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Question
#40515. Linus_337
asks:
Due to the depletion of its water levels, what is the additional area of the Aral Sea bed that becomes exposed each day?
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Siskin
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The seabed.
The Aral Sea, too, is drying up, its level having dropped from 53m above sea level to 36m, its surface area shrinking by a half and its volume by three-quarters. Today, the sea survives in three sections: the Small or Northern Sea in Kazakhstan, the Central Sea, and the Western Sea, mostly located in Uzbekistan. The mineral content of the water has increased fourfold to 40 g/litre, preventing the survival of most of the sea's fish and wild life. All commercial fishing ended in 1982, current fish hauls are negligible, and entire fishing communities are now unemployed. Former seashore villages and towns are 70 km away from the present shoreline. The exposed seabed consists of vast salt tracts, whose sand and dust, polluted with pesticides, are carried by the wind up to a distance of 250 km at an estimated rate of 15 to 75 million tonnes a year.
 http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/9809/spot2htm
Oct 29 03, 11:00 AM
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sequoianoir
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Yes Siskin, I found all that as well, and more besides, but still couldn't actually answer the question.
How many square miles or square kilometres are turned from "water to sand" or "wet to dry" each day ?
Oct 29 03, 12:14 PM
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Siskin
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Ah!I didn't read the Q properly - but if you can't find the answer DB I doubt if I shall.
Oct 29 03, 2:17 PM
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