Tibetan lake growing faster than before, experts say
Print Edition
Nam Co, the world’s highest saltwater lake, has grown remarkably in volume and surface area in recent years, officials said yesterday.
Monitoring data showed that the water level in the lake, in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, has been rising by about 23 centimeters a year since 2003, said Zhang Guoshuai, deputy head of the Nam Co observation station under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The amount of water in the lake has grown by more than 300 million cubic meters a year over the same period, Zhang said.
The lake is 4,725 meters above sea level and its maximum depth is more than 98 meters, he said.
The surface area has expanded by 50 square kilometers since 2000, compared with an increase of 26 square kilometers recorded between 1970 and 2000, Zhang said.
Zhu Liping, a researcher with the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute, also under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, attributed the lake’s rapid growth primarily to glacier loss.
“The amount of rain and melting ice is increasing much faster than water is evaporating,” he said.
Data show that lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have seen their surface areas expand by more than 20 percent over the past 20 years.
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