The western basin of the Aral Sea is deeper than the eastern basin,
so over time the western shoreline has been less affected by the dropping water
levels than the eastern shoreline. Since 1961, the water level
of the Aral Sea has dropped 16 meters. As you can see from the image below,
the eastern shore has receded much
farther than the western shore.
This is a false color 3-D image of the Aral Sea. It provides some very important information
about the change in water level between 1960 and the late 1980's. The darker blue
color shows the extent of the Aral Sea in the late 80's, while the lighter blue color shows the Aral's
shoreline in 1960. By the late 80's, the Aral Sea had broken into 2 separate
bodies of water, now refered to as the Big Aral and Little Aral. Since the late 80's, the
Aral Sea has been further subdivided.
This image was created using ER Mapper. Georeferenced images of the Aral Sea in
1960 and a second from the late 1980's
were laid over the DEM of the region. Using the false color clearly shows the change in
water level that has occurred over the last 30 years.