Aral Sea went from the third largest lake in the world to a salt desert https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea

This is completely human caused — the whole thing was drained by people for irrigation 

It has set up the largest primary succession experiment ever — watching to see if anything grows in the salt desert left behind https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-59560-8_5

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I went to Moynaq, a town in Uzbekistan on the former southern shore,  about 12 years ago.  It was surreal to wander through the old fish cannery and look out over the sandy expanse from a monument marking the disappearance of the sea.

I've heard tourism is on the rise of late. Used to be a long bus ride from Nukus. Now there's even an airport.   

Curious to see how the experiment goes.

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When it's windy, your clothes and skin end up coated in salt and sand. Like being in the world's largest outdoor salt spa.

The archaeological angle makes total sense. All manner of creatures buried down there probably.

Me too. It doesn’t seem to be going that well in the short term to be honest. So much salt….

I understand the tourism. I want to see it. I am learning as well they are discovering archaeological remains down there which interestingly suggests that it wasn’t always a lake