How thick is the Taklimakan Desert? If all the sand suddenly disappeared, what would be underneath?

In fact, there are not many purposes that humans can live in. Except for forests, mountains, and deserts, there are very few lands that people can use. Those areas that are uninhabitable and usable have become the habitat of humans and many animals. restricted area.

Take the desert as an example, the desert is one of the more mysterious areas. Because of the characteristics of the terrain and climate, the desert is uninhabited. However, the desert occupies a large area of ​​the earth (one-fifth of the land area). From the point of view, the desert is mainly concentrated in three areas:

The first is near the Tropic of Cancer. For example, the Sahara Desert, the Australian desert, etc., these deserts have a very dry climate and are almost uninhabited.

The second area is the depths of the continent. For example, the Taklimakan Desert, because it is very far from the coastline, it is difficult for water vapor to flow back here, resulting in a very dry local climate with little rainfall all year round, gradually forming a desert climate.

The third area is the leeward slope on the coastal continent. The most notable of these is the Atacama Desert in South America. Because of the huge mountain range, most of the water vapor is blocked by the mountains, resulting in very dry leeward slopes, thus forming a desert area.

Everyone is not very unfamiliar with deserts. The largest desert in the world is the Sahara Desert. The largest desert in China is the Taklimakan Desert. The Taklimakan Desert is located in the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang, with a total length of more than 1,000 kilometers, a width of more than 400 kilometers, and an area of ​​about 330,000 square kilometers, which is comparable to Yunnan Province.

There are many factors in the formation of the Taklimakan Desert, among which the main ones are geological movement and weathering. Moreover, the degree of geological action and weathering is not the same, so even in the same desert, the thickness of the desert will be different in different regions.

The most notable feature of the Taklimakan Desert is the largest mobile desert in the world. The temperature difference between day and night in the Taklimakan Desert is extremely large (approximately about 40°C), and the average annual precipitation is less than 100 mm. In some years, it has never rained for the whole year, because the area here is rather peculiar, with strong wind and weathering. Obviously, the mobility of the desert is strong. The Taklimakan Desert is full of large and small mobile sand dunes. The height of these dunes is about 100 to 300 meters, and people can find them by looking at them.

Because the thickness of the desert varies from region to region, some regions may be only 5 meters to 10 meters thick, but in the part of the dunes, the thickness of the desert can reach more than 300 meters. Many people are very curious, what exactly exists under the desert? If we could remove all the sand, what would we see?

Quite simply, the first thing that catches the eye is the rock formation, which is about 60 million years old. Underneath it, there may be precious oil resources, even super large oil and gas fields. In fact, many large oil and gas fields have been found deep in the Taklimakan Desert.

Why is there so much oil here? Because in ancient times, the Taklimakan Desert area was still the ocean. At that time, the climate was warm, the number of marine organisms was large, and it had excellent sedimentary conditions. With the passage of time, it also provided a huge foundation for the formation of oil.

Later, due to geological movement and plate migration, the land disintegrated, the African plate, and the Indian plate drifted away. At this time, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was squeezed by the two plates and gradually bulged, forming a basin. The water vapor from the continent reached the basin, the more Less and less, the climate gradually drier, and finally a desert is formed.

According to the research of scientists, there is still a large amount of groundwater under the Taklimakan Desert. However, it is very difficult to exploit these groundwater, and the burial site is also very deep. In addition, the desert climate is very harsh, and the water vapor evaporates very quickly. It was evaporated before it was mined to the ground. Furthermore, the blind exploitation of water resources is likely to cause the collapse of the natural system in the region and affect the surrounding ecological environment. Therefore, the protection of the resources of the Taklimakan Desert is still the main priority.