Badain Jaran Desert

Badain Jaran Desert

Badain Jaran Desert is one of the eight deserts in China and the main body of Alxa Desert. It is located at the bottom of yine basin in the west of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, with a total area of 49200 square kilometers. Among them, mount bhirutu is the highest sand peak in the world.

The annual precipitation in Badain Jaran Desert is less than 40 mm, but there are more than 100 lakes in the desert. The towering sand mountains, mysterious sand, quiet lakes and wetlands constitute the unique charming landscape of Badain Jaran Desert, attracting tens of thousands of domestic and foreign tourists every year.

Position formation

Badain Jaran Desert is located in the north of Alxa Right Banner, Alxa League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, west of Yabulai mountain, north of Beida mountain, east of weak water and south of Guaizi lake. It is located at 39 ° 30 '- 42 ° N and 98 ° 30' - 104 ° e, covering an area of 44300 square kilometers. It is the second largest desert in China, and there are more than 10000 square kilometers of desert in the northwest, so far without human footprints. It is the main body of Alxa Desert, located at the bottom of yine basin.

It mainly belongs to Ejina Banner and Alxa Right Banner in Inner Mongolia, and Alxa Left Banner in the East. Badain Jaran is Mongolian. Desert is named after a residential area. The altitude of the desert ranges from 1200 to 1700 meters, the relative height of the sand mountain can reach more than 500 meters, and the altitude of Mount Bilutu is 1617 meters, and the vertical height is about 435 meters, which can be called "desert Mount Everest". Located in the center of Alxa Desert, the climate is arid, the mobile dunes account for 83% of the desert area, and the moving speed is small.

There are dense tall sand mountains in the middle, generally 200-300 meters high, with the highest reaching 500 meters. It is mainly composed of compound sand mountains, which are arranged in the direction of 30 ° to 40 ° to the north and are caused by the strong influence of northwest wind. The sand dune chain around the high sand mountain is generally 20-50 meters high. There are sparse plants on sand dunes and sand mountains, mainly Calligonum mongolicum, Artemisia selengensis and Ephedra in the west, mainly Artemisia selengensis and Phyllostachys edulis in the East, and Calligonum mongolicus and ephedra gradually decrease. Reed and Achnatherum splendens grow on the edge and are the main pastures. There are fresh water springs on the edge of some lake basins, which provide conditions for desert control. The Badain Jaran Desert has an average of less than one person per 10 square kilometers.

Within the desert, there are only Badain Jaran temple and kunaitou temple. There is basically no planting industry. All of them are engaged in animal husbandry. Camels are the main livestock in this area, ranking the first in China's counties, followed by sheep. There is no fixed road in the desert, so it is very difficult to cross the abdomen. The Yabulai Salt Lake in the southeast is rich in table salt, and the gulunai Lake in the West and some lakes near Badain jarimiao are rich in sodium carbonate.

Qifeng, Mingsha, lake, Shenquan and temple are the "five wonders" of Badain Jaran. Under the action of wind, the sand dunes present the wonders of vast waves and towering ancient pagodas. Badain Jaran Desert accounts for 39% of the total area of Alxa Right Banner, with a relative height of 200-500m. It is the highest sand dune in China and even in the world. The Mingsha mountain in Baori Tolgoi is more than 200 meters high, with steep peaks, sand ridges as sharp as blades, scattered high and low, and the roaring sound of falling sand for several kilometers. It is known as "the kingdom of Mingsha in the world".

There are 113 lakes in the desert, including 74 lakes with water all the year round and 12 freshwater lakes, with a total water area of 49000 mu. The lakes are overgrown with reeds, waterbirds playing and fish flying at the bottom. They enjoy the reputation of "south of the Yangtze River in Mobei". The rock paintings of Mt. Mandela, which vividly record hunting and animal husbandry life in the East and southwest of the desert, are known as "living fossils of the art world".

In the 73000 square kilometers of land in Alashan Right Banner, there are 24000 children of various nationalities. In the Badain Jaran Desert, which is more than 28000 square kilometers, there are more than 100 herdsmen in 24 families. They have been kind to the desert for generations. The desert has also provided them with an ideal living environment and created a desert ecological culture in which man and nature are at peace. A lake or a sand nest is a biosphere, a story of creating a miracle of life. Since 1984, many experts and scholars from France, Japan, the United States, Austria, Singapore and other countries have come to study.

In 1993, the Sino German joint investigation team conducted a comprehensive investigation on Badain Jaran Desert and obtained a large number of valuable data. Ostrich eggs and dinosaur fossils were found. A large number of Neolithic and Paleolithic tools were also found around the lakes in the hinterland of the desert. According to archaeological analysis, there were traces of human activities 3000-5000 years ago. In 1996, German Explorer Baumann published the Badain Jaran Desert, which caused a sensation in European exploration circles.

The desert is formed due to lack of water, which is called the forbidden zone of life. But in the extremely arid Badain Jaran Desert, there are sand mountains and lakes coexisting, which makes people all over the world puzzled. There are 144 inland lakes in the lowlands between the high sand mountains, which are mainly distributed in the southeast of the desert. Due to the strong evaporation, the lake accumulates a lot of salt, and most of the lake water cannot be drunk or irrigated.

Reed and Achnatherum splendens grow on the edge of some lakes in the southeast, which can be used for animal husbandry. There are still fresh water springs on the edge of some lake basins, which are drinkable and provide favorable conditions for desert control in the future.

landforms

In geological structure, it belongs to Alxa massif, with gentle landform, mainly composed of denuded low hills and depressions between mountains. Quaternary sediments generally cover the surface, forming widely distributed Gobi and desert.

In the desert area, except for a small area of peneplain bedrock and residual dunes in the East, South and North, the vast area is covered by sand dunes, of which mobile sand dunes account for 83%. There are fixed and semi fixed sand dunes mainly composed of Haloxylon ammodendron near gulunai Lake in the west, Guaizi Lake in the north and kunaitoumiao in the East, covering an area of about 3000 square kilometers. The sand dunes are tall and dense, of which the tall sand dunes account for 61% of the total area of the desert. The height of the sand dunes is mostly 200-300 meters, up to 500 meters The area of sand dune chain is small.

Only in the southeast of the desert, there are many small inland lakes (commonly known as Haizi) between the sand mountains, with an area of 1-1.5 square kilometers and a maximum depth of 6.2 meters. Most of them are salty water and cannot be drunk. The plants around the lake are dense, mostly hygrophytic and halophytic. They are often distributed in concentric circles with the surrounding sand dunes around the lake water. Fixed and semi fixed sand mounds mainly composed of Psammophytes appear near the sand dunes. Haizi is often surrounded by pastures and settlements.

Formation of Sand Mountain

Researchers at home and abroad have different opinions on the causes of the formation of sand mountains in Badain Jaran Desert. Some people think that the southeast of Badain Jaran is blocked by the Yabulai mountain, resulting in the disturbance of gravity wave which is perpendicular to the direction of Yabulai mountain. The southwest wind blows in this area all the year round, and the sand particles are piled up in front of the mountain. The updraft in the gravity wave will bring the sand to a higher place, and over time, it will gather into a tall Sand Mountain. Some people also say that Badain Jaran area was originally a hilly landform, and after the desertification, it will become a large sand mountain The sand grains directly cover the hills to form high sand mountains.

The latest statement about the formation of Sand Mountain is that groundwater maintains the sand mountain. Hehai University, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Researchers from the Institute of quality and Geophysics, the University of Queensland, Australia and other institutions have jointly signed the paper "groundwater maintains tall sand mountains" published in the British journal Nature.

The paper points out that the secret of the sand dunes in Badain Jaran Desert standing for thousands of years is that there is a wet sand layer 20-30 cm below the surface sand. There is a large amount of water in the pores of the sand. Due to the upwelling of groundwater and evaporation of water vapor in the underlying deep fault zone, the surface humidity of the sand dunes increases and the solidity of the sand dunes increases, resulting in the formation of large sand dunes.

It is also said that the fluctuation of dry and wet climate results in that when the climate enters a humid cycle, a large amount of precipitation makes the calcium carbonate in the sand dunes form a calcium layer to cement and fix the sand. When the climate entered the dry cycle, the flowing sand accumulated on the calcium layer. The sand dunes get bigger and bigger as they go on and on.

Lake formation

There are different views on the causes of the formation of lakes in Badain Jaran Desert. Some people think that it's atmospheric precipitation plus condensation water (DEW). The sand dunes here cool down quickly at night. When the temperature of water vapor condenses into water, the water will condense to the sand dunes and enter the sand. The total amount of this condensation water in a year is equivalent to the average annual precipitation here about 80 mm. Some people also say that these lakes are left over during the humid climate period. Others think that these lakes are formed during the humid climate period The lake water comes from the Yabulai mountain or Qilian Mountain, and even from the great fault zone of Altun mountain.

A new theory is that deep circulating water comes from the southeast. Deep circulating water overflows from the depth of the earth's crust and is a hot spring with high temperature and stability. It can bring dissolved calcium carbonate only after passing through limestone and limestone areas. After the water gushes out of the earth's surface, the temperature and pressure change, the carbon dioxide gas escapes, and the calcium carbonate precipitates again, forming tufa. In Badain Jaran Desert, there are many travertine in lakes with accumulated water all the year round.

climatic conditions

Badain Jaran Desert is a temperate continental desert climate with extremely arid climate and few precipitation

Chinese PinYin : Ba Dan Ji Lin Sha Mo