Tuz Salt Lake, with an estimated salt reserve of 250 million tons, is drying up due to climate change and agricultural development.
Images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite from the European Space Agency (ESA) on October 23 show that Tuz Lake has dried up significantly in just one year. Once the second-largest lake in Turkey, it has now turned into a giant salt flat.
Tuz was once one of the largest salt lakes in the world. It typically expands and contracts with the seasons. However, Tuz Lake has been gradually shrinking over the years. The main reason is the decreasing inflow of water due to the impacts of climate change and agricultural development.
Satellite image of Tuz Lake, Turkey, on October 23. (Photo: European Union/Copernicus Sentinel-2).
Tuz, like other salt lakes, is formed by the basin retaining incoming water flows. This water carries salt and other minerals from rivers and streams. As the water evaporates, these substances remain in the lake. Tuz is replenished by rainwater and melted snow each spring. The lake is only about 1 meter deep on average. In the summer, a large amount of water evaporates, leaving a thick layer of salt approximately 8 cm deep.
This salt layer supports the local salt mining industry. With an estimated salt reserve of about 250 million tons, Tuz is one of the saltiest lakes on the planet, with a salt concentration estimated at up to 32%. The lake provides 60% of the salt used in Turkey, with the remainder exported to over 60 countries.
To produce salt, Tuz Lake needs to be regularly replenished with water. However, this body of water has been shrinking in recent years. This appears to be due to the dual impacts of climate change and drought affecting water sources, as well as increased industrial and agricultural activities diverting water flows before they reach the lake. A 2007 study indicated that Tuz Lake’s size is only half of what it was 40 years ago.
Wildlife in the area is also significantly affected by this change. Tuz Lake provides an important habitat for many bird species. Local authorities estimate that this summer, about 1,000 chicks died due to low water levels. Meanwhile, environmentalists report that only 5,000 chicks hatched, a sharp decline from 12,000 in 2018.
Muazzez Celik Karakaya, a natural sciences lecturer at Konya Technical University, believes that Tuz Lake could disappear permanently within 30 years if no decisive action is taken. “As water levels decrease due to global warming, the amount of crystallized salt will also decline. This will have negative consequences as there are over 100 bird species living in this area. If salt crystallization does not occur due to reduced water levels, a layer of clay sediment will form on the lake’s surface, creating a large amount of dust and potentially leading to various respiratory diseases,” she stated.
