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The Aralkum Desert, in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. It was once a water body called the Aral Sea, but water from the two rivers that fed it was diverted for agriculture and, gradually, by 2000, most of the sea had become a desert. |
The white salt terrain left behind by the desiccation of the southern Aral Sea is now known as the Aralkum Desert.
At around 17,000 square miles (45,000 square kilometers), the Aralkum Desert is the world’s youngest desert, created entirely due to man-made disturbances. The desolate area has replaced a once vibrant fishing and tourist industry. With the climate mitigating effects of the Aral Sea diminished, winters are now colder and summers hotter.
The Aralkum Desert lies in the path of a powerful east-west airstream and these pollutants have been carried as far away as Antarctica. Known as Black Blizzards, these powerful wind sorts carry dust pollutants from the Aral Sea over thousands of miles away; Aral dust has been found in the bloodstream of penguins in Antarctica, in the glaciers of Greenland, and in Norway’s forests.
Credit: GEOGRAPHYREALM
Picture Credit : Google
