Lop Nur

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Lop Nur (ear-shaped) from space, September 1992

Desert Lop Nur, Xinjiang, China: Satellite picture of the Helix of the former sea Lop Nur.

Lop Nur ("Lake Lop"; alternately Lop Nuur = Lop Nor = Lob-nor = Lo-pu po = Taitema Lake, in the Han Annals: P'u-ch'ang Hai = Lou-lan Hai = Yen-tse) is a group of small, now seasonal salt lakes and marshes between the Taklamakan and Kuruktag deserts in the southeastern portion of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwestern China, centered around 40.5° N 90.5° E.

The lake system into which the Tarim River empties is the last remnant of the historical post-glacial Tarim Lake, which once covered more than 10,000 square kilometers in the Tarim Basin. Lop Nur is hydrologically endorheic— there is no outlet. Though it was determined to be a single salt lake by ancient Chinese geographers, it has largely dried up from its 1928 measured area of 3100 km², and spreading desert, apparently windblown sandy loess, has shifted the lake system 30 to 40 km westwards during the past 40 years [1]. A partial cause for the destabilization of the desert has been the cutting of poplars and willows for firewood [2]; in response, a reserve was established in 2003 to preserve 3520 square kilometres of Diverse-leaved poplar.

Former water resources of the Tarim River and Lop Nur nurtured the kingdom of Loulan, an ancient Chinese civilization along the Silk Road, which skirted the lake-filled basin. Loulan became a client-state of the Chinese empire in 55 BCE, renamed Shanshan. Once the lake also supported a thriving Tocharian culture. Archaeologists have discovered the buried remains of settlements, as well as several of the Tarim mummies, along its ancient shoreline. Marco Polo passed near the lake, and the explorers Ferdinand von Richthofen, Nikolai Przhevalsky and Sven Hedin visited the area.

Since 1964, the lake has been used as a nuclear test site. Until 1996, 45 nuclear tests were conducted. The headquarters of the test base is at Malan, about 125 km northwest of Qinggir.[3]

On June 13, 1996, famous Chinese explorer Yu Chunshun died while trying to walk across Lop Nur.