The Ghost ships of the lost Aral Sea

Hello All

There are many causes for abandonment. War, famine, disease natural disaster and environmental damage. Some times whole region can fail spawning a whole series of abandoned towns and ports etc.

The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth-largest inland saline body of water, with an area of 68,000 km2, the Aral Sea has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s, after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet Union irrigation projects.

By 2007 it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into three lakes, the North Aral Sea and the eastern and western basins of the once far larger South Aral Sea.

By 2010, the south-eastern lake had disappeared and the south-western lake retreated to a thin strip at the extreme west of the former southern sea.

The region's once prosperous fishing industry has been virtually destroyed, bringing unemployment and economic hardship. The Aral Sea region is also heavily polluted, with consequent serious public health problems. The retreat of the sea has reportedly also caused local climate change, with summers becoming hotter and drier, and winters colder and longer.

The region is littered with rusting abandoned ships now high and dry and abandoned fishing ports and towns. A strange place of ghost ships lying in a ghost sea like if some one has pulled the drain plug. :

Hardluck 

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,11781.msg75908.html#msg75908

If I did not see it I would not have believed it .

Xavier


Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,11781.msg76026.html#msg76026

Xavier

Hello All

Sue, Xavier, Idaho Jones.

Yes mankind is capable of doing amazing things and yet some times in our folly we are able to do the dumbest of things.

The Aral sea reminds me of a mysterious lake in Australia.

Lake George (or Weerewaa in the indigenous language) is a lake in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia about 30 minutes drive north-east of the Capital Canberra along the Federal Highway en route to Sydney.

It is renowned for emptying and filling on a cyclical basis, and for the treachery of its waters when full and a number of people have drowned over the years.

At 25 km long and 10 km wide, Lake George is long, largely flat and extremely shallow, with a very small catchment. Resultant evaporation rates as well as a tendency for strong winds to blow the water back on itself explain the mysterious filling and drying episodes on both short term (hours) and long term (years) time scales that have been observed.

The lake's depth when full can range from 1.5 to 4.5 metres; however in many areas it is only around 0.8?1.0 metre deep. Its deepest point has been measured as 7.5 metres. When full, the lake holds about 500 million cubic metres of water. Between the late 1980s and mid 1990s, the lake lapped the Federal Highway on its western edge. In the last few years it has been totally dry.

It is a truly amazing site like if some ones pulled the drain plug of a bath. The next day you will find water again. this lake fills on variable cyclic actions.

You can some times drive past the lake full in the morning with people sailing on it and drive past  a few hours later and discover the lake dry with sheep grazing on it. It Really screws with your head

Hardluck 



Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,11781.msg76087.html#msg76087

That would really be crazy. Ive seen dry lakes that have water part of the year but not flooded part of the day! Amazing

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,11781.msg76239.html#msg76239

Hello Sue

When I was in the Pacific islands some atolls due to a weather condition called temperature inversion will case the air above the atoll to act like a mirror and you will have a mirror image of the atoll upside down above the real atoll. a real strange sight.

Yep the natural world some times seem unnatural.

Hardluck 

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,11781.msg76618.html#msg76618