there have already been at least three episodes of drying, comparable to the current one. And every time they were replaced by periods of full-flowing seas. The history of the Aral Sea is controversial and unclear, despite the fact that many folios have been devoted to its study, starting from the beginning of the last millennium, and since the second half of the 19th century, the Aral Sea has become the object of numerous expeditions and works of the Russian Geographical Society and various scientific organizations of the Russian state. The results of these works were summarized in 1908. L. Berg in his well-known work "Essay on the History of the Aral Sea Research", where he states that none of the Greek and Roman authors had a direct or indirect mention of the Aral Sea, but many of them speak of the Oxus (Amu Darya) and Jaxarte (Syr Darya), it is not clear where they fell.
According to the famous Khorezm scientist Al Beruni who died in 1048, Khorezmians leading their chronology from 1292 to the birth of Christ testify to the existence of the Aral Sea. Berg makes the same reference to the sacred book of the Avesta, where there is an indication that Vakhsh river or the current Amu Darya flows into Lake Varakhsha, by which some mean the Aral Sea. The first more or no less reliable sources about the existence of the Aral Sea belong to the Arabic scripts, which captured the evidence of the conquerors of Khorezm in 712. These data are described in detail by V.V. Bartold, from which it is clear that already in the 800s the Aral Sea existed, and it was located not far from Khorezm, since its description completely coincides with the character of the eastern coast of the Aral Sea. Other testimonials belong Massoudi ibn Nurusti, Al Balkhi and a number of other Arab writers and explorers-geographers. Geological surveys that were carried out at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century (A.M. Konshin, P.M. Lessor, V. Obruchev) boiled down to the fact that in the post-Pleocene era, part desert Karakum between chinkom of Ustyurt in the north, mouths of Murgab and Tejen in the south, in the west soles Kopetdag was flooded by the Big Aral. Eastern half of the United Aral-Caspian Sea had, in their opinion, as the boundary of the former of the Karakum Bay coastline chink Unguzov. This unified sea covered a wide strip of modern Caspian Sea up to the foot of the western spurs of the Kopetdag and connected with the Karakum and Chilmetkum bays across two straits Big and small Balkh y. The Aral part flooded the entire Sarykamysh hollow and formed up Pitnyaka bay, now occupied by the modern delta of the Amu Darya and Khiva oasis(by the way, this explains the shor deposits at Pitnyak). The Uzboy was a strait that connected both of these water areas, but, obviously, its current form with large slopes was formed as the Caspian Sea was separated from the Aral Sea and the difference in elevations between them increased. During the subsequent geological period up to the present day, the united Aral-Caspian basin into its constituent parts and its gradual reduction to its present limits. First, there was a divide between Aral-Sarykamysh and the Caspian Balla Ishem on Ustyurt, then the channel of Uzboy gradually appeared. The drying sequence is confirmed by examples of transitional deposits from fresh cemeteries of Caspian mollusks (along the Uzboy, in the sands Chilmetkula, along the southeastern coast of the Caspian Sea), covered with bare loose sands with weak and young vegetation, to ancient formations in the central Karakum, transformed into shors, takyrs, compacted sandy mounds, fixed by woody vegetation. Shores, as the lowest points of the seabed, fed by pressure bitter-salty solutions, have preserved the appearance of ancient coastal lakes. All researchers and historians since ancient times describe the transformation of the Aral Sea and the Caspian depending on the water content of the rivers in their joint basin and the development of irrigation. They state the fact of the final drying up of Sarykamysh from the end of the 16th century, when the Amu Darya no longer broke into Sarikamysh on Kunya - Daria and Daudan and further along Uzboy. Uzboy from the Caspian to the watershed Points Item has a rise of 40 meters over a length of more than 200 km. According to Obruchev, the existence of Sarykamysh took place from the 7th century BC to the 16th century. Jenkinson in 1559 on the way to Khiva noted the existence Sarikamysh, which he mistook for falling Oxusa to the Caspian. He relies on similar evidence. Abdulgazi Khan, Gamdudly and other Khorezm chroniclers. The Aral-Caspian lowland is depicted on more than a dozen maps carefully analyzed by Rene Lethal and Monika Mainglo in their excellent monograph Aral - Aral» (Springler - Verlag France, Paris, 1993). Starting from "Geography" Ptolemy(II century BC), in which there is the Caspian in all its grandeur, but there is no mention of the Aral Sea (Fig. 1), through the scheme Al Idrisi(1132) - where the Aral is through " Catalan Atlas» (1352) to the map Butakova, where the Aral Sea is already shown in the form familiar to us - the entire migration dynamics of the Aral Sea is traced in human perception. Most researchers (B.V. Andrianov, A.S. Kes, P.V. Fedorov, V.A. Fedorovich, E.G. Maev, I.V. Rubanov, A.L. Yanshin, etc.) based on geological and historical research came to almost the same conclusion, well formulated by N.V. Aladin: "in prehistoric times, changes in the level and salinity of the Aral took place as a result of changes in the natural climate." During the humid climatic phase, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya were full of water, and the lake reached a maximum level of 72 - 73 meters.
In contrast to this, during the phases of the arid climate, both rivers became low-water, the level of the Aral Sea also fell, and the degree of salinization of the Aral Sea region increased. In historical time, since the existence of ancient Khorezm, level changes depended, to some extent, on climate change, but mainly on irrigation activities in the region along both rivers. During periods of intensive development of the countries adjacent to the Aral Sea, an increase in land irrigation led to the withdrawal of most of the water for this purpose, and the water level in the Aral Sea immediately decreased.
During unfavorable periods in the region (wars, revolutions, etc.), irrigated lands were reduced, and the rivers and the Aral were again filled with water. Geological and hydrological surveys carried out A.S. Kes and a number of prominent geographers in the 80s of the last century showed that Amu Darya and Syrdarya, constantly changing their routes and migrating through the system of Central Asia in the historical period, they often did not reach the Aral Sea, the Aral Sea dried up, and a desert area formed on its territory. At the same time, during the drying of the sea, the mineralization of water rose sharply and contributed to the precipitation of salts, which were discovered by geologists at the bottom of the Aral Sea. Large layers of mirabilite cages are especially striking. The migration of the deltas of both the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya created a very peculiar territory of the lower reaches, in which depressions filled with bog deposits are interspersed with a significant amount of desert, fine-silty, sandy loam deposits, which created the delta and most of the channel itself and the channels of the Amu Darya. On the other hand, as evidenced by the studies of zoologists, in particular Polishchuk, Aladin from the Zoological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1990, the very Aral Sea It is distinguished by a very poor original fauna; many groups of animals that are developed in the Caspian Sea, which is close in origin, are absent here. At the same time, original species are found in the Aral Sea, and all this indicates that salinization, which periodically occurred with the Aral Sea, was reflected in these huge transformations. The analysis carried out by zoologists showed that in the Aral Sea, mainly a small number of marine oceanic species survived, and a huge complex of brackish-water groups, up to the Caspian-estuary fauna, was destroyed here.
All the rivers flowing into the Aral did not preserve marine types of fish, or at least some remnant of this fauna. This indicates that the waters of the Amu Darya and other rivers, in one way or another, penetrated both into the Aral depression and through the valley of the lower Uzboy and fell into the Caspian Sea. At the same time, the very developed deltas of both the Syr Darya and the Amudarya should be noted, which included fairly large areas. According to N.M. Novikova, during a stable inflow into the Amudarya delta, about 41 km3. water, the total area of land flooded by floods exceeded 3800 sq. km, the area of the lakes was 820 sq. km. The delta of the Syr Darya also received significant development. At the same time, an intense vegetation background was widespread in the local deltas. Periodically flooded deltas were characterized by huge areas of fruit-bearing reeds, tugai, hayfields and pastures. In particular, until 1970 the area of reed beds was up to 700 thousand hectares, tugai - 1.3 million hectares, hayfields - 420 thousand hectares, pastures - 728 thousand hectares only in the Amudarya delta. The corresponding areas were occupied by delta and other vegetation in the delta of the Syrdarya. A.S. gives a different picture. Kes. Agreeing with multiple watering periods Aral depression since the late Pliocene, first by the waters of the Akchagyl and then the Apsheron sea, she does not consider the existence of a single Aral-Caspian Sea to be proven and insists on the absence of a connection between the Aral and the Caspian, although she supports the opinion that the highest marks of the early Apsheron lake date back to the 80s, towards the end of the Apsheron going down to zero. Akchagyl the period was marked, in her opinion, by the partial existence of the Aral Sea below the modern one (about or below 40 m).
In the Neolithic, the Amu Darya, having filled the Khorezm depression with alluvium, broke into Sarykamysh and created here and in Assake-Audane a vast lake, from which water in the amount of approximately 20% of its flow (this she determined by the hydraulic parameters of Uzboy) flowed through Uzboy into the Caspian Sea. This flow lasted during the III - IV millennium BC. and periodically in the second - the beginning of the first millennium BC. The Syr Darya at that time flowed into the Aral Sea. Although A.L. Yanshin proved the presence of transgression during this period, but subsequent studies by Kiryukhin L.G., Kravchuk and Fedorova P.V. (1966) rejected this as well as later studies by E.G. Maeva, Yu.A. Kornicheva (1999), and before that I.V. Rubanov (1982).
It is more or less clear now that the Aral has undergone five or seven (according to the latest radiocarbon studies of bottom sediments) transgressions, the most powerful of which belong to the highest terraces, obviously related to the early Pliocene (A.V. Shitikov) or Akchagyl. The source of such a high watering is not clear - these are either the results of the melting of the northern ice masses, as suggested in his work "Regularities of Salt Accumulation in the Aral-Caspian Lowland" of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1956, V.A. Kovda and V.V. Egorov, or the flow of the waters of the Praamudarya, which is mentioned in Avesta(presumably, this is a river that united the waters of all the great tributaries of the Amu Darya, including not only Zeravshan, Tejen, Murgab, but also the Syr Darya and Chu before overlapping Buamsky isthmus. Here, proven A.S. Kes the results of P.I. Chalova and others (1966). The first stage of flooding of the Aral depression occurred in the Late Pliocene. At this time the western plains Central Asia were flooded by the waters of the vast Akchagyl, and then the Apsheron Sea. Their eastern border has not been established, but fauna, terraces and coastal ridges of this age are found in Sarikamyshe and Assake-Audan e, in the Aral Sea and in some depressions Kyzylkum. The modern period of watering the Aral began in the 1st millennium BC. e., when the Amu Darya, having formed Prisarykamysh and Akchadarya delta, advanced into the Aral depression and, together with the Syr Darya, which then flowed through Gendarya and Kuvandarya, began to fill it and formed the modern sea. At the beginning of the 19th century, the level of the Aral Sea was low. In 1845 and after the 1860s, some level increases were noted.
In the early 80s, the level became especially low, in connection with which the researchers of those times came to the conclusion that there was a progressive decrease in water in Central Asia. However, in the 1980s, the level of the Aral began to rise, at first rather slowly, and then more rapidly. This continued until 1906. 1907 is characterized by a stop, 1908 - an increase, 1909 - a decrease. An increase was noted again in 1910, 1911, 1912, and then until 1917 the level changed little. The decline began after 1917, known for its dryness in Central Asia. By 1921, the level of the Aral Sea had dropped by 1.3 meters compared to 1915. But observations in 1924 gave a new increase (slightly less than 1/2 meter). The amplitude of fluctuations during half a century of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century was no more than three meters. The natural water resources of the Amudarya (without drainless regions of Tejen, Murgab, etc.) are 75 km3/year in the runoff formation zone and 37 km3/year of the Syrdarya (in total 112 km3/year). Fluctuations in the annual values of the natural water resources of the Amudarya and Syrdarya are quite significant (variation coefficients Cv, respectively, 0.15 and 0.21) and are characterized by significant synchronism (correlation coefficient 0.83), which makes it difficult to provide water to the main consumers of river runoff in dry years. The Amudarya and Syrdarya basins are areas of ancient irrigation that change the natural flow of these rivers for a long time. Until the beginning of the 1950s, the volumes of irrevocable withdrawals of runoff fluctuated insignificantly both in individual river basins and in the sea basin as a whole and reached 29-33 km3/year. The increase in water intake from rivers in the 1950s to 35-42 km3/year, due to the expansion of irrigated agriculture and water management measures (construction of reservoirs on the Syr Darya, supply of Amudarya water to the Karakum Canal), was compensated by some decrease in channel runoff losses, and also by the natural abundance of this decade (total natural water resources were about 9% above the norm).
As a result, until the beginning of the 1960s, the inflow of river waters to the sea and its regime remained relatively stable. The period of time from the beginning of systematic instrumental observations of the level and other characteristics of the sea regime (1911) to the 1960s can be defined as conditionally natural. The approximate equality of the incoming and outgoing components of the sea water balance (table) determined insignificant level fluctuations around the mark of 53 m abs., which was taken as the average long-term level. The average area of the water surface at the level of 53 m. abs. was 66.1 thousand sq. km, and the volume of water reached 1064 km. Chad.
The area of the Aral was 64,490 sq. km. (with islands); the greatest length is 428 km, the greatest width is 284 km. The lake was relatively shallow: the greatest depth was 68 meters; the average depth is only 16 meters. The greatest depths are concentrated near the western coast in the form of a narrow strip; the area deeper than 30 meters occupied only about 4% of the lake.
So, the ancient Aral, which underwent 5 or 6 transgressions - an increase and subsequent shrinkage - again found itself on the verge of a new desiccation. Sea degradation and Aral Sea. Although the disappearance of the Aral Sea is attributed to the Soviet state as the main culprit of this natural and anthropogenic disaster, the idea of sacrificing the Aral Sea to the development of irrigation and the growth of agricultural production belongs to pre-revolutionary scientists.
In particular, A.I. Voeikov(1908) insisted that the existence of the Aral Sea with rational management of the economy is absolutely unjustified, since the economic effect from it (fish farming, maritime transport) is much less than the effect from the development of the economy and especially irrigated agriculture.
The same idea was presented in 1913 not by a scientist, but by the head of the water sector of the former Tsarist Russia, the director of the Department of Land Improvements of Russia, Prince V.I. Masalsky, who believes that the ultimate goal is "to use all the water resources of the region and create a new Turkestan, introducing tens of millions of hectares of new lands to culture and providing the Russian industry with the necessary cotton ... ". Started by the Russian government, the development of irrigation received unprecedented acceleration during the Soviet era.
But until 1960, the withdrawal of water for irrigation was accompanied by the growth of collector networks and, accordingly, the growth of return waters, as a result of which there were no significant changes in the river deltas and in the sea. For 1911 - 1960 the quasi-equilibrium state of the salt balance of the sea is characteristic. Annually, 25.5 million tons of salts entered the sea, the bulk of which was subjected to sedimentation when sea and river waters mixed (due to the oversaturation of the Aral waters with calcium carbonate) and settled in shallow waters, in bays, bays and filtration lakes of the northern, eastern and southern coasts of the sea. Due to the freezing of the sea and thawing, the average salinity of the sea during this period varied in the range of 9.6-10.3%.
The relatively large annual volume of river runoff (about 1/19 of the volume of the sea) determined the very peculiar salt composition of the Aral waters, which differs from the salt composition of other inland closed and semi-enclosed seas by a high content of carbonate and sulfate salts. The modern period in the life of the sea, starting from 1961, can be characterized as a period of active anthropogenic influence on its regime. A sharp increase in irretrievable withdrawals of runoff, reaching in recent years 70 - 75 km3 / year, the exhaustion of the compensatory possibilities of rivers, as well as the natural low water for two decades 1960-1980. (92%) led to the imbalance of water and salt balances.
For 1961 - 2002 a significant excess of evaporation over the sum of incoming components is characteristic (Only in 1998 did the inflow of 29.8 km3 exceed the evaporation of 27.49 km3). The inflow of river waters to the sea decreased during this period on average in 1965 to 30.0 km3/year, and for 1971-1980. it amounted to only 16.7 km3/year, or 30% of the long-term average, in 1980-1999. - 3.5 - 7.6 km3/year or 6-13% of the long-term average.
In some dry years, the flow of the Amudarya and Syrdarya practically did not reach the sea. The quality of river flow has also changed. An increase in the proportion of highly mineralized waste and drainage waters in it has led to a significant increase in mineralization and a deterioration in the sanitary condition of river waters. In dry years, the average annual mineralization of the Amudarya waters entering the sea reaches 0.8-1.6, and in the Syrdarya - 1.5-2.0 g/l. In some seasons, even higher values are noted. As a result, despite the fact that the average annual river runoff in 1961 - 1980. decreased by more than 46%, the average annual ion sink over the same period decreased by only 4 million tons, or 18%. Other components of the salt balance have also changed significantly.
Thus, a decrease in the relative content of carbonates in the river runoff led to a halving of the amount of salts subjected to sedimentation when river and sea waters mix. As a result, since 1961, the sea level has steadily declined. By the beginning of 1985, the total level drop compared to the long-term average (before 1961) reached 12.5 m. . The intra-annual sea level fluctuation has also changed. At present, there is practically no rise in the level in the annual context; at best, it does not change in winter, and in the summer half of the year it falls sharply.
The gradual fall in sea levels has far exceeded the expected rate. Modeling carried out by SOINO (V.N. Bortnik) in 1983 assumed that by 1990 the sea level would reach 41 - 42.5 m with 90% security, and by 2000 - 35.5 - 38.5 m. In fact, by 1990 the sea mark was 38.24 m, and by 2000 - about 34 m! Similarly, the mineralization of water in the sea increased at a faster rate - by 1990, actually 32% instead of 26% according to the forecast, and by 2000 40% instead of 38% according to the forecast.
It was found that the saturation of the Aral waters with calcium sulfate and the beginning of gypsum precipitation occurs at a salinity exceeding 25 - 26 g/l. However, the most intensive setting of gypsum began at a salinity above 34 - 36%. Under these conditions, simultaneously with the precipitation of gypsum in winter, sedimentation of mirabilite occurs, which poses the greatest danger to the nature of the Aral Sea region.
Dehydrated sodium sulfate is susceptible to wind erosion and can be easily transported over long distances.
The drop in sea level and the salinization of its waters led to an increase in the amplitude of the range of annual temperature fluctuations throughout the entire water column and to some shift in the phases of the temperature regime. Most important for the biological regime of the sea will be the change in winter thermal conditions. A further decrease in the freezing temperature and a change in the nature of the process of autumn-winter convective mixing during the transition from brackish to saline waters cause a strong cooling of the entire mass of sea waters to significant (-1.5 - 2.0 C) negative temperatures. This becomes one of the main factors limiting the implementation of acclimatization measures that impede the restoration of the fishery value of the sea in the near future.
A drop in sea level can lead to a very noticeable change in ice conditions - even with moderately severe winters, one can expect complete coverage of the sea with ice with a maximum thickness of 0.8 - 0.9 m. its total heat storage will affect the more rapid spread of ice. An increase in the mass of ice per unit area will lead to a more extended period of ice melting. The extremely low specific values of biogenic substances entering the sea determine their correspondingly low concentrations in sea water, which should continue to limit the development of photosynthetic processes in the sea and cause its insignificant biological productivity.
The deterioration of the oxygen regime of the sea in the summer due to a decrease in its photosynthetic production and intensive consumption for the oxidation of organic matter leads to the formation of oxygen deficiency zones and freezing phenomena. A further increase in salinity causes both a reduction in the number of species of phyto- and zooplankton, phyto- and zoobenthos, and a corresponding decrease in their biomass, which will lead to a further deterioration in the food supply of hydrobionts.
An increase in the salinity of the Aral waters will make it impossible for the aboriginal fauna to exist. A quantitative assessment of the role of the anthropogenic factor in modern changes in the regime of the Aral Sea was carried out by calculating the restored values of the level and salinity for 1961 - 1980. according to the values of the restored conditionally natural inflow to the sea. As calculations have shown, more than 70% of the current drop in sea level and the increase in its salinity are due to the influence of the anthropogenic factor, the rest of these changes are accounted for by climatic factors - the natural dryness of the period.
The main consequences of the drying up of the Aral Sea, in addition to a decrease in volume, surface, growth and changes in the nature of mineralization, were manifested in the formation of a huge salt desert on the site of the dried bottom, with an area of almost 3.6 million hectares by now.
As a result, a unique freshwater reservoir gave way to a huge bitter-salty lake in combination with a colossal salty desert at the junction of three sandy deserts. at a mark of 41 m of absolute height, the Small Sea was completely separated from the Big Sea. This led to the formation of a new desert territory with an area of 6000 sq. km. with a reserve of salts in the upper layer up to 1 billion tons. Currently there is a sediment from the sea water solution of saturated gypsum. When the sea level drops to 30 m absolute height (by 23 m), the western part of the deep-water Great Sea will separate from the eastern, shallow water in islands.
After the separation of the Small Sea, the regimes of the Small Sea and the Big Sea began to develop according to various scenarios. Due to the fact that in recent years the inflow of the Syrdarya River has been higher than that of the Amudarya River, the level of the Small Sea began to rise, and the mineralization of water decreased. The breakthrough of the temporary dam of the Small Sea caused a decrease in the level, however, the previous filling showed the correctness of the decision to create a separate reservoir of the Small Sea at the level of 41 - 42.5 m. environment.
Thus, the Aral Sea, as a single body of water in the past, ceased to exist and turned into a number of dissected water bodies with their own water-salt balances and their future, depending on which course of action the five countries choose as economic entities in this basin. Characteristics of the degradation of the natural complex of the Aral Sea area under the influence of the drying of the sea are given in the work "Assessment of the socio-economic consequences of the ecological disaster - drying up of the Aral Sea", carried out in the INTAS / RFBR-1733 project (August 2001) and published by the SIC ICWC (Tashkent).
A brief summary of the main effects of degradation are given below:
- reduction of the area of lakes in the Amudarya delta to 26 thousand hectares against 400 thousand hectares in 1960;
- drop in groundwater level, depending on the distance from the sea coast, up to 8 m;
- insertion into the bottom of riverbeds to a depth of 10 m;
- development of salt and dust transfer in the strip up to 500 km with an intensity of 0.1 to 2.0 t/ha;
- change in soil cover - hydromorphic soils decreased from 630 to 80 thousand hectares;
- the area of solonchaks increased from 85 thousand hectares to 273 thousand hectares;
- the area of reeds decreased from 600 thousand hectares to 30 thousand hectares, or 20 times;
- Tugai forests have decreased from 1300 to 50 thousand ha or 26 times;
- climate change in the band 150-200 km;
- decrease in fish productivity from 40 thousand tons to 2 thousand tons per year or 20 times.
All this was accompanied by an economic loss of $115 million a year and a social loss of $28.8 million a year. It should be noted that the environmental changes associated with the drying up of the sea were accompanied by a decrease in the inflow of water to the delta and, as a result, a deterioration in drinking water supply - an increase in salinity and a decrease in the inflow of groundwater. This, in turn, caused a sharp increase in the incidence of the population, which is clearly shown by MD. O. Ataniyazova and others ( Nukus, 2001) in their work “The Aral Sea Crisis and Medical and Social Problems of Karakalpakstan”. Understanding the need to do something in the conditions when the Aral Sea began to dry out rapidly came to the Soviet society already in the early 70s, when several government commissions were created, which gave conclusions on the need to take urgent measures, if not to stop the decline in sea level , then at least to prevent the negative socio-economic and environmental phenomena associated with this disaster.
As such a measure, a proposal was put forward for additional supply of waters of Siberian rivers to the region in the amount of 18 - 20 km3. per year to improve water supply and at the same time to improve the situation in the Aral Sea region. In 1986, this proposal was rejected by the Government of the USSR and a set of measures was proposed as an anti-measure, approved by Decree No. 1110 in 1986, as a result of which two BVOs "Syrdarya" and "Amudarya" were organized, a special organization " Aralvodstroy"and the program coordinator - the consortium" Aral ". During 1987 - 1990. a certain amount of work was carried out to improve water conservation in the Aral Sea region, along the Pravoberezhny collector, upon completion of construction Tuyamuyun reservoir etc. In 1991, after the collapse of the USSR, all these works were stopped until the heads of state of five countries in 1993 created the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea and on January 11, 1994 approved a plan of priority measures to improve the situation in the Aral Sea basin, which also included measures to save the Aral Sea region.
In particular, at this meeting, it was decided to “research and develop engineering solutions for drafting projects, carrying out work to create artificially flooded landscape ecosystems in the territories of the Amudarya and Syrdarya deltas and adjacent areas of the dried day of the Aral Sea and carry out the necessary reclamation measures in order to restore natural-historical regime and improvement of these territories”. At the same time, the “Basic Provisions of the Concept for Improving the Socio-Economic and Ecological Condition in the Aral Sea Region” were approved, which emphasized the impossibility of restoring the Aral Sea to its original state and at the same time focused on the need to implement a complex of structures, forest and water reclamation works, as well as measures aimed at creation of a new natural and anthropogenic sustainable ecological profile of the Aral Sea region through watering, forest reclamation and other works and projects.
This document was based on the ideas outlined in 1984 in the journal “ Desert Herald» No. 3 - about the need to preserve the Aral Sea region by creating a number of ecologically stable zones on its territory, which will separately perform the functions that the two ecosystems previously performed together. For this purpose, the entire zone of the Aral Sea, including the delta and the sea itself, is divided into ecological zones that differ in various principles that form them (the effect of fresh water on soils, mineralized, mixed).

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