Aral Sea
The Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union decided that the two rivers feeding it, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, would be diverted to irrigate cotton and food crops in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In 1987–1988, due to an accelerated loss of water, the Aral Sea split into northern and southern parts; the southern part is the current South Aral Sea.