Vanishing seas

I remember studying the oceans and seas of the world in Geography class at school: Mediterranean, Aral, Caspian...
The Aral Sea was a favourite with us kids as it was a cute, isolated blue spot in the plains of Central Asia.

According to recent Nasa photographs, the Aral Sea is no longer a sea but a dry, salted basin in the middle of the land.

"A large section of the Aral Sea has completely dried up for the first time in modern history, according to Nasa.
Images from the US space agency’s Terra satellite released last week show that the eastern basin of the Central Asian inland sea – which stretched across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and was once the fourth largest in the world – was totally parched in August. Images taken in 2000 show an extensive body of water covering the same area."    The Guardian, 1 Oct 2014.

Read The Guardian's full article here.

The Aral Sea in 2000 on the left and 2014 on the right. Photograph: Atlas Photo Archive/NASA

So, while most open seas and oceans in the world are increasing their water levels, quite probably due to global warming, other seas, which existed on the planet unaltered for ages, have disappeared in less than a few decades due to human action.
I wonder what they'll print on the maps now, "Aral Desert" perhaps?.