ИСТИНА

Since the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, the water area of the Aral Sea has significantly changed, mostly due to anthropogenic causes. During a rapid level fall, started in 1960, its ice conditions also changed. Before 1960, the Aral Sea provided favorable conditions for ice scouring by ice hummocks. After 1960, the rapid level fall favored good preservation of ice gouges on the exposing bottom. However, the study of the scours on the exposed bottom of the Aral Sea using remote sensing methods along with the fieldwork provided the means to reconstruct a variety of mechanisms of the ice effect acted during sea level fall. It allowed to reconstruct ice conditions and mechanisms of the ice effect on the seabed. We found out traces of former multiple keels bottom scouring, repeated scouring while drifting along the winds and currents, marks of wind direction changes, grounded ice hummocks, scouring on the fast ice rim, etc. In the late 2000s, together with the critical decrease in the water area, the formation of ice hummocks diminished and ice effect on the Aral Sea bed ceased. Today, ice gouging is almost absent in the Aral Sea.