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Description
The Aral Sea region, located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, is an area of major global change. Once the fourth-largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea is presently one-fourth of the size it was just thirty years ago. The Aral Sea sits in a half-graben basin, a result of extension along a fault produced by the large-scale impact of India into the Asian continent. Aside from the tremendous environmental disaster, this area also poses some of the greatest public health problems in the world. Kara-Bogaz-Gol, a small sea in Turkmenistan that comes out of the Caspian Sea, is another area of global change. Structurally, the Kara-Bogaz-Gol sits within a large syncline, continually deforming as a result of the collision of the Arabian Plate into Iran and the formation of parallel fold belts like the Zagros Mountains. The land in the region is very flat, and the Caspian Sea is rising. This is a threat to the local infrastructure, and presents an environmental risk to the region as well. Satellite imagery provides a perspective view of these large-scale systems. These images also provide a temporal view, showing change through time, and change during time. Finally, they allow us to study the interaction between different dynamics, and to predict potential geologic and environmental hazards as well as public health threats. Although this is a study in geology and different earth system dynamics, it is really more of a study in communication. The images convey what is taking place in a region whose people know little about it. Presented in a digital format and with multiple languages, these images and text, and thus a story, can be transported globally and understood easily, hopefully affecting real people's lives.
