The share of a glacial feeding in water balance of Aral Sea and Karakul Lake

The lakes of Central Asia without outflow can be divided into two groups:(1) The zone of runoff formation covers a large territory. In the runoff zone, the snow-rain components prevail; in the nival zone of Central Asia, important precipitation has been observed. Summer runoff decrease for the period 20–30 years, caused by glacier reduction, is insignificant in comparison with other water balance components.(2) The zone of runoff formation is rather small; the rainfall is smaller than in other regions; glacial melting, which forms river runoff, becomes essential. Thus, glacial decrease in the Karakul Lake basin for 1925–1980, equal to 13.6 km2, resulted in a lake area decrease equal to 8.3 km2.