Lake Selinchuo is getting bigger and bigger. Can Qinghai Lake remain the first place?

People say that the lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are? Tears of the earth? Many lakes are scattered on the plateau at an altitude of more than 4000 meters. According to scientific research statistics, there are more than 1500 lakes in the whole lake area of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with a total area of more than 40,000 square kilometers, accounting for about half of the total area of lakes in China. Among them, the lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are basically inflow areas, so the lakes are mainly salt lakes and saltwater lakes.

In recent years, people are surprised to find that the area of lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is actually expanding, the most striking example of which is Serincu. At the end of the last century, the second largest lake in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was Namco (the largest lake is Qinghai Lake, of course), but in 2007, according to the latest data, Selincoo, located in no man's land in northern Tibet, actually increased from 1999 square kilometers to 1798 square kilometers in 2007, exceeding the area by about 6,287 square kilometers. Although the lake area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been increasing in recent ten years, what caused the lake area of Selin Lake to increase so much in such a short time? Let's take a look.

The factor that affects the water surface area of a lake is nothing more than the difference between the amount of water entering the lake and the amount of water leaving the lake. The greater the difference, the faster the lake area grows. So where does this water come from? Let's take a look at the geographical environment around Selinchuo.

According to the basin distribution map of Selincoo, we can see that nearly 50,000 square kilometers of water around Selincoo are gathered here, which is the largest inflow area in Tibet. The river with the largest amount of water flowing into Selincoo-Zhajia Zangbo is the longest inflow river in Tibet, which originates from the glacier-covered Tanggula Mountain area. Every spring and summer, the temperature rises, and the ice and snow in Tanggula melt a lot, which brings a lot of water to Selincoo. In recent decades, influenced by global warming, a world has emerged? Roof of the world? The so-called large-scale melting of glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has greatly accelerated the dislocation of color forests. Expansion? .

There are dozens of lakes, large and small, around Selin Cuo, indicating that the terrain of this area is a depression relative to the surrounding area. Selin Cuo and the surrounding Qiguo Cuo, as well as the larger lakes in Wuru Cuo, are connected by waterways, indicating that these lakes are all integrated in the water system. Selinchuo and its southern CuO 'e Lake are currently only. A wall apart? According to the current expansion trend, it will be integrated soon.

If the surrounding glaciers continue to melt, or the precipitation continues to increase, Selinco and several surrounding lakes are likely to merge to form a new lake, and Selinco may replace Qinghai Lake as the largest lake on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. There is a large amount of glacial meltwater around, which provides strong support for the expansion of Selinco.