The Aral Sea is lifting the ground: where is the water going?

An international group of scientists from China and the USA has recorded an amazing phenomenon - the bottom of the former Aral Sea is slowly rising. The reason is the Earth's mantle's reaction to the massive loss of water.

After the breakup of the Aral Sea in 1986 and the final drying up of its largest part by 2020, underground rocks began to compensate for the disappeared mass. Studies have shown that the volume of lost water is about 1.1 billion tons - this is equivalent to the mass of approximately 150 Great Pyramids of Giza.

According to geophysicists, mantle rocks behave like a viscous fluid: when the weight of water disappears, they begin to slowly shift upward, lifting the earth's crust. This phenomenon may affect the geological stability of the region.