Assea level risedue to climate change , island state likeKiribatiare suddenly determine themselves on the threshold of becoming modern - dayAtlantises . However , new research divulge that in cattiness of this global oceanic protuberance , the overall amount of land across the planet has actually increase over the past three 10 , for the most part due to the drying up of lake and the macrocosm of unexampled adult male - made island .
A study in the journalNature Climate Changeanalyzed the world-wide gains and passing of both land and surface water between 1985 and 2015 , using data from theDeltares Aqua Monitor , which disembowel on icon collected by NASA ’s Landsat satellites . Across this period , a total of 115,000 square kilometers ( 44,000 square miles ) of land became submerged by water , while 173,000 square km ( 67,000 square miles ) of water was converted to dry ground .
The Tibetan Plateau and the Amazon were identify as the areas that saw the largest changeover of estate to urine , while the Aral Sea in Central Asia saw the biggest loss of water . Once among the reality ’s largest lake , the Aral Sea began to disappear when Soviet engineers diverted the rivers that fee it to irrigate local cotton and wheat agriculture in the sixties . As a result , the lake has almost entirely dried up , with 27,650 square kilometers ( 10,675 substantial miles ) of its surface piddle having vanished .
increase in surface piddle on the Tibetan Plateau , meanwhile , are mostly because of melting glaciers , resulting in the creation of modest lakes dust around the Himalayas .
Artificial islands like those off the coast of Dubai are creditworthy for an increase in global coastlines . Deltares
The researchers also caught a glimpse of some of the existence ’s chartless regions , name that the Hwanggang Dam in North Korea has make a small reservoir in the Rimjin River , penny-pinching to the boundary line with South Korea . This same decameter was at the center of a cross - border spat in 2009 , whenflash floodsresulted in the deaths of several South Korean fishermen .
Lake Mead , which is presently the largest freshwater reservoir in the US , also shrunk considerably during the past 30 years , and the study source suggest that a deficiency of inflow from the Colorado River is likely to cause the lake to disappear entirely .
surprisingly , coastal field across the Earth have actually gained more Edwin Herbert Land than water since 1985 , mostly because of the expression of artificial luxury islands , such as Dubai ’s intrepid Palm Island . Overall , 20,135 square klick ( 7,775 straight mile ) of coastline have become submerse over the past three decennary , while 33,700 straight km ( 13,010 square miles ) of new coastal land have appeared across the world during the same period .
