The population is sparse, with an average of one person per 6.5 km2 (2.5 sq mi). Rainfall is also rare, ranging from 70 to 150 mm (3 to 6 in) per year.[2]
The desert covers roughly seventy percent ofTurkmenistan,[3] a long east–west swath. It sits east of theCaspian Sea which has a steep east bank. It adjoins, to the north, the long delta feeding theSouth Aral Sea further north, anotherendorheic lake, about 58 m (190 ft) higher than the Caspian Sea. The delta is that of theAmu Darya river to the northeast, demarcating the long border with theKyzylkum Desert ofUzbekistan. The desert is divided into three regions, the elevated northern Trans-Unguz Karakum, the low-lying Central Karakum, and the southeastern Karakum, home to a chain ofsalt marshes.[4] Since the early 1980s, the relatively small desert extension, theAralkum, has come to occupy most of the formerseabed of theAral Sea, about 15,440 sq mi (40,000 km2). The sea has fluctuated over millennia, but its majority loss during theSoviet Union's existence coincided with great irrigation projects. TheNorth Aral Sea was partly restored, but the South Aral Sea ebbed to a small-size stasis at its river mouth,[5] which itself dried up by 2014,[6] leaving only fragments of the former sea behind, such asBarsakelmes Lake.
A map ofCentral Asia. The Karakum Desert is highlighted at the bottom.
Within the north-west edge of the desert used to be a river. In the latePleistocene, the Amu Darya used to flow beyond the Aral Basin toSarykamysh Lake then to the Caspian Sea. Sedimentation and floods during a pluvial period led to overflow to theZeravshan River valley to the east. The two flows merged and formed or expanded Horezm Lake, which had been formed by the earlier Khvalinian period, and as it overflowed northwards it carved its link with the Aral Sea along the Akcha Dar'ya population corridor of that low, gentle valley (a remote community of Western Uzbekistan and north-east Turkmenistan).[7]
The sands of the Aral Karakum are made of finely-dispersedevaporites and remnants of alkaline mineral deposits, washed into the basin from irrigated fields.
TheDarvaza gas crater, also known as the Door to Hell, at night in the Karakum Desert
The Karakum is home to theDarvaza gas crater. Also called the "Door to Hell" or the "Gates of Hell" by locals, it is a crater of natural gas that has been burning since 1971. The crater is a major tourist attraction, with hundreds of visitors arriving each year.[9]
To the south theMurghab andTejen rivers flow out of theHindu Kush mountains, flow west, and empty into the desert, providing water for irrigation.
The desert is crossed by the second-largest irrigation canal in the world, theKarakum Canal, which brings water from the Amu Darya to southern regions of the desert.[1] Construction on the canal was started in 1954 and completed in 1958.[1] It is 1,375 km (900 mi) in length, and carries 13 to 20 km3 of water annually.[1]
Golden Age Lake, locally known as Altyn Asyr köli[10] or alternatively as Karakum Lake, is a man-made lake under construction in theKarashor Depression in the Karakum Desert.
Upon completion, the lake will span 2,000 square kilometres (770 sq mi) with a maximum depth of 70 metres (230 ft), and hold more than 130 cubic kilometers (4600 billion cubic feet) of water. Filling the lake could take 15 years and cost up to $4.5 billion.[11] According to government plans, it is intended to be filled by a 2,650-kilometer (1,650 mi) network of tributary canals. The Dashoguz Collector, spanning a distance of 432 kilometers, traces approximately half of its course along the historic path of theUzboy River. The Great Turkmen Collector starts inLebap Province and is 720 km (450 mi) long.[12] They are used for pumping run-off water from irrigated cotton fields[13] towards the lake.
^"Aral Sea".State of Environment of the Aral Sea Basin: Regional Report of the Central Asian States. International Fund on the Aral Sea. 2000. Archived fromthe original on 16 March 2009.
