With a surface area of over 5,000 square kilometres, Urmia Lake used to hold over 60,000,000,000 cubic metres of water when its water levels were high, and its deepest areas used to reach depths of over 20 metres. With a catchment area of roughly 52,000 square kilometres, Urmia Lake used to receive 15,000,000,000 cubic metres of water annually. Evaporation is the only way that water may exit the lake, and the years-long infusion of steam into the area contributed significantly to the development of the region's favourable climate. This enormous supply of water had a major impact on the region's temperature balance as well as the amount of yearly precipitation.
A five thousand square kilometre salt desert with a 20–100 cm thick coating of salt will form if Urmia Lake dries up, in addition to the removal of steam injection from the lake's water. A minimum of 300 km surrounding Urmia Lake, which are fertile fields, will be contaminated with salt, causing the area to become a desert. This process will occur due to the blowing wind, the passing time, and the transfer of salt to the surrounding area. This will change and eradicate all of the flora and fauna within a radius of at least 300 km, and it will pollute all of the region's surface and subsurface water supplies with salt, rendering all natural resources unusable. Subsurface and surface waterways, various rare plant and animal species, and more will be lost, and this will come at a great financial cost to a society that is aware of the tragedy's ramifications but is either ignoring it or responding to it in a negligent manner, which will possibly bring about the this society's collapse.
