"that for the first time in modern history the eastern basin of the Aral Sea had completely dried up. The eastern basin is now called the Aralkum Desert. In an ongoing effort in Kazakhstan to save and replenish the North Aral Sea, a dam project was completed in 2005; in 2008, the water level in this lake had risen by compared to 2003. Salinity has dropped, and fish are again found in sufficient numbers for some fishing to be viable. The maximum depth of the North Aral Sea is (). The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called ""one"
"species has not been reported in the wild for decades in most of Indochina and is extinct in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and possibly Cambodia. The status of this species is critical within much of Myanmar, but a stable population of many large adults is present in the Irrawaddy Delta. Probably, the only country in Indochina still harbouring wild populations of this species is Myanmar. Although saltwater crocodiles were once very common in the Mekong Delta (from where they disappeared in the 1980s) and other river systems, the future of this species in Indochina is now looking grim. However, it is"
"on land, and largely returns to the sea. Even in the Atacama Desert, where little rain ever falls, dense clouds of fog known as the camanchaca blow in from the sea and support plant life. In central Asia and other large land masses, there are endorheic basins which have no outlet to the sea, separated from the ocean by mountains or other natural geologic features that prevent the water draining away. The Caspian Sea is the largest one of these. Its main inflow is from the River Volga, there is no outflow and the evaporation of water makes it saline"
"Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan (see below for other names) is a marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula and Russia. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Japan, Korea (North and South) and Russia. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific Ocean. This isolation also reflects in the fauna species and in the water salinity, which is lower than in the ocean. The sea has no large islands, bays or capes. Its water balance is mostly"
"migration. About 300,000 migrating birds were transiting annually only through the Saemangeum tidal flat area. This estuary was however dammed by South Korea in 1991–2006 that resulted in drying off the land. Land reclamation also took 65% of the intertidal area in China between the 1950s and 2002, and there are plans to reclaim a further 45%. Oceanic megafaunas'bio-diversities, such as of marine mammals, sea turtles, and larger fish drastically decreased in modern time not only by pollution but also mainly by direct hunting, most extensively Japanese industrial whaling, illegal mass operations by Soviet with supports from Japan. and fewer"
"Egypt, Iran, Mexico, and Pakistan. According to a UN climate report, the Himalayan glaciers that are the sources of Asia's biggest rivers – Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween and Yellow – could disappear by 2035 as temperatures rise. It was later revealed that the source used by the UN climate report actually stated 2350, not 2035. Approximately 2.4 billion people live in the drainage basin of the Himalayan rivers. India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar could experience floods followed by droughts in coming decades. In India alone, the Ganges provides water for drinking and farming for more than"
"frozen inner lake due to the lack of warm Tsushima Current. Various plants and large animals, such as the ""Palaeoloxodon naumanni"" migrated into the Japan archipelago. The Sea of Japan was a landlocked sea when the land bridge of East Asia existed circa 18,000 BCE. During the glacial maximum the marine elevation was 200 meters lower than 2018 CE. Thus Tsushima island in the Korea Strait was a land bridge that connected Kyushu and the southern tip of Honshu with the Korean peninsula. There was still several kilometers of sea to the west of the Ryukyu islands and most of"
"to areas that are now desert and large pluvial lakes formed, the best known being Lake Bonneville in Utah. This also occurred in Afghanistan and Iran, where a major lake formed in the Dasht-e Kavir. In Australia, shifting sand dunes covered half the continent, whilst the Chaco and Pampas in South America became similarly dry. Present-day subtropical regions also lost most of their forest cover, notably in eastern Australia, the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, and southern China, where open woodland became dominant due to drier conditions. In northern China – unglaciated despite its cold climate – a mixture of grassland"
"Mainland Southeast Asia Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula and previously as Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia east of India and south of China that is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east. The Indochinese Peninsula projects southward from the Asian continent proper. It contains several mountain ranges extending from the Tibetan Plateau in the north, interspersed with lowlands largely drained by three major river systems running in a north–south direction: the Irrawaddy (serving Myanmar), the Chao Phraya (in Thailand), and the Mekong (flowing through Northeastern"
"part of the huge west-central Asian endorheic basin that also includes the Caspian Sea. Both of these bodies of water have shrunk significantly in recent decades due to diversion of water from rivers that feed them for irrigation and industrial purposes. Water is an extremely valuable resource in arid Central Asia and can lead to rather significant international disputes. Central Asia is bounded on the north by the forests of Siberia. The northern half of Central Asia (Kazakhstan) is the middle part of the Eurasian steppe. Westward the Kazakh steppe merges into the Russian-Ukrainian steppe and eastward into the steppes"
"Inland sea (geology) An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a shallow sea that covers central areas of continents during periods of high sea level that result in marine transgressions. In modern times, continents stand high, eustatic sea levels are low, and there are few inland seas, the largest being Hudson Bay. Modern examples might also include the recently (less than 10,000 years ago) reflooded Persian Gulf, and the South China Sea that presently covers the Sunda Shelf. At various times in the geologic past, inland seas have been greater in extent and"
"deserts were large lakes relatively recently. During the last ice age, the Sahara may have contained lakes larger than any now existing. Endorheic lakes in Antarctica are located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Victoria Land, the largest ice-free area in Antarctica. Much of western and Central Asia is a giant endorheic region made up of a number of contiguous closed basins. The region contains several basins and terminal lakes, including: Other endorheic lakes and basins in Asia include: Australia, being very dry and having exceedingly low runoff ratios due to its ancient soils, has many endorheic drainages. The most important"
"another option. Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It is an Endorheic basin (a basin without outflows) located between Europe and Asia, to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the broad steppe of Central Asia. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southeast. The Caspian Sea is home to a wide range of species and may be best known for"
"and Kazakhstan provided oil and gas for these two nations in return. However, after the collapse of the USSR this system had collapsed and no plan to replace this system has been put in place. According to research conducted by the International Crisis Group, there is little political will to solve this problem despite Central Asia's need for mutual resource-sharing. By 1993 the Aral Sea had lost an estimated 60 percent of its volume, in the process breaking into three unconnected segments. Increasing salinity and reduced habitat have killed the Aral Sea's fish, hence destroying its once-active fishing industry, and"
"Japan one by one. The deepest, and thus the last to close, is the western channel of the Korea Strait. There is controversy as to whether or not the Sea of Japan became a huge cold inland lake. The Japanese archipelago's Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, the Ryukyu islands and Nanpō Islands had a taiga biome (open boreal woodlands). It was characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces and larches. Hokkaido, Karafuto (Sakhalin) and the Kuril islands had mammoth steppe biome (steppe-tundra). The vegetation was dominated by palatable high-productivity grasses, herbs and willow shrubs. The Sea of Japan has a"
"Asia has dried up and is now mountainous. The once warm, tropical area of Central America has been transformed into a dry area. Australia has moved north and collided with eastern Indonesia. In the scenario for 100 million years in the future, the world is much hotter than at present. Octopuses and enormous tortoises have come on to the land, much of which is flooded by shallow seas surrounded by brackish swamps. Antarctica has drifted towards the tropics and is covered with dense rainforests, as it was before. Australia has collided with North America and Asia, forcing up an enormous,"
"Asia and Northern Australia, increasing bush fires, worsening haze, and decreasing air quality dramatically. Drier-than-normal conditions are also in general observed in Queensland, inland Victoria, inland New South Wales, and eastern Tasmania from June to August. As warm water spreads from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific, it causes extensive drought in the western Pacific. Singapore experienced the driest February in 2014 since records began in 1869, with only 6.3 mm of rain falling in the month and temperatures hitting as high as 35 °C on 26 February. The years 1968 and 2005 had the"
"Asia and Australasia in smog. At current rates of forest lost, the rainforests will likely disappear within a generation. Over 80% of Sarawak has been cleared, and this clearing has caused animals traditionally in lowland forest to retreat into the upland rain forests inland. Logging and cultivation practices have devastated tree cover, causing severe environmental degradation in the country. Floods in East Malaysia have been worsened by the loss of trees, and over 60% of the peninsula's forest has been cleared. With current rates of deforestation, the forests are predicted to be extinct by 2020. Deforestation is a major problem"
"Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake (one with no outflow) lying between Kazakhstan (Aktobe and Kyzylorda Regions) in the north and Uzbekistan (Karakalpakstan autonomous region) in the south. The name roughly translates as ""Sea of Islands"", referring to over 1,100 islands that had dotted its waters; in the Turkic languages ""aral"" means ""island, archipelago"". The Aral Sea drainage basin encompasses Uzbekistan and parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Iran. Formerly the fourth-largest lake in the world with an area of , the Aral Sea has been shrinking since the 1960s after the rivers that"
"Asia's biggest rivers – Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween and Yellow – could disappear by 2350 as temperatures rise and human demand rises. Approximately 2.4 billion people live in the drainage basin of the Himalayan rivers. India, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar could experience floods followed by severe droughts in coming decades. In India alone, the Ganges provides water for drinking and farming for more than 500 million people. Evan Fraser, a geographer at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, explores the ways in which climate change may affect future famines. To do this, he draws"
"capes include Lazareva, Peschanyi (sandy), Povorotny, Gromova, Pogibi, Tyk, and Korsakova in Russia; Crillon on Sakhalin; Sōya, Nosappu, Tappi, Nyuda, Rebun, Rishiri, Okushiri, Daso and Oki in Japan; and Musu Dan in North Korea. As world sea level dropped during the advance of the last Ice Age, the exit straits of the Sea of Japan one by one dried and closed. The deepest, and thus the last to close, is the western channel of the Korea Strait. There is controversy as to whether or not this happened, turning the Sea of Japan into a huge cold inland lake. The sea"
"the Indian Ocean in the south. Over the past 100 years, the species has lost 93% of its historic range and has been extirpated from Western and Central Asia, the islands of Java and Bali and large areas of Southeast, South and East Asia. Today, its ecological habitats include the Siberian taiga as well as open grasslands and tropical mangrove swamps, and it has been classified as endangered in the IUCN Red List. Major reasons for the population decline include habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation and poaching. The extent of area inhabited by tigers is estimated at less than , a"
"more common than at present. Inland sea (geology) An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a shallow sea that covers central areas of continents during periods of high sea level that result in marine transgressions. In modern times, continents stand high, eustatic sea levels are low, and there are few inland seas, the largest being Hudson Bay. Modern examples might also include the recently (less than 10,000 years ago) reflooded Persian Gulf, and the South China Sea that presently covers the Sunda Shelf. At various times in the geologic past, inland seas have"
"can be found in northern Burma sharing the same range of its parent peak, Mount Everest. The South China Sea is the major body of water within Southeast Asia. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore, have integral rivers that flow into the South China Sea. Mayon Volcano, despite being dangerously active, holds the record of the world's most perfect cone which is built from past and continuous eruption. Southeast Asia is bounded to the southeast by the Australian continent, a boundary which runs through Indonesia. But a cultural touch point lies between Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian"
"by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. The Andaman Sea, which extends over 92E to 100E and 4N to 20N, occupies a very significant position in the Indian Ocean, yet remained unexplored for long period of time. To the south of Myanmar, west of Thailand, and north of Indonesia, this sea is separated from Bay of Bengal by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and an associated chain of sea mounts along the Indo-Burmese plate boundary. The Strait of Malacca (between Malay Peninsula and Sumatra) forms the southern exit way of the basin, which is 3 km wide and 37"
"(1998-2002) once fertile wetlands rapidly deteriorated. We could reasonably presume that transformation of Hamoun into arid country, like their surrounding areas, was mainly caused by irrigated agriculture expansion since the 1970s (represent as bright red patches on satellite images, mainly wheat and barley), coupled with one of the worst droughts ever witnessed in Central Asia in 1999-2001 period.<br> The wetlands have been replaced mostly by lifeless salt flats and decaying reed stands. The wildlife, the towns, the fisheries, and the agriculture that once surrounded the Hamoun have all fallen away, giving rise to a wasteland. Winds that were once cooled"
"in a Northeasterly direction to the mainland of Tyosen (Korea). The Yellow Sea, excluding the Bohai, extends by about from north to south and about from east to west; it has an area of about and the volume of about . Its depth is only on average, with a maximum of . The sea is a flooded section of continental shelf that formed after the last ice age (some 10,000 years ago) as sea levels rose to their current levels. The depth gradually increases from north to south. The sea bottom and shores are dominated by sand and silt brought"
"is the driest. Yonaguni , one of the Yaeyama Islands, is the westernmost inhabited island of Japan, lying from the east coast of Taiwan, between the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean proper. In the 15th century, the island was incorporated into the Ryūkyū Kingdom. By 1879, the island was formally annexed by imperial Japan. Until the early 20th century, Yonaguni was part of the larger Yaeyama Magiri (village after 1907), which included the neighboring Yaeyama Islands. In 1948, it became an independent village. From 1945 to 1972, it was occupied by the United States and was then returned"
"the gates since it would have caused substantial destruction. Thus the lakes partially or completely dried up. For example, Baidang Lake shrunk from in the 1950s to in 2005. Zhangdu Lake dwindled to one quarter of its original size. Natural fisheries output in the two lakes declined sharply. Only a few large lakes, such as Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake, remained connected to the Yangtze. Cutting off the other lakes that had served as natural buffers for floods increased the damage done by floods further downstream. Furthermore, the natural flow of migratory fish was obstructed and biodiversity across the whole"
"due to whaling and pollution, they have totally disappeared from the Seto Inland Sea, except for occasional lost individuals. It is believed that in the last ice age the sea level was lower than today. After the ice age, sea water poured into a basin between the Chūgoku mountains and Shikoku mountains and formed the Seto Inland Sea as we know it today. From ancient times, the Seto Inland Sea served as a main transport line between its coastal areas, including what is today the Kansai region and Kyūshū. It was also a main transport line between Japan and other"
"the group, separated from Palawan Island of the Philippines by the Palawan Trench. Now completely submerged, with a depth of 20 m, it was an island until it sank about 7,000 years ago due to the increasing sea level after the last ice age. With an area of 8,866 km², it is one of the largest submerged atoll structures in the world. The South China Sea is an extremely significant body of water in a geopolitical sense. It is the second most used sea lane in the world, while in terms of world annual merchant fleet tonnage, over 50% passes"
"through Philippines are unclear. The population (s) historically migrated through the Sea of Japan to the Yellow and Bohai Seas was likely driven to functional extinction. No right whales have been recorded in China and in South Korea since the catches in October 1974 for Korea and 1977 for China, and there have been only two confirmed records of a stranded and a by-caught individuals since in 1901 in Japanese waters of the Sea of Japan. Constant appearances in both sides of Pacific were recorded until 1998 and all the southernmost records at four locations of almost same latitude were"
"Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It is an Endorheic basin (a basin without outflows) located between Europe and Asia, to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the broad steppe of Central Asia. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southeast. The Caspian Sea is home to a wide range of species and may be best known for its caviar"