Chunk of Aral Sea, one of the largest lakes, dries up

WASHINGTON: The eastern basin of the Aral Sea — formerly one of the four largest lakes in the world — has for the first time dried up completely, according to latest images released by Nasa. The once-extensive lake in Central Asia has been shrinking markedly since the 1960s, but for the first time in modern history, its eastern basin has completely dried. New images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on Nasa’s Terra satellite shows the sea without its eastern lobe on August 19, 2014.

Substantial changes are apparent when compared to an image from August 25, 2000, and again when compared to the approximate location of the shoreline in 1960. “This is the first time the eastern basin has completely dried in modern times,” said Philip Micklin, a geographer from Western Michigan University and an Aral Sea expert.