Qarhan Playa

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Qarhan Playa
Qarhan Playa.png
A map of the Qarhan Playa (1975), showing its lakes Suli ("Se-nieh"), Dabusun ("Ta pu-hsün"), and N. ("Pei") and S. Hulsan ("Nan huo Pu-hsün")
China Qinghai rel location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Qarhan Playa
Location Golmud & Dulan counties
Haixi Prefecture
Qinghai Province
China
Coordinates 37°01′27″N95°08′20″E / 37.024081°N 95.1389253°E / 37.024081; 95.1389253 Coordinates: 37°01′27″N95°08′20″E / 37.024081°N 95.1389253°E / 37.024081; 95.1389253
Type Salt flat
Primary inflows Golmud River
Basin  countries China
Max. length160 km (100 mi)
Max. width20–40 km (12–25 mi)
Surface area5,856 km2 (2,261 sq mi)
Surface elevation2,677 m (8,780 ft)

Paleoclimatologists believe that the playa's basin was created by tectonic activity during the Mesozoic. [5] Between 770,000 and 30,000 years ago the basin constituted an enormous lake, which alternated nine times between being a fresh- and saltwater lake. [23] Pollen studies suggest that the area of the lake bed which now underlies Dabusun was raised around 700 m (2,300 ft) in just the last 500,000 years. [24] Tectonic activity also shifted the lake's tributaries and basins, although it remained with the present-day playa during this period. [25] At around 30,000 years ago, this great freshwater lake spread over at least 25,000 km2 (9,700 sq mi) with a surface 50–60 m (160–200 ft) above the present levels of its successors, [26] making it one of the largest lakes in the world. It was cut off and became saline again around 30,000 years ago and began precipitating salts about 25,000 years ago. [26] It has been shrinking in size by evaporation for most of that time, [27] eventually separating into the current separate lakes.

Until the recent commercial exploitation of the salts and other minerals, the district remained largely unpopulated, as the salt deposits made it difficult for the nomads of northwestern China to use the area for their herds. [27]

National geological expeditions began investigating Qinghai in the 1950s, shortly after the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The major expedition to the Qarhan Playa was undertaken in 1955–6, [28] but the area's important carnallite (and thus potassium) reserves were discovered accidentally by geologists Zheng Mianping and Liu Dagang during a stroll on 2 October 1957. [18] The next year, an exploratory well discovered the Yanhu Gas Field north of Dabusun Lake. [8] Over the next decade, more detailed surveying and prospecting were undertaken [28] while China continued to depend on Canadian imports for its potash. [22] Commercial exploitation of the basin's own potash began in 1989, [11] following the expansion of the PRC's Opening Up and Reform Policy. The opening of the Qinghai Potash Fertilizer Factory increased China's production of potassium chloride sixfold, from less than 40,000 t (44,000 short tons) a year at Haixi and Tanggu to just under 240,000 t (260,000 short tons) a year. [11] As of 2010, production was over 1 million metric tons (1.1 million short tons) a year at the main site, with smaller operations around the playa each producing a further 50,000–200,000 t (55,000–220,000 short tons) a year. [18]

During a 2016 inspection tour, Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping praised the importance of the factories and their workers to the entire country but emphasized the need for Qarhan's development to be environmentally responsible. [29] As part of a national program to increase the use of electric cars, automobile companies like BYD have since moved to the area, opened factories, and signed contracts with local mining companies to exploit the area's lithium supplies. Infrastructure has been improved, including an overhaul of Golmud Airport. [19]

Tourism

The fertilizer factory is now open to the public for free tours, and its parent company maintains a nearby museum covering the geology of the playa and hosting various salt sculptures. [4] The area was designated a national mining park on 1 August 2008.

Transportation

Qarhan Playa
Zaidam Swamp.png
"Zaidam Swamp" in 1917, with names given in Postal Map Romanization

Sections of the G3011 Liuge Expressway and the Qingzang Railway run over the playa's salt flats.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Yang & al. [8] and others mistakenly replace Suli with the better-known two Hulsan lakes. Xiao & al. [9] and others mistakenly replace Dabusun with West Taijinar.

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West Dabusun or Dabuxun Lake is an ephemeral lake northwest of Golmud in the Haixi Prefecture of Qinghai Province in northwestern China. Comprising a basin in the Qarhan Playa, it fills when meltwater floods the Golmud River, causing it to spill into subsidiary channels west of the main course to Dabusun Lake. Like the other lakes of the surrounding Qaidam Basin, it is extremely saline.

North Hulsan Lake Body of water

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.

South Hulsan Lake Body of water

South or Nan 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 lies east of Tuanjie Lake and south of North Hulsan Lake. Like the other lakes of the surrounding Qaidam Basin, it is extremely saline.

Tuanjie Lake Body of water

Tuanjie Lake is a lake in the southeastern Qarhan Playa north of Golmud in the Haixi Prefecture of Qinghai Province in northwestern China. It is fed from the south by the Shougong River. Like the other lakes of the surrounding Qaidam Basin, it is extremely saline.

Xiezuo Lake is a lake in the northeastern Qarhan Playa north of Golmud in Dulan County, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. Like the other lakes of the surrounding Qaidam Basin, it is extremely saline.

Dabiele Lake Body of water

Dabiele Lake, also known by other names, is an ephemeral lake in the southwestern Qarhan Playa north of Golmud in the Haixi Prefecture of Qinghai Province in northwestern China. It is fed by the Tuolahai and Qingshui Rivers from the Kunlun Mountains to the south. Like the other lakes of the surrounding Qaidam Basin, it is extremely saline; like the other lakes in the Bieletan subbasin, it is rich in lithium.

Xiaobiele Lake or Xiaobieletan is an ephemeral lake in the southwestern Qarhan Playa north of Golmud in the Haixi Prefecture of Qinghai Province in northwestern China. Like the other lakes of the surrounding Qaidam Basin, it is extremely saline; like the other lakes of the surrounding Bieletan subbasin, it is rich in lithium.

Suli Lake Body of water

Suli or Senie Lake is a lake in the western Qarhan Playa north of Golmud in the Haixi Prefecture of Qinghai Province in northwestern China. It is fed from the west by the Urt Moron River. Like the other lakes of the surrounding Qaidam Basin, it is extremely saline; like the other lakes of the surrounding Bieletan subbasin, it is rich in lithium. Its underlying salt has also trapped one of China's largest onshore natural gas fields.

Dongling Lake Body of water

Dongling Lake is a lake in the Qarhan Playa north of Golmud in the Haixi Prefecture of Qinghai Province in northwestern China. Like the other lakes of the surrounding Qaidam Basin, it is extremely saline.

South Suli Lake Body of water

South, Little, or New Suli or Senie Lake is a small ephemeral lake in Golmud County, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. It lies in the southwest corner of the Qarhan Playa in the southeast Qaidam Basin. It is part of Qarhan's Bieletan subbasin, located south of Suli Lake and west of Dabiele Lake. It is principally fed from the southwest by the Zaohuo or Little Zaohuo River (小灶火河,Xiǎozàohuǒ Hé) and consists of a 1.5 km2 (0.58 sq mi) basin which gradually evaporates into three smaller ponds. As part of the Bieletan subbasin, it is rich in lithium chloride.

The Golmud or Ge'ermu River is a river in Golmud County, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. It flows north from the Kunlun Mountains to Dabusun and (occasionally) West Dabusun Lakes in the central Qarhan Playa in the southeastern Qaidam Basin. The county seat Golmud lies along it.

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 Xiyu Tongwen Zhi (1763) , Vol. XIV.
  2. ↑ Zhang & al. (1990), p. 3.
  3. 1 2 3 Huang & al. (1997), p. 271.
  4. 1 2 TCG (2019).
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Yu & al. (2001), p. 62.
  6. ↑ CNPC, p. 3.
  7. ↑ Mao & al. (2017), p. 42.
  8. 1 2 Yang & al. (2012), p. 33.
  9. ↑ Xiao & al. (2017), p. 86.
  10. 1 2 3 Du & al. (2018), p. 3.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Garrett (1996) , p.  176–177.
  12. ↑ Du & al. (2018), pp. 2–3.
  13. ↑ Spencer & al. (1990), p. 396.
  14. 1 2 3 Spencer & al. (1990), p. 397.
  15. 1 2 Du & al. (2018), p. 2.
  16. 1 2 3 Lowenstein & al. (1994) , p.  20.
  17. 1 2 CNPC, p. 8.
  18. 1 2 3 Shan (2010).
  19. 1 2 3 Nakamura (2017).
  20. ↑ Spencer & al. (1990), p. 406.
  21. 1 2 Yu & al. (2013), pp. 171–172.
  22. 1 2 Lafitte (2011).
  23. ↑ Huang & al. (1997), p. 277.
  24. ↑ Jiang & al. (2000), pp. 96 & 106.
  25. ↑ Kong & al. (2018), §2.
  26. 1 2 Zheng (1997) , p.  149.
  27. 1 2 Ward (1878) , p.  250.
  28. 1 2 Zheng (1997) , p.  3–5.
  29. ↑ MEE (2016).

Bibliography

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