North Hulsan Lake | |
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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 | |||||||||
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North Huobuxun | |||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 北霍布遜 湖 | ||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 北霍布逊 湖 | ||||||||
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North Huoluxun | |||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 北霍魯遜 湖 | ||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 北霍鲁逊 湖 | ||||||||
Literal meaning | North Hulsan Lake | ||||||||
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Mongolian name | |||||||||
Mongolian script | ᠬᠣᠶᠢᠳᠤ ᠬᠤᠯᠤᠰᠤ ᠨᠠᠭᠤᠷ | ||||||||
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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]
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]