Terra satellite shows how much the Aral Sea has dried up

What was once the fourth largest lake in the world is now a shadow of its former self.

NASA recently released a series of images from the Terra satellite that show just how much the Aral Sea has changed in the last 15 years.

The devastation of the Aral Sea started in the 1960's under the Soviet Union as a way to divert water into the arid plains of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

The project was used to transform the desert into farms for cotton and other crops.

Although the irrigation helped make the desert into a fertile area, it destroyed the Aral Sea and along with it, the fisheries and communities the lake supported.

According to NASA, "The increasingly salty water became polluted with fertilizer and pesticides. The blowing dust from the exposed lakebed, contaminated with agricultural chemicals, became a public health hazard."

In 2005, Kazakhstan built a dam in a last-ditch effort to save the Aral Sea.