EARTH Aral Sea -- Jun 2006 -- Straddling the border between Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan in the south, the Aral Sea was once the fourth-largest lake in the world.

EARTH Aral Sea -- Jun 2006 -- Straddling the border between Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan in the south, the Aral Sea was once the fourth-largest lake in the world. Soviet-era irrigation diverted water, shrinking the sea to less than half of its 1960 extent. In 2006, a dam built to restore the northern portion of the sea caused a surprisingly rapid recovery. Despite this partial recovery, however, the lake remained surrounded by its dried-up lakebed, and this dry lakebed was the likely source of a dust storm over the Aral Sea on 13 June, 2006. This is a picture of the dust as it blew over the eastern half of the Aral Sea. In this picture, the dust is very light in color, which is characteristic of lakebed sediments -- Picture by Lightroom Photos / NASA / Topfoto