Kumtag Desert

The Kumtag Desert (Chinese: 库姆塔格沙漠; pinyin: Kùmǔtǎgé Shāmò, "kum-tag" meaning "sand-mountain" in a number of Turkic languages), is an arid landform in Northwestern China, which was proclaimed as a national park in the year 2002.

Definitions

Broad

The oval Tarim Basin with its central Taklamakan Desert is bounded on the north, west, and south by mountains. On the east side the Kumtag is an unbroken plain about 100 miles from north to south that runs from the Taklamakan to Gansu province and Mongolia. Many modern maps do not show a Kumtag in this sense, which implies that the usage may be out of date.

The Kumtag Desert is a section of the

Kara-koshun. A noticeable feature of the Kumtag is the presence of large accumulations of drift-sand, especially along the foot of the desert ranges, where it rises into dunes sometimes as much as 250 feet (76 m) in height and climbs the flanks of ranges themselves.^[1]

Administratively, the desert is located in the

Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County and Dunhuang City of Gansu, near their border with Qinghai

.

Narrow

Altyn Tagh

A map published by the National Geographic Society

Jade Gate

which is often taken as the western end of the Great Wall. From space it appears as a belt of orange sand dunes. This is probably the 2500 square kilometer area mentioned below.

Ongoing desertification

The Kumtag Desert is expanding and threatening to engulf previously productive lands with its arid wasteland character.[3] Several years prior the estimated size of the desert was 2500 square kilometres, but with recent expansion, the Kumtag Desert is already considerably larger as of 2008.

The Kumtag Desert is continuing a process of expansion that is the result of centuries of

severe limitations on immigration, and has also placed restrictions on new water-well development or new farm additions.^[3]

Prevailing winds and sands

The prevailing winds in this region would appear to blow from the west and northwest during the summer, winter and autumn. Though in spring, when they certainly are more violent, they no doubt come from the northeast, as in the desert of Lop. The arrangement of the sand here agrees perfectly with the law laid down by

Desert of Lop. Both sets of phenomena lie parallel to one another; from this we may infer that the winds which prevail in the two deserts are the same. Next comes, sharply demarcated from the zone just described, a more or less thin kamish steppe growing on level ground; and this in turn is followed by another very narrow belt of sand

, immediately south of Achik-kuduk Finally in the extreme north we have the characteristic and sharply defined belt of kamish steppe, stretching from east-northeast to west-southwest and bounded on north and south by high, sharp cut clay terraces.

"At the points where we measured them the northern terrace was 113 feet (34 m) high and the southern 853/4 feet....Both terraces belong to the same level, and would appear to correspond to the shore lines of a big bay of the last surviving remnant of the Central Asian Mediterranean. At the point where I crossed it the depression was 6 to 7 miles (11 km), wide, and thus resembled a flat valley or immense river-bed."^[1]^[5]

The moving sands of the Kumtag are of a concern for the designers of the

Golmud–Dunhuang Railway

, which will cross the eastern edge of this desert in the Shashangou area, between Dunhuang and the Altyn-Tagh-Qilian mountain system. There was a concern that the "megadunes" characteristic of this area may shift, burying the railway. However, geological research indicated that the "megadunes" are mostly formed by solid subsoil, rather than just sand. Although there is still the issue of drifting sand, it is thought by the experts that the sand is mostly blown along the direction of the future railway rather than across it, and can be handled with certain precautions.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bealby, John Thomas (1911). "Gobi, s.v. Desert of Kum-Tagh". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 166.
^ National Geographic Atlas of China',2008, page 29
^ ^a ^b ^c Ancient Chinese town on front lines of desertification battle, AFP, Nov 20, 2007
^ C.Michael Hogan, Silk Road, North China, The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham
^ Sven Hedlin, Scientific Results, ii, 499–500.
^ Study on the Feasibility of Dunhuang-Golmud Railway Crossing the Megadunes Area at the East Edge of Kumtagh Desert Archived 2013-08-01 at the Wayback Machine, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAREERI, CAS)

External links

42°42′00″N 90°16′00″E / 42.7°N 90.2667°E / 42.7; 90.2667

[EB1911-1] One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bealby, John Thomas (1911). "Gobi, s.v. Desert of Kum-Tagh". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 166.

[2] National Geographic Atlas of China',2008, page 29

[AFP-3] Ancient Chinese town on front lines of desertification battle, AFP, Nov 20, 2007

[4] C.Michael Hogan, Silk Road, North China, The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham

[5] Sven Hedlin, Scientific Results, ii, 499–500.

[6] Study on the Feasibility of Dunhuang-Golmud Railway Crossing the Megadunes Area at the East Edge of Kumtagh Desert Archived 2013-08-01 at the Wayback Machine, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAREERI, CAS)

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