Let's fast forward to the past and imagine what the Aral Sea looked like before it dried up. Surrounded on all sides by land, the Aral Sea is a closed inland body of water, completely isolated from the World Ocean.
The sea surface lies 52 m above sea level. The sea is not only isolated, but also thousands of kilometers away from the oceans: from the Atlantic - by 4300 km, from the Arctic - by 2500 km, from the Pacific - by 8 thousand km and from the Indian - by 1800 km.
The Aral Sea is somewhat elongated from the southwest to the northeast. Its part, located south of the 46th parallel, is close to a circle in outline. With the simplicity of the general design of the coastline, this part of the water area is complex in detail and heavily indented.
In the east and south, it is subject to significant changes due to check fluctuations in the water level, as well as erosion and sediment in the Amu Darya delta during floods. Therefore, the extreme points of the sea and its dimensions change. The northern point of the Aral Sea lies at 46 ° 53 'N. sh., southern - at 43 ° 26 's. lat., western - at 58 ° 12 'east. and the east - at 61 ° 58 'east. etc.
The area of the Aral Sea is 66458 km2, the volume is 1022.6 km3, the maximum length is 128 km, the maximum width is 235 km, the maximum depth is 68 m, the average depth is 16 m. The length of the coastline is 6617 km. The coastal indentedness coefficient is 3.61.
However, the coastline is not uniformly indented in different areas. In the northern part of the sea, comparatively deep bays jut into the land. In the west, the coast is almost not dissected. But in the south and east, the coastline is especially indented.
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The system of channels, oxbows and swamps formed by the Amu Darya delta gives a complex configuration to the southern coast. Many small bays, an abundance of small islands, separated from each other by narrow channels, characterize the outlines of the eastern shores.
The Aral Sea abounds in islands. Of the 313 islands, 230 are located in the southeastern corner of the sea (Akpetkinsky archipelago, or the Karabayli archipelago). This is a specific and rare formation on Earth, which arose as a result of the flooding of the sandy relief of the desert by the sea.
Kokaral Island divides the sea into two parts: "Small Sea" and "Big Sea". The Aral Sea is a geologically young sea. The shores of the Aral Sea are divided into several types. The northern coast is formed by a steep precipice of the Aral deserts; it gradually decreases to the east.
The western coast forms a high (up to 190 m above the sea mirror) chink (cliff) of Ustyurt set almost along the meridian. The southern one was created by the Amu Darya delta. It is a low-lying, heavily rugged coastline that often changes shape.
The eastern coast is formed by the flooded sands of Kyzyl Kum. it is low and badly cut. Coastal forms generally agree well with the distribution of depths in the Aral Sea. The bottom of the wide bays of the northern coast forms separate hollows with a depth of 20-30 m.
Along the high and steep western coast there is a narrow and long depression with a depth of 30-50 m. This is the deepest area of the sea. The low and gentle southern and eastern shores continue under water in a vast area of shallow depths.
The central part of the sea is occupied by depths of 20–25 m. Against the background of such additional determination of depths, the main characteristic feature of the bottom relief is manifested - a general inclination from east to west.
The bottom sediments of the Aral Sea down to a depth of 10 m are sand (clean and with impurities). At depths of 10 to 30 m, there is dense gray silt covered with a thin layer of light brown more liquid silt.
Depths over 30 m are filled with black silt, which usually contains hydrogen sulfide.