Warning: These Photos From NASA Of A Dried Up Water Source Are Truly Shocking

by N/A, 10 years ago | 2 min read

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Described as one of the largest ecological disasters in modern history, NASA images reveal the Aral Sea has almost completely dried up.

This is what the Aral Sea looked like 50 years ago.

And this is what it looks like today.

How could the world's fourth largest lake disappear so fast?

It all started in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union started to divert water from the rivers that fed into the lake to irrigate the desert.

Slowly but surely, the lake began to shrink.

Circa 1985

It soon became a health hazard, with the pollution in the water becoming dangerously concentrated.

Circa 2011

And it devastated fishing communities, thereby wrecking the local economy.

Although the northern and eastern parts remain, the lake will never bounce back.

Comparison between 2000 and 2014

This is all that is left of the Aral Sea.