Situated in Kazakstan, USSR (in Asia, about 45°N, 60°E) some 400 km east of the Caspian Sea, the broad shallow Aral Sea is the world's fourth largest lake, in terms of area (following the Caspian, Lake Superior and Lake Victoria). It is of considerable geological interest on account of its salts, sediments and evolutionary history. It is situated at only 52 meters above mean sea level and 80 meters above the Caspian. Its dimensions are 428 by 284 km, area 66,458 km2 (incl. 2345 km2 of islands), and volume about 970 km3. The mean depth is only 16.2 meters with a maximum depth of 67 meters on the west side. The area of the entire catchment basin is 940,000 km2. There is a row of islands extending NNE-SSW in the western quarter of the sea, fault controlled and making a rather deep narrow trough near the west shore; near the north end, a large island Kugaral (Kurch-Aral) almost isolates a large bay Maloie More (the “little sea” in Russian).
Bathymetric sketch map of the Aral Sea...
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Fairbridge, R.W. (1968). Aral sea . In: Geomorphology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31060-6_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31060-6_12
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