North Hulsan Lake | |
---|---|
| |
Location | Dulan County Haixi Prefecture Qinghai Province China |
Coordinates | 36°54′30″N 95°54′28″E / 36.90833°N 95.90778°E |
Type | Endorheic saline lake |
Primary inflows | Qaidam River |
Basin countries | China |
Surface area | 52–90 km2 (20–35 sq mi) |
Surface elevation | 2,675 m (8,780 ft) |
North Hulsan Lake | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
North Huobuxun | |||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 北霍布遜湖 | ||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 北霍布逊湖 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
North Huoluxun | |||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 北霍魯遜湖 | ||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 北霍鲁逊湖 | ||||||||
Literal meaning | North Hulsan Lake | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Mongolian name | |||||||||
Mongolian script | ᠬᠣᠶᠢᠳᠤ ᠬᠤᠯᠤᠰᠤ ᠨᠠᠭᠤᠷ | ||||||||
|
North or Bei Hulsan Lake, also known by other names, is a lake northeast of Golmud in Dulan County, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. A part of the Qarhan Playa, it is filled from the east by the Qaidam River. Like the other lakes of the surrounding Qaidam Basin, it is extremely saline.
Hulsan[1][2][3] or Hollusun Nor[4] is a romanization of the Mongolian name meaning "Reed Lake", from their former abundance in the area.[5] The adjective "north" distinguishes it from nearby South Hulsan Lake.[5] Huoluxun and Huobuxun[a] are the pinyin romanizations of the Mandarin pronunciation of the same name's transcriptions into Chinese characters. Bei Hulsan or Beihuobuxun[2] is the same name, prefixed with the Chinese word for "North".
North Hulsan Lake lies in the northern Hulsan subbasin[9] at the eastern edge of the Qarhan Playa in the southeastern corner of the Qaidam Basin[6][7] at an elevation of 2,675 m (8,780 ft).[1] It lies east of Xiezuo Lake and north of South Hulsan Lake.[9] It was reported by Zheng in 1997 as usually about 90.4 km2 (35 sq mi),[1] and by Zhang & al. in 2014 as 82.49 km2 (32 sq mi),[3] but by Zhou & al. as varying between dry and wet years from 52.55–88.21 km2 (20–34 sq mi).[10] North Hulsan Lake is chiefly fed from the east by the Qaidam River[11][7] (t 柴達木河, s 柴达木河, Cháidámù Hé). In the area's hyperarid climate, there is generally only 28–40 mm (1–2 in) of annual rainfall but about 3,000 mm (120 in) of annual evaporation.[2] It is never more than about 1 m (3 ft 3 in) deep.[2] An inflow from the north by mineral springs in the playa's northern karst zone contribute a smaller volume of water[2] but its much higher solute concentration greatly affects the lake and its sediments.[12][13] North Hulsan Lake's sediments have a relatively higher potassium content than most other lakes in the playa.[14]
Further information: Qaidam Basin § History |
North Hulsan Lake has been greatly affected[15] by the rapid expansion of the industrial processing of Qarhan's salt lakes for potassium and other valuable minerals since 2000.[16] Fang & al. found it had lost 8.1 Gt (8.9 billion short tons) of water between 1995 and 2015,[17] and Zhou & al. reported that the lake proper could not be distinguished at all from the surrounding salt pans in satellite imagery as of 2014.[18]