"Time" is a wonderful existence for Xinjiang. Especially in Kashgar, Xinjiang, there is not a trace of darkness in the sky at 10:30 at night. Some people say, "Watching the latest sunset in China is a romance exclusive to Kashgar." In recent years, a large number of tourists will choose to go to Xinjiang to experience this different sunset scene.

Contrary to the romance of Kashgar, Xinjiang, Lop Nur, also located in Xinjiang, is actually called the "Sea of ​​Death". It is the most famous arid center in the world, desolate and barren. However, in recent years, more than 200 square kilometers of lakes have appeared in the Lop Nur area, and the area is gradually expanding. What exactly is this for? Where does the water come from?

1. Oasis turns into Gobi Desert ===============================

Lop Nur is located in the southeast of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the lowest point in the east of the Tarim Basin, and at the easternmost edge of the Taklimakan Desert, China's largest desert. It has a romantic name called "Earth of the Earth."

As early as the 1970s, when NASA was taking satellite photos of the earth's resources, the Lop Nur under the overhead shot was shaped like a "human ear", with earlobes and ear holes, and it was lifelike. It was later called the "ear of the earth."

Some people may ask, Lop Nur used to be the second largest inland lake in China, bigger than Qinghai Lake. Why is the salt crust crystal shaped like an ear? In fact, this is determined by the density of matter and the evaporation of water molecules. Most of the lakes in western China are salt water lakes with relatively high potassium salt content. As the salt water lakes evaporate and shrink, the salt concentration will become higher and higher. Because water evaporation does not take away salt molecules, it shrinks to a certain extent and forms a crystalline salt crust.

The terrain of Lop Nur itself is slightly higher in the middle and lower around, especially in the east there is a low-lying "half ring" shape. After the lake surface has shrunk for a long time, the salt is concentrated in this half area, and then the "human ear" is formed. Outline.

In fact, in ancient times, Lop Nur was an oasis of life. It was famous for its location at the center of the ancient Silk Road, and was called "the throat of the ancient Silk Road". There is a vast and desolate Yadan landform, where once there were cattle and horses, surrounded by green forests, and a place with clear rivers and beautiful mountains and waters.

Not only that, Lop Nur also gave birth to the mysterious ancient city of Loulan, which nourishes the prosperity and splendor different from Jiangnan in the endless yellow sand. However, with the change of climate and human activities in the later period, the range of Lop Nur gradually began to shrink, and it dried up completely in the 1970s.

It turned into an endless desert, without a grass, a stream, not a single bird in the sky, and no trace of life. In summer, the temperature can even reach 70 degrees, which is a real "no man's land."

It is also because of the harsh conditions in Lop Nur that it has become the base for China's nuclear tests. Because compared to the geography of other areas, the terrain here is open, not in the seismic zone, and far from towns. As we all know, nuclear explosions will produce a large amount of radioactive material, so Lop Nur, which is completely forbidden to others, has naturally become the best choice for studying nuclear tests for decades.

Here, after a long period of research and development and dozens of nuclear weapons tests, fruitful scientific results have been achieved. In 1996, China officially announced the termination of nuclear testing, which means that China has developed into a "great power". Lop Nur naturally became a witness to the explosion of China's first atomic bomb.

Since then, the life scene left by the scientific research team during the research and development process has become the only trace of Lop Nur. However, in the past ten years, the "Oasis of Life" that has disappeared for more than 50 years has once again been rippling. What is the reason for the "resurrection" of the long-dry Lop Nur? It all starts with why it dries up.

2. Natural disasters and man-made disasters ===========================================

According to official records, the largest area of ​​Lop Nur in history is 5,350 square kilometers. The Chinese historical book "Han Shu" once recorded the grand occasion of Lop Nur, "It is three hundred miles wide, and its water pavilions are dwellings, which do not increase or decrease in winter and summer." After the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to the diversion of the middle reaches of the Tarim River at that time, the ancient country of Loulan, which is adjacent to the western part of Lop Nur, was very tight in water, and it was even necessary to restrict the national water shortage by laws.

Although the Loulan people made the greatest attempts and efforts to dred the river, it was finally abandoned due to the lack of water. The once prosperous ancient city of Loulan is no longer what it used to be. At the same time, the Silk South Road, which was once prosperous, was full of yellow sand and traveled. To the end of the Qing Dynasty, when the water rose in Lop Nur, it was only "eight or ninety miles long from east to west, and two or three miles or one or two miles wide from north to south", and only a small lake area.

Until 1960, Lop Nur quickly dried up. The surrounding ecological environment has undergone great changes, all herbs have withered, and all the Populus euphratica forests have died. The desert is advancing towards Lop Nur at a speed of 3-5 meters per year, and soon it will be integrated with the boundless Taklimakan Desert. There are only two reasons for this: "natural disasters" and "man-made disasters".

1. "Category"

Xinjiang is located in the northwest region of China. The northwest inland is far away from the ocean. The precipitation of the monsoon climate itself is relatively small. The annual precipitation is only 20mm, and the evaporation is more than 3000mm. Drought and little rainfall are the climatic characteristics of Lop Nur itself.

Moreover, Lop Nur is a basin landform formed by the collision between plates in the western region, and it becomes a lake landform with the accumulation of water for a long time. The low-lying terrain of this basin prevents cold air from entering the sky over Lop Nur, and the already scarce water vapor is blocked by the surrounding mountains, further reducing precipitation.

As the snow in the surrounding mountains melted, the water was evaporated by the high temperature before it reached Lop Nur. The water supply is gradually decreasing, but the evaporation is increasing. At the same time, China's overall terrain is high in the west and low in the east, water has been flowing eastward, and the inflow of water has always been smaller than the expenditure, which will naturally increase the degree of dryness of Lop Nur.

2. "Man-made disaster"

The people who lived in the Lop Nur area in ancient times are the oldest ethnic group of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang. They live along the waters and feed mainly on boat fishing. After the founding of New China, under the influence of the westward migration policy, a large number of people poured into Xinjiang.

The population on both sides of the Tarim River has surged, and the demand for domestic water will naturally increase. Water is needed for farming, mining, and building reservoirs, and people frantically ask for water from the Tarim River. In the past ten years, 130 reservoirs have been built around.

In addition, there are many cities around Lop Nur. In order to develop the economy, many factories have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. Industrial water consumption has increased dramatically, and factory owners have drained the Tarim River like vampires. Therefore, the Lop Nur in the 1960s has completely dried up.

After Lop Nur dried up, the surrounding vegetation began to disappear, and it gradually turned into a desert. History and reality cast a mysterious veil on Lop Nur. Some people who love adventure want to go there to learn about its mystery. However, because the desert is dry and lacks water and there is no reference, it is difficult to identify the direction, and people often have no return. . Therefore, Lop Nur is called "the sea of ​​death".

There are not a few people who have disappeared mysteriously in Lop Nur these years. Among them, the cause of death of Peng Jiamu, a famous Chinese biochemist, is inextricably linked with Lop Nor.

The veil of mystery

After graduating from the Agricultural College of Central University, Peng Jiamu was sent to Peking University as a teaching assistant in the Soil Department of Peking University, specializing in agricultural chemistry. The following year, he resigned from his teaching assistantship and applied for the Academia Sinica mechanic to engage in biochemical research.

Due to his outstanding research results, he was invited to go to Moscow, the Soviet Union to learn new technologies of nuclear magnetic resonance, but Mr. Peng Jiamu voluntarily gave up this opportunity and actively applied to the organization to go to Xinjiang for inspection. Before that, he had a total of 15 visits to Xinjiang, and contributed a lot to the reconstruction of the Xinjiang Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and later served as the vice president of the institute.

In 1964, Peng Jiamu took his team to the outskirts of Lop Nur for the first time to study the nearby water and mineral specimens. The study found that the potassium content of Lop Nur is very high, especially the potassium reserves in the north of Lop Nur reach more than 250 million tons. It is one of the few super-large potash mines in China. Teacher Peng and his team expect that Lop Nur will replace Golmud. Become the largest potash production base in China.

Combining the historical status of Lop Nur and the actual mining value, with the approval of the State Council, Peng Jiamu acted as a team consultant and once again went to Lop Nur to conduct an on-site inspection. And with the "Silk Road" program group composed of Chinese and Japanese TV stations, they will shoot together on the spot.

Mr. Peng Jiamu, who had two experience of inspecting Lop Nur, insisted on traveling through the entire Lop Nur in order to uncover the mystery of Lop Nur. So he once again led a Chinese team to conduct the third comprehensive inspection. Unfortunately, this became Teacher Peng's last inspection.

On June 5, 1980, the research team formed by the Chinese themselves, after 28 days of trekking through mountains and rivers, achieved the first crossing of the core area of ​​Lop Nur, with a total length of 450 kilometers. They collected a large number of mineral fossils and collected a lot of first-hand scientific investigation materials. All these provide forward-looking preparations for China to develop Lop Nur.

In order to open up another route to travel through Lop Nur, Mr. Peng Jiamu dragged his weak body with cancer and proposed to return to Lop Nur again in more than 20 days, only to contribute to the scientific research work that can create frontier areas for the country.

At 10 am on the 17th of the same month, the expedition camped near Kumu Kuduk. The gasoline, water, and food that had been prepared for only a month were running out. The team members wanted to send a telegram to the headquarters for help and deliver supplies by helicopter. At first, Mr. Peng disagreed, because the cost of dispatching a helicopter would cost 7,000 yuan, and he did not want to waste the country's assets.

But seeing that the remaining supplies could not support tomorrow, Mr. Peng decided to draft a telegram to explain in detail the dangerous situation of the team. The next morning, the headquarters called back and said that the delivery of supplies was immediately arranged, and asked the expedition team to stand by.

Strangely, when the headquarters delivered the supplies at one o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Peng Jiamu disappeared. All that was left was a note that read , "I'll go east to find a well." This move made the other team members puzzled. They have already asked the headquarters for help, so why should they act alone? Moreover, the teammates found that Mr. Peng did not carry the map, but took the plant specimens away. Why is this?

After learning the news, the Party Central Committee and the State Council immediately informed the leaders of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and contacted Xinjiang as soon as possible. A total of four times, more than a dozen planes, dozens of cars, and thousands of people were sent to carry out dragnet searches.

In the end, nothing was found, and Teacher Peng Jiamu disappeared without a trace. This is the biggest unsolved mystery that has occurred in China since the founding of the People's Republic of China. From the beginning to the end, there is a mysterious force.

There are rumors that the disappearance of Teacher Peng is related to the "Pisces Jade Pendant". It is said that the scientific expedition team at that time found a jade pendant in the ancient city of Lop Nur, which looked like two fishes connected together. It is widely rumored that this "Pisces jade pendant" can make "mirror copies" of people or other living bodies. In other words, it can create an original you out of thin air, like Sun Wukong's "children".

This incident sounds unbelievable, but the connection between Teacher Peng's disappearing body and the incident makes the whole thing weird and bizarre. The official took into account that there was no scientific explanation for this incident, and in order to avoid causing panic, it was only announced that Teacher Peng was missing.

Decades have passed since Mr. Peng's incident, and the real reason for his disappearance has not yet been found. Until now, some people think that there are some mysterious powers in Lop Nor.

4. Where does the water come from? ==================================

Today's Lop Nur has become a 200-square-kilometer saltwater lake. Where does the water come from? Could it be the melting of snow due to global warming, or the increase in precipitation caused by climate anomalies?

According to the data provided by the Meteorological Observatory, the precipitation in China has indeed increased in the past 50 years, and the Tarim Desert has even experienced heavy rains many times. The annual precipitation there can reach 200mm, which is 10 times that of the past. The snowmelt in Zhoushan has indeed shown an upward trend to a certain extent.

However, these are not the main reasons for the "rebirth" of Lop Nur. The real reason to bring Lop Nur back to life is "artificial persistence".

Perhaps it was scientists trying to unravel the mystery of the Pengjiamu incident, or perhaps it stemmed from the once glorious moment of Lop Nur, which itself has a different feeling for Chinese people. So, even if it becomes "devastated", scientists are reluctant to give it up.

As mentioned above, Mr. Hu and his team discovered in 1964 that the potash reserves in Lop Nur were as high as 250 million tons. Therefore, in 1995, geoscientist Wang Mili brought the potash project team to the central area of ​​Lop Nur again.

So what is the relationship between the water in Lop Nur and potassium salt? Potash mines exist in the form of brine layers. Geologists extract the brine in Lop Nur through professional operations. After the potash is extracted, the treated brine is discharged back to Lop Nur.

And the brine concentration is high, even at high temperature, the water evaporates very slowly. Therefore, with the expansion of mining, the lake water flowed again, and Lop Nur slowly became a 200-square-kilometer saltwater lake, which is still expanding.

What is the mined potash used for? Its role is huge. In addition to maintaining the life activities of the human body, the growth of plants is also inseparable from potassium salts. Moreover, China itself is a big agricultural country, and the processed potash fertilizer is one of the three indispensable fertilizers for agriculture. Among other things, potassium salts make detergents, chemicals, and even ceramic glass.

In 2000, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region established Lop Nur Potash Technology Development Co., Ltd. to start large-scale production of potash fertilizers, and Lop Nur became the largest potash fertilizer production base in China. More importantly, Lop Nur's potash has solved the shortage of potash fertilizer in China.

Originally, the production of potash fertilizer could not meet the domestic demand. Since 1998, the import volume of potash fertilizer has been on the rise, and the highest import volume of potash fertilizer accounted for 23% of the world total. The import price in 2008 was about 4,000 yuan per ton.

Today, with the exploitation of potash resources in China and the improvement of the national potash fertilizer market position, the import will be about 1,500 yuan per ton. For farmers, the cost will be reduced accordingly, and the enthusiasm for production will also be improved. .

5. Ecological protection ========================

There are many mined rivers like Lop Nur in the world, and nature uses its own energy to provide a lot of wealth to human society. While enjoying the resources and convenience it brings to us, human beings must learn to love them and coexist together.

The wanton request for Lop Nur before has sounded the alarm for mankind. In order for the entire ecology to grow in a balanced environment, long-term and effective development can only be achieved by caring for the ecology and protecting the environment. I believe that over time, the area of ​​Lop Nur will be bigger and bigger.