Lake Heihai

Lake Heihai
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False-color satellite photograph of Lake Heihai
Lake Heihai
Location	Golmud County Haixi Prefecture Qinghai Province China
Coordinates	36°00′00″N 93°15′00″E
Etymology	"Black Sea"
Max. length	12 km (7.5 mi)
Max. width	5 km (3 mi)
Surface area	38.3 km2 (14.8 sq mi)
Max. depth	22.5 m (74 ft)
Surface elevation	4,420–4,446 m (14,501–14,587 ft)

Lake Heihai
Chinese	黑海
Literal meaning	Black Sea Dark Sea
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hēi Hǎi Wade–Giles Hei Hai

Alternative names
Traditional Chinese	西王母瑤池
Simplified Chinese	西王母瑶池
Literal meaning	The Jade Pond of the Queen Mother of the West
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xīwángmǔ Yáochí Wade–Giles Hsi Wang Mu Yao Ch‘i Hsi-wang-mu-yao-ch‘i

Lake Heihai is a small mesosaline lake in Golmud County, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai Province, in western China.

Names

"Lake Heihai" is an English clarification of the pinyin romanization of the Chinese name Hēi Hǎi, meaning "Black Sea". (As with Qinghai Lake, the Chinese word for "sea" is sometimes used to translate the Mongolian naɣur (ᠨᠠᠭᠤᠷ), which was once used ambiguously for all large bodies of water.) The lake is also known as Xīwángmǔ Yáochí ("Jade Pond of the Queen Mother of the West") from an old legendary location in the Kunlun Mountains and sometimes confused with Lake Hala in the Qilian Mountains.

Geography

Lake Heihai is located about 200 km (120 mi) south of the city of Golmud in Golmud County, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai Province, at an elevation of 4,420 m (14,500 ft) or 4,446 m (14,587 ft) above sea level in western China. It lies in a valley roughly 50 km (31 mi) long and 15 km (9.3 mi) wide between the Kunlun Mountains (highest elevation about 5,700 m or 18,700 ft) to the south and the Burhan Buda (highest elevation about 5,400 m or 17,700 ft) to the north. Earthquakes are common, as the lake lies near the major 1,600 km (990 mi) long Kunlun Fault.

Covering 38.3 km² (14.8 sq mi), it stretches about 12 km (7.5 mi) from east to west and 5 km (3 mi) north to south. The deepest point is around 22.5 m (74 ft) below its surface. Two main streams feed into the lake, with a catchment of 990 km² (380 sq mi) or 1,600 km² (620 sq mi). The outflow to the east is the source of the Kunlun River, the upper stretch of the Golmud River.

With mean annual precipitation of 250 mm (9.8 in) and high evaporation rates, the lake's water is mesohaline. The mean annual temperature is −8 °C (18 °F), so much of the surrounding countryside is permafrost alpine grassland, supporting dwarf cinquefoil and winterfat shrubs and sparse sedges and grasses. Polygonum sibiricum occupies moist saline sites close to the lake; drier land further from shore is characterized by Kobresia robusta on the sandier north side and Poa pachyantha on the south side.

History

During the Pleistocene, sediment from glaciers in the Kunlun temporarily blocked outflow from the lake. During the mid-Holocene, the climate was wetter and warmer, possibly from increased influence from the Indian or East Asian monsoon. By the late Holocene, the monsoon was no longer able to reach the lake and its environment became drier and windier again.

Culture

As the largest present lake in the Kunlun Mountains, it has become identified with the "Jade" or "Turquoise Pond" important in various myths involving the Queen Mother of the West. Lake Heihai has a stone temple to the Queen Mother and a large slab reading "Xiwangmu Yaochi".

See also

• List of lakes in China

References

Bibliography

• Lockot, Gregori; et al. (2015), "A Process- and Provenance-Based Attempt to Unravel Inconsistent Radiocarbon Chronologies in Lake Sediments: An Example from Lake Heihai, North Tibetan Plateau (China)", Radiocarbon, vol. Vol. 57, Phoenix: University of Arizona, pp. 1003–1019, doi:10.2458/azu_rc.57.18221 {{citation}}: |volume= has extra text (help).
• Müller, Carolina; et al. (December 2014), "Phytosociological and Palynological Studies of Alpine Steppe Communities on the Northern Tibetan Plateau, Qinghai Province, China", Feddes Repertorium Journal of Botanical Taxonomy and Geobotany, vol. Vol. 124, Weinheim: Wiley-VCH Verlag, pp. 122–138, doi:10.1002/fedr.201400006 {{citation}}: |volume= has extra text (help).
• Ramisch, Arne; et al. (2016), "Art. 25791: A Persistent Northern Boundary of Indian Summer Monsoon Precipitation over Central Asia during the Holocene", Scientific Reports, vol. No. 6, doi:10.1038/srep25791 {{citation}}: |volume= has extra text (help).
• Stauch, Georg (21 June 2016), Aeolian Sediments on the Northern Tibetan Plateau, Aachen: Rheinisch–Westfälischen Technischen Hochschule.
• Stauch, Georg; et al. (June 2017), Geomorphology, vol. Vol. 286, Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 78–92, doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.03.008 {{citation}}: |volume= has extra text (help).
• Zhang, Wanyi; et al. (November 2013), "Ostracod Distribution and Habitat Relationships in the Kunlun Mountains, Northern Tibetan Plateau", Quaternary International, vol. Vol. 313, Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 38–46, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2013.06.020 {{citation}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help).

External links

• A map of the Heihai's drainage basin