Where does the water go?

Question

I understand that for many decades large bodies of water around the world have gotten smaller or disappeared. But, where does that water go? Oceans? Atmosphere? Ground?

Thanks

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Answer 1

Atmosphere. Let’s take the aral sea for instance. The water was pumped to fields for crops where it both sank into the ground and evaporated. Once a body of water is small enough it starts to evaporate faster than it replenishes itself and eventually evaporates completely. So some water went to the ground but most evaporated and rained down somewhere else, likely over the ocean.