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ARAL

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 317 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARAL , a See also:

lake or inland See also:sea in the See also:west of See also:Asia, situated between See also:lat. 43° 30' and 46° 51' N., and See also:long. 58° 13' and 61° 56' E. It was known to the See also:ancient Arab and See also:Persian geographers as the Sea of Khwarizm or Kharezm, from the neighbouring See also:district of the Chorasmians, and derives its See also:present namefrom the See also:Kirghiz designation of Aral-denghiz, or Sea of Islands. In virtue of its See also:area (26,233 sq.m.) it is the See also:fourth largest inland sea of the See also:world. It has nearly the same length as width, namely about 170 m., if its See also:northern gulf (Kichkineh-denghiz) is See also:left out of See also:account. Its See also:depth is insignificant, the maximum being 220 ft. in a depression in the See also:north-west, and the mean depth only 50 ft., so that notwithstanding its area it contains only eleven times as much See also:water as the Lake of See also:Geneva. Its See also:altitude is 2422 ft. above the See also:Caspian, i.e. about 155 ft. above the ocean. The lake is surrounded on the north by See also:steppes; on the west by the rocky See also:plateau of Ust-Urt, which separates it from the Caspian; on the See also:south by the alluvial district of See also:Khiva; and on the See also:east by the Kyzyl-See also:kum, or Red See also:Sand See also:Desert. On the north the shores are comparatively See also:low, and the See also:coast-See also:line is broken by a number of irregular bays, of which the most important are those of Sary-chaganak and See also:Paskevich. On the west an almost unbroken See also:wall of See also:rock extends from Chernychev See also:Bay south-wards, rising towards the See also:middle to 500 ft. The See also:southern coast is occupied by the See also:delta of the See also:Oxus (Jihun, Amu-darya), one of the arms of which, the Laudan, forms a swamp, 8o m. long and 20 broad, before it discharges into the sea.

The only other tributary of any See also:

size that the sea receives is the Jaxartes (Sihun, Syr-darya) which enters towards the northern extremity of the east coast, and is suspected to be shifting its embouchure more and more to the north. This See also:river, as well as the Amu, conveys vast quantities of sediment into the lake; the delta of the Syr-darya increased by 134 sq. m. between 1847 and 1900. The eastern coast is fringed with multitudes of small islands, and other islands, some of considerable size, are situated in the open towards the north and west. Kug-Aral, the largest, lies opposite the mouth of the Syr-darya, cutting off the Kichkinehdenghiz or Little Sea. The next largest See also:island is the Nikolai, nearly in the middle. See also:Navigation is dangerous owing to the frequency and violence of the storms, and the almost See also:total See also:absence of shelter. The north-east See also:wind is the most prevalent, and sometimes blows for months together. The only other See also:craft, except the steamships of the Russians, that venture on the See also:waters, are the See also:flat-bottomed boats of the Kirghiz. In regard to the See also:period of the formation of the Aral there were formerly two theories. According to See also:Sir H. C. See also:Rawlinson (Prot.

See also:

Roy. Geog. See also:Soc., See also:March 1867) the disturbances which produced the present lake took See also:place in the course of the middle ages; while Sir See also:Roderick See also:Murchison contended (Journ. of Roy. Geog. Soc., 1867, p. cxliv. &c.) that the Caspian and Aral existed as See also:separate seas before and during all the historic period, and that the See also:main course of the See also:rivers Jaxartes and Oxus was deter-See also:mined in a prehistoric era. The former based his See also:opinion largely on See also:historical See also:evidence, and the latter trusted principally to See also:geological data. There is no doubt that in See also:recent historical times Lake Aral had a much greater See also:extension than it has at the present See also:time, and that its area is now diminishing. This is, of course, due to the excess of evaporation over the amount of water supplied by its two feeders, the Amu-darya and the Syrdarya, both of which are seriously See also:drawn upon for See also:irrigation in all the oases they flow through. Old See also:shore lines and other indications point to the level of the lake having once been 50 ft. above the existing level. Nevertheless the See also:general See also:desiccation is subject to temporary fluctuations, which appear to correspond to the periods recently suggested by Eduard See also:Bruckner (b. 1862); for, whereas the lake diminished and shrank during 1850-1880, since the latter See also:year it has been rising again.

Islands which were formerly connected with the shore are now some distance away from it and entirely surrounded by water. More-over, on a graduated level, put down in 1874, there was a permanent rise of nearly 4 ft. by 1901. The temperature at the bottom was found (1900-1902) by Emil See also:

Berg to be 33.8° Fahr., while that of the See also:surface varied from 44.50 to 80.5° between May and See also:September; the mean surface temperature for See also:July was 75°. The salinity of the water is much less than that of the ocean, containing only 1.05 % of See also:salt, and the lake freezes every year for a See also:great distance from its shores. The opinion that Lake Aral periodically disappeared, which was for a long time countenanced by Western geographers, loses more and more See also:probability now that it is evident that at a relatively recent period the Caspian Sea extended much farther eastward than it does now, and that Lake Aral communicated with it through the Sary-kamysh depression. The present writer is even inclined to think that, besides this southern communication with the Caspian, Lake Aral may have been, even in historical times, connected with the Mortvyi Kultuk (Tsarevich) Gulf of the Caspian, discharging See also:part of its water into that sea through a depression of the Ust-Urt plateau, which is marked by a See also:chain of lakes (Chumyshty, Asmantai). In this See also:case it might have been easily confounded with a gulf of the Caspian (as by Jenkinson). That the level of Lake Aral was much higher in See also:post-See also:Pliocene times is proved by the See also:discovery of shells of its characteristic See also:species of See also:Peden and Mytilus in the Kara-kum Desert, 33 M. south of the lake and at an altitude of 70 ft. above its present level, and perhaps even up to 200 ft. (by Syevertsov). The See also:fish of Lake Aral belong to fresh-water species, and in some of its rapid tributaries the interesting Scaphirhynchus, which represents a survival from the See also:Tertiary See also:epoch, is found. The fishing is very productive, the fish being exported to See also:Turkestan, Mery and See also:Russia. The shores of the lake are uninhabited; the nearest settlements are See also:Kazala, 55 M. east, on the Syr, and Chimbai and See also:Kungrad in the delta of the Amu.

End of Article: ARAL

Additional information and Comments

It is mentioned that the altitud of the Aral sea is 2240 feet above Caspian Sea, and so 150 feet above sea level! Caspean Sea is about 80 feet below sea level, So it seems that 150 feet above sea level is correct and the other one should be 220 feet above Caspian Sea level! Fereydoun Majlessi
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