--- title: NASA Photos Show the Aral Sea Has Almost Disappeared description: The Aral Sea has shrunk to a fraction of its original size canonical: https://time.com/3450303/aral-sea-water-nasa/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-30T21:20:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:36.860Z article:section: Science og:title: NASA Photos Show the Aral Sea Has Almost Disappeared og:description: The Aral Sea has shrunk to a fraction of its original size og:url: https://time.com/3450303/aral-sea-water-nasa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: NASA Photos Show the Aral Sea Has Almost Disappeared twitter:description: The Aral Sea has shrunk to a fraction of its original size twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # See How a Siberian Lake Has Almost Disappeared > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Sep 30, 2014 9:20 PM UTC  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Sep 30, 2014 9:20 PM UTC  NASA; Gif by Joseph C. Lin for TIME New [photos from NASA show](http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/aral%5Fsea.php?src=features-hp&eocn=home&eoci=feature) that a lake in Siberia has almost disappeared since 2000, thanks to a Soviet water diversion program from the 1960s. The Aral Sea, in Uzbekistan, was once the fourth largest lake in the world. Now it’s now a fraction of the size it was in 1960, according to the photographs. Even since 2000, the lake has shrunk dramatically, and seems poised to disappear altogether. The lake was fed by the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers before the Soviet Union diverted them in the 1960s in order to irrigate the arid deserts in Kazhakstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Since then, the lake has almost completely dried up, which spells disaster for communities that depend on it, and the water has become too salty and polluted to support native fish populations. Check out the dramatic change between the Aral Sea in 2000 and the Aral Sea today. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3450303/aral-sea-water-nasa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3450303/aral-sea-water-nasa/"},"headline":"See How a Siberian Lake Has Almost Disappeared","datePublished":"2014-09-30T21:20:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:07:36.860Z","description":"The Aral Sea has shrunk to a fraction of its original size","url":"https://time.com/3450303/aral-sea-water-nasa/","keywords":["Environment"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3450303/aral-sea-water-nasa/","name":"See How a Siberian Lake Has Almost Disappeared"}}]}] ```