The Aral Sea disaster began in the 1960s, with the introduction of inadequate irrigation systems to support increased agriculture in the region during the Soviet era. Over time, ageing and ...

During his visit to the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan in June 2017, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the socio-environmental disaster as one of “the biggest ecological catastrophes of our ...

Central Asia's desiccated Aral Sea is steadily rising as Earth's mantle beneath it bulges, new research suggests. The uplift is due to the "quiet Chernobyl" environmental disaster that struck the ...

A devastating environmental collapse that began in the 1960s is still leaving deep marks beneath the surface of the Earth. According to a new study published in Nature Geoscience, the Aral Sea—once ...

Unsustainable irrigation and drought have emptied nearly all of the Aral Sea’s water since the 1960s, causing changes extending all the way down to Earth’s upper mantle, the layer beneath the planet’s ...