American scientists have promised that the northern part of the largest lake on Earth will dry up by the end of this century.
The Caspian Sea - the world's largest lake - is rapidly evaporating. Evaporates due to global warming, which has caused the average surface temperature of the reservoir to increase by 1 degree Celsius. This is evidenced by systematic measurements that were carried out from 1979 to 1995 and from 1996 to 2015. Scientists received the corresponding data from two satellites of the GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) mission and ground stations. Geophysicists from the University of Texas at Austin now rely on them, who assure that since 1996 the level of the Caspian Sea has begun to decrease by about 7 centimeters per year. By 2015, he fell 1.5 meters. And it continues to fall.
Satellite view of the world's largest enclosed body of water.
In some places the Caspian Sea is very deep. The shallow part of it dries up.
According to the forecast, which scientists published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, if the evaporation rates remain at least at the current level, then in just 75 years the Caspian Sea will dry up - not everything, of course, will disappear, its shallowest northern part, which is adjacent to Russia and Kazakhstan. The sea will seem to crawl towards Iran. This could happen earlier if global warming intensifies. And it is quite capable.
View of the Caspian Sea from the ISS.
The level of the Caspian Sea has fluctuated before - even in those days when there was no talk of global warming. Why and where the water came and then disappeared is still not clear. Geophysicists from Texas have only demonstrated that climate change can also make its - very significant - contribution.
Now five countries have access to the reservoir: Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iran. Its area is 371 thousand square kilometers.
Promotional video:
AT THIS TIME
The Aral Sea is gone
NASA's Terra satellite has been photographing the Aral Sea for many years using a special spectrometer (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer - MODIS). The device shows how the terrain is changing: specifically, how the areas filled with water dry up and disappear.
The reservoir practically disappeared in 2014 - only a narrow strip of it is visible, and several small lakes.
This is how the Aral Sea dried up.
View of the remains of the Aral Sea from the ISS.
NASA experts blame the environmental catastrophe on the authorities of the former USSR, which in the 60s of the last century sanctioned large-scale reclamation of desert lands. In the course of these works, the waters of the Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya rivers, which fed the Aral, were used to irrigate fields. The experiment was successful. They are fields - and they are quite wet now. This is recorded by the spectrometer. And the sea has dried up.
How the Aral Sea dried up:
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY