About 53 percent of the world's lakes have clearly shrunk, the researchers found, while only 22 percent made gains. From these bodies of water, roughly 600 cubic kilometers of water were lost over the 28-year time span.
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Climate warming and human consumption are the two main factors driving the decline in natural lakes. The study found that unsustainable human activities, such as over-extraction of water, led to the drying up of lakes like the Aral Sea in Central Asia and the Dead Sea in the Middle East.
The Colorado River's Lake Mead in Southwest US has receded dramatically amid a megadrought and decades of overuse. The Caspian Sea, between Asia and Europe – the world's largest inland body of water – has long been declining due to climate change and water use.
Lake Michigan is considered the lake that holds the most deaths among the five Great Lakes in North America. Despite its reputation for powerful undercurrents claiming a minimum of a few lives each year, the warm, welcoming water is a favorite swimming spot for locals and visitors.
It's worrying to see the lake's water level decline but the chances of it fully drying up are very slim. The Hoover Dam and Lake Mead still do so much important work for the southwest USA, in terms of both water supply and power generation.
Yes. Over the last decade, summer water levels have been higher than average, but dry seasons have been starting earlier than expected, with water levels falling lower than usual. So we're seeing larger fluctuations across the year.
Key Points. Lake Mead has dropped by 70% due to droughts in the West and it will take many years to refill again, naturally. The reservoir is vitally important to millions of people as a source of water, electricity, and recreation.
Lake Powell and Lake Mead are unlikely to refill for another 50 years - and would need SIX consecutive years of deadly atmospheric rivers to replenish.
As the British Medical Journal reported in March 2023, the drying Euphrates River has forced some residents to rely on contaminated groundwater, leading to the spread of typhoid fever and cholera.
But sometimes lakes dry up altogether, whether because they're man-made lakes that are drained on purpose or because people have mismanaged them so badly that they shrink into nothing.