JPG File 8.31M
Figure 10.5
Gulf of Kara-Bogaz-Gol, Turkmenistan: NASA photographs (A) April 1985 (STS61A-200-034); B) April 1994 (STS059-L17-073); (C) January 1997 (NM22-735-050). A Turkmen legend holds that the Caspian separated from her husband, the Black Sea, which brought down a curse from Allah upon the Caspian. Their offspring Kara Bogaz would never cut its umbilical cord with its mother, and the Caspian would forever have to feed water to the bay (St. George, 1974). (A) In 1985, not long after flow between the Caspian and Kara-Bogaz-Gol Gulf was partially reestablished, there was still little water in the bay; bright, reflective salt deposits occupied much of the area. Note the peninsulas along the southern bay margin (arrow). (B) A channel, visible in this southwestward view, was dredged through the spit in 1992 and rising Caspian waters spread over the bay floor (see Chapter 16). The spits and peninsulas along the south coast were significantly smaller in 1994. (C) By January 1997, when this detailed view was taken, the island north of the largest peninsula had virtually disappeared and much of the peninsula had been inundated (arrow). Of the two anvil-shaped promontories along the southern shore in the 1994 view, one has become an island and the other has lost the eastern point.
