Where are the larger of the remnants of the once 68,000 sq. km (26,000 sq miles) Aral Sea?

Question

In May 1987, perhaps 4,000 sq. miles (10,000 sq. km) of timber was destroyed in the Greater Khingan, or Da Hinggan, Range in eastern Mongolia. What caused the devastation?

Answer 1

Kazakhstan
The Sea began shrinking in the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted to irrigation projects in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). By 1997 it was reduced by 90%, by 2009, its southeastern remnant had dried up completely, by 2014 the eastern basin of the Sea had completely dried up (it is now called the Aralkum Desert). The northern remnant, in Kazakhstan, has been partly refilled. The shrinking has caused a variety of major environmental ill effects, in the area and globally. UNESCO has added historical documents concerning the Aral Sea to its Memory of the World Register as a resource to study the environmental tragedy.