Badain Jaran Desert
| Badain Jaran Desert | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 View from the Biluthu Mega Dune. |
|
| Highest peak | Biluthu ( 1609 m ) |
| location |
 People's Republic of China
|
| part of | Alxa desert |
| Coordinates | 40 ° 0 ′ N , 102 ° 0 ′ E |
| Type | Sand desert |
| rock | unconsolidated sand |
| Age of the rock | quaternary |
| surface | 52,162 km² |
| particularities | Largest mega dune on earth. |
The Badain Jaran Desert is a sand sea in central-north China. It is a unique geomorphological unit with the largest mega-dune on earth, humming sand and numerous lakes. There is a hyperarid climate . With around 52,000 km 2 , it is the second largest desert in China.
geography
The Badain Jaran Desert is located in western Inner Mongolia of the People's Republic of China . It is located in the northwest of the Alxa Plateau and is part of the Alxa Desert, which in turn belongs to the Gobi Desert . The sand sea of the Badain Jaran is delimited as follows: in the south by the Heli, Beidai and Heishantou Mountains, which separate it from the Hexi Corridor , in the southeast by the Yabrai Salt Lake and the Yabrai Mountains, in the east by the S218 National Road and the Zongnai Mountains, in the north and north-west through the flat lowlands of the Guezihu Wetlands and Gulunai Grasslands, and in the west a strip extends to the Heihe River .
The desert is a sea of sand with an extension of 442 km in an east-west direction and 354 km in a south-north direction. With a total area of 52,162 km 2 , it is the second largest desert in China and the fourth largest on earth. It is between 900 and 1500 m above sea level.
More than two thirds of the area is occupied by mega dunes that are more than 100 m high. These reach heights of up to 480 m, with average heights of 200 to 300 m, making them the highest on earth. Between the highest dunes, concentrated on an area of 4,000 km 2 , there are more than 142 outflow-free lakes, each with a water level of more than 1,000 m 2 . The number and size of the lakes varies slightly over the years, with some only being seasonal.
climate
There is an extreme continental climate , which manifests itself in extreme dryness, strong sunshine and relatively little rainfall. Badain Jaran is classified as a cold desert with a hyperarid climate .
Temperatures vary between around −10 ° C in January and around 25 ° C in July, with mean annual temperatures around 8 ° C. The mean annual precipitation amounts to 35 to 43 mm in the south and increase to 90 to 115 mm in the north. Most of the rain falls from July to September due to the East Asian summer monsoons .
Nouerto lake
Lake Nouerto is the largest lake in the area. It has a water level of 1.46 km 2 and is over 16 m deep. On its banks is a Lamaist monastery founded in 1868 in memory of Mani Tulku. The building materials were brought in by camels from hundreds, even over a thousand kilometers away. It is built in the style of a Tibetan Buddhist temple.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Dong, Zhibao, et al. "Investigation of the sand sea with the tallest dunes on Earth: China's Badain Jaran Sand Sea." Earth-Science Reviews 120 (2013): 20-39. ( PDF ( Memento of the original from August 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. 3.74 MB)
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Jinfeng, Zhu, et al. "Study on the boundary and the area of Badain Jaran Desert based on remote sensing imagery." Progress in Geography 29.9 (2010): 1087-1094. ( PDF 1.6 MB)
- ↑ Dong, Zhibao, Tao Wang, and Xunming Wang. "Geomorphology of the megadunes in the Badain Jaran Desert." Geomorphology 60.1 (2004): 191-203. ( PDF 1MB)
- ↑ a b Zhang, HC, et al. "Late quaternary palaeolake levels in Tengger Desert, NW China." Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 211.1 (2004): 45-58. ( PDF 2.1 MB)
- ↑ Jiao, Jiu Jimmy, Xiaotao Zhang, and Xusheng Wang. "Satellite-based estimates of groundwater depletion in the Badain Jaran Desert, China." Scientific reports 5 (2015). ( HTML )
- ↑ a b c d e Yang, Xiaoping, et al. "Recharge to the inter-dune lakes and Holocene climatic changes in the Badain Jaran Desert, western China." Quaternary Research 73.1 (2010): 10-19. ( PDF 1 MB)
- ↑ Zhang, Zhi, et al. "Change of lake area in the southeastern part of China's Badain Jaran Sand Sea and its implications for recharge sources." Journal of Arid Land 7.1 (2015): 1-9. ( PDF 0.4 MB)
- ↑ Ma, JZ, et al. "Chloride and the environmental isotopes as the indicators of the groundwater recharge in the Gobi Desert, northwest China." Environmental Geology 55.7 (2008): 1407-1419. ( PDF 2 MB)
- ↑ a b c d Zhang, ZhenYu, et al. "Lake Area Changes and the main causes in the hinterland of Badain Jaran Desert during 1973-2010, China." Sciences in Cold and Arid Regions 6.1 (2014): 22-29. ( online )
- ↑ a b Ma, Ning, et al. "Observation of mega-dune evaporation after various rain events in the hinterland of Badain Jaran Desert, China." Chinese Science Bulletin 59.2 (2014): 162-170. ( PDF ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 1 MB)
- ↑ Fang Wang: "Geo-Architecture and Landscape in China's Geographic and Historic Context": Volume 3 Geo-Architecture Blending into Nature. Springer, 2016 ISBN 981-10-0489-7 , pp. 191ff
