The Garabogazkol

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Monday, 19 June 2006, 07:05 CDT Download full size image

This MODIS Terra image, acquired June 12, 2006, shows the Garabogazkol (also known asthe Kara-Bogaz-Gol) - a shallow depression in the northwestern corner of Turkmenistan.

Separated from the Caspian Sea by a thin sandbar, its water volume fluctuates seasonally. At times it becomes a large bay of the Caspian Sea, while at other times its water level drops drastically.

The water is very salty, much more so than the Caspian Sea, and has almost no marine life vegetation! The salt has been both good and bad - the valuable salts have been harvested from the 1950s on. But the salt has also caused health problems and poisoned soil for hundreds of kilometers downwind to the east.

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