Answer the following questions: 1) The Aral Sea is located in an arid, desert en

Question

Answer the following questions: 1) The Aral Sea is located in an arid, desert environment, with very little precipitation, in Central Asia. How is it possible that there is a large sea at this location when there is so little precipitation? Hint: "exotic" rivers--see small section in chapter 18 on this topic--look at the location where the rivers originate to understand the source of the water that flows in these rivers toward the Aral Sea. Where/what is the source of the water that eventually flows into the Aral Sea? What I'm looking for in this answer are not details regarding the "depression" in the land in which the sea is located; rather, I am interested in the "source" or the "source region/area" of the water.

Explanation / Answer

1. The Aral Sea is an example of an endorheic lake or basin, which means that the lake has no outflows in the form of rivers, but only by evaporation. The source for this lake are two rivers namely Syr Darya and Amu Darya. Syr Darya originates from Kyrgzstan and the latter originates from Tajikistan. There is also an important source , Ground water. It feeds the Aral sea in the southern flank. The rivers flow into the "depression" in a downward slope along its path and gets collected in the Aral sea ( The lowest point in the rivers' path). The depression is so deep that the water table is Above the land elevation, hence there will be an influx of ground water to the lake.

2. The fact that the Aral sea is shrinking is due to the various irrigation projects over the last 40-50 years which drained the lake. Hence a single lake has become 4 smaller lakes, The Northern, Southern, Easter, Western Aral Sea. The eastern basin has dried up and turned into a salty desert.

3. The lakes are considered to be "temporary features" of the landscape is because the lakes will deposit sediments brought by the inflows of the particular lake over a period of time (Geological scale), hence the depth will decrease and eventually, the water will spill out as the lake would be above the surrounding landscape.

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