Dunes and desert replacing the shrinking Aral Sea, located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It was once a large saltwater lake of Central Asia and the worlds third-largest lake with an area of 68,000 square kilometres. It began shrinking in the 1960s after the Soviet Union undertook a major water diversion project on the arid plains of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. By 2007, it had declined to 10 percent of its original size, splitting into four lakes. Image obtained by an Expedition 70 astronaut crew member aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on 17 October 2023.