The Vanishing of Urmia Lake: A Geolimnological Perspective on the Hydrological Imbalance of the World’s Second Largest Hypersaline Lake

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arash Sharifi ◽  
Majid Shah-Hosseini ◽  
Ali Pourmand ◽  
Mojgan Esfahaninejad ◽  
Omid Haeri-Ardakani
Keyword(s):  
Urmia Lake ◽  
Hypersaline Lake

scholarly journals Monitoring Atmospheric Aerosols Over the Urmia Lake by CALIPSO and a Ground Based Depolarized Lidar

2020 ◽  
Vol 237 ◽  
pp. 02025
Author(s):  
Hamid R. Khalesifard ◽  
Hossein Panahifar ◽  
Fatemeh Ghomashi ◽  
Salar Alizadeh ◽  
Ruhollah Moradhaseli
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Atmospheric Boundary Layer ◽  
Aerosol Optical Depth ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Atmospheric Aerosols ◽  
Urmia Lake ◽  
Hypersaline Lake ◽  
Depolarization Ratio ◽  
Hysplit Model ◽  
Aerosol Source

The Urmia Lake, a hypersaline lake in Northwest Iran is facing a severe drying scenario. We have installed an azimuthal scanning depolarized backscatter lidar in the coast of the lake to monitor the atmospheric aerosols that may originate from the dried lake bed. We also used the CALIPSO recordings to monitor the aerosol optical depth and particulate depolarization ratio just over the lake. Recordings of the lidar and CALIPSO both show that dry salt particles can be found in the atmospheric boundary layer over the lake especially in summer times. Also CALIPSO data in synergy with HYSPLIT model show that the lake is not an intense aerosol source comparing to neighboring sources like the Mesopotamia region but it is under their influence.

scholarly journals New record of three freshwater fish species from a western drainage of Lake Urmia for the Turkish fauna

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-328
Author(s):  
Cüneyt Kaya
Keyword(s):  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Fish Species ◽  
New Record ◽  
Urmia Lake ◽  
Hypersaline Lake ◽  
Lake Urmia ◽  
Freshwater Fish Species

In the scope of this study, three freshwater fish species were newly recorded for Turkey from a western drainage of Lake Urmia: Alburnoides petrubanarescui, Alburnus atropatenae and Oxynoemacheilus elsae. All of them were found in headwaters of Nazli-chay River in the basin of the hypersaline Lake Urmia. The Lake is fed by many small springs and thirteen permanent rivers. In the previous studies, the existence of a stream in the western part of the Urmia Lake within border of Turkey was not mentioned.

Depositional environments and salt-thickness variations in Urmia Lake (NW Iran): Insight from sediment-core studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 296-316
Author(s):  
ALI MOHAMMADI ◽  
RAZYEH LAK ◽  
GEORG SCHWAMBORN ◽  
AMANEH KAVEH FIROUZ ◽  
ATTILA ÇINER ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Depth ◽  
Depositional Environments ◽  
Urmia Lake ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Hypersaline Lake ◽  
Salt Deposition ◽  
Salt Crust ◽  
Thickness Variations ◽  
Evaporite Minerals ◽  
Crust Thickness

Abstract Urmia Lake is a large-scale hypersaline lake that experienced a drastic water-level fall due to natural and anthropogenic forces during the last two decades. Construction of a causeway in the central part of the lake after 1989 has divided the lake into northern and southern parts and caused an extreme change of the lake hydrochemical system. Precipitation of evaporite minerals as crust on the lake floor was caused by the combination of lake level fall and increasing water salinity. However, some parameters controlling rates of salt deposition and dissolution and temporal and spatial variation in salt thickness in Lake Urmia are poorly understood. This study reviews 90 sediment cores from various parts of the lake to put forward a better understanding of the salt depositional system and salt thickness variations in the basin for the last 40 years (1977–2017). Our results indicate that the sedimentary system of Urmia Lake changed rapidly during the last two decades from a permanent hypersaline lake with predominantly fast terrigenous–biochemical sedimentation to a seasonally changing playa sedimentary environment with predominance of evaporite minerals. These changes are responsible for rapid salt deposition that generated a salt-crust with a maximum thickness of 2.95 m overlying Holocene terrigenous sediments. The salt-crust thickness and the water depth have a positive correlation for water depth greater than 1 meter, which means that salt-crust thickness increases where water depth increases. While the thickness of shallow deposits are affected by fresh-water dissolution. In addition, the average salt precipitation rate in the northern and the southern parts of the lake is 466 and 266 times higher, respectively, than the average (0.3 mm/y) sedimentation rate before the lake shrinkage. Similar to other large hypersaline lakes such as the Great Salt Lake (USA) and the Aral Sea (Central Asia), the manmade intervention at Urmia Lake (damming of the catchment, extension of agricultural fields, and causeway construction in the middle part of the lake) threatens its further hydrologic existence.

Leucitic Rocks of the Urmia Lake Region, Iran

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-62
Author(s):  
S. Kryvdik ◽  
V. Mikhailov ◽  
V. Sharygin
Keyword(s):  
Urmia Lake ◽  
Lake Region

GLOBAL WARMING IMPACT ON URMIA LAKE VULNERABILITY AND HAZARD

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Homayoun Khoshravan ◽  
Homayoun Khoshravan
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Salt Marshes ◽  
Satellite Images ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Urmia Lake ◽  
Mud Volcanoes ◽  
Seismic Profiles ◽  
Global Warming Impact ◽  
Morphological Behavior ◽  
Different Parts

The main goal of the research is to analyze the global warming impact on Urmia lake vulnerabiliy and hazard. By the study of topographic maps, satellite images and field research, the various types of coasts were identified: mud flats, salt marshes, sandy or cliffed coasts, and islands. Moreover the interpretation of seismic profiles, has led to recognize so important morphological features in the lake bed, such as: erosive channels, colos, mud volcanoes, the raised sandy masses and under water mounts. The main results illustrate the variable morphological behavior of Urmia Lake in different parts of the lake.

scholarly journals Amount and location of tectonic uplift in the Urmia region of northwest Iran from the Permian to the Neogene

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akram Alizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Hypersaline Lake ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Lake Urmia ◽  
Qom Formation ◽  
Northwest Of Iran ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Orogenic Uplift ◽  
East Azerbaijan ◽  
Urmia Lake Basin

AbstractThe Urmia Lake Basin is located between the West and East Azerbaijan provinces in the northwest of Iran. Lake Urmia is the twentieth largest lake and second largest hypersaline lake in the world. Stratigraphic columns have been constructed, using published information, to compare the sedimentary units deposited from the Permian to the Neogene on the east and west sides of the lake, and to use these to quantity subsidence and uplift. East of the lake, the sedimentary section is more complete and has been the subject of detailed stratigraphic studies, including the compilation of measured sections for some units. West of the lake, the section is incomplete and less work has been done; three columns illustrate variations in the preserved stratigraphy for the time interval. In all cases, the columns are capped by the Oligocene–Miocene Qom Formation, which was deposited during a post-orogenic marine transgression and unconformably overlies units ranging from Precambrian to Cretaceous. Permian to Cretaceous stratigraphy is used to measure subsidence in the Lake Urmia basin up to the end of the Cretaceous, and then, the subsequent orogenic uplift, which was followed by further subsidence recorded by the deposition of the Qom Formation in the Oligocene–Miocene.

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