Lop Nur, a lake in Xinjiang, was magnificent during the Han and Tang Dynasties, with abundant aquatic plants and dense water networks. But I don't know when it started, but it slowly disappeared in front of people, and even the splendid Loulan civilization disappeared mysteriously. It has changed from the cradle of life to the forbidden area of life, and it is a "sea of death" that is difficult for human beings to set foot on.
The mysterious Lop Nur attracted countless explorers to take risks. China scholar Peng mysteriously disappeared on his way to Lop Nur. Some people say that he traveled back to the Han Dynasty, while others say that he was buried by the wind and sand. This bizarre incident undoubtedly cast a mysterious and dangerous veil on Lop Nur, which made people love and fear.
Today, people found from the satellite that the dry Lop Nur was actually "resurrected", the dry skin gradually became moist and rich, and the sea of death became blue and blue, which was amazing. Surprised, people can't help but think of a question, where does water come from? Why did it suddenly appear?
Mysterious lop Nur
Lop Nur, located in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, east of Tarim Basin and north of Ruoqiang County, is also an inland lake. China has a long history of observing Lop Nur, and recorded the names of Lop Nur in different historical periods. The earliest name of Lop Nur was You Ze (Ling Ze), which appeared many times in the geographical masterpiece Shan Hai Jing ·Xi· Shan Jing.
It is recorded in the book: "Looking eastward at the river, the river is also hidden", and Guo Pu in the Jin Dynasty noted: "The river is black", so Shan Hai Jing got its name because the lake is black. Shan Hai Jing was written in the Warring States Period, which means that people can name Lop Nur from the color of the lake during the Warring States Period.
Historical Records compiled by Sima Qian in Han Dynasty renamed Lop Nur as "Salt Ze". "Biography of Dawan": "To the west of Khotan, all water flows west, entering the West Sea, and its east water flows east, injecting salt", which is called salt lake. Biography of Historical Records of Dawan was written in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. At this time, people named the lake according to its nature, and in the Warring States period, it was named after its color, indicating that people had a deeper understanding of Lop Nur.
Hanshu called Lop Nur "Pu Changhai", and Records of the Western Regions recorded: "Khotan is at the foot of Nanshan, and its Hebei is connected with Qingji, and there is a Pu Changhai in the east. Pu Changhai, a Yanze also ". Li Daoyuan in the Northern Wei Dynasty still called Lop Nur Long Ze or Pu Haichang in his Notes on Water Classics. The North River is "east to the south of Loulan and east to Ling Ze, so-called Puchang seawater."
Call another new lake the blue ocean of prison. In the early Tang Dynasty, Li Taihou confused the Blue Ocean with Pu Changhai in Wang Wei's Extended Zhi. It is said: "Pu Changhai, a long river and a salt river, also known as Fu, also known as Prison, also known as Linhai, is in the southwest of Shazhou." Master Xuanzang, a monk in the Tang Dynasty, called Loulan "Nabangbo" and Lop Nur "Nabangbo" in "Records of the Western Regions of Datang".
1907, the British explorer Stan found Tibetan remnants written with the words "Big Naboo City" and "Little Naboo City" in Milan ruins. I agree that Xuanzang's Loulan is the record of that Tiebo, and think that this name is the name of Loulan in the Middle Ages and nearly a hundred years. The name comes from the transliteration of Tibetan. Lop Nur was originally "Nobu", and later N became L, pronounced "Lop Nur". When Kyle Polo passed through this area in the early Ming Dynasty, it was called Lop Nur.
Vae, a geographer in the Qing Dynasty, said: "Rob Naoer who talks back to Rob is called the place where water meets." Some scholars think: "The Mongolian language is Luobnuoer. Naoer, the words gather in Shui Ze, and Rob is bound by the sound of waves with Xuanzang. "
As can be seen from the above records, the name of Lop Nur was literally translated from minority languages such as Uighur and Mongolian.
History of Lop Nur
Lop Nur was born in Late Tertiary and Early Quaternary, and the frequent orogeny at the end of the third act was an important reason for its birth. The ancient Lop Nur, with a history of 6.5438+0.8 million years ago, covers an area of 20,000 square kilometers when it was first born. However, under the influence of Quaternary neotectonic movement, the lake basin rose obliquely from south to north, and the whole Great Lake was divided into several depressions. 1958, after investigation, the engineering team found that Lop Nur was the second largest lake in China, covering an area of 5,350 square kilometers.
Because the satellite image of the arid Lop Nur looks like the shape of a human ear, it is also called "the ear of the earth". Lop Nur is connected to Tarim River, Peacock River and Chechen River in the west and Shule River in the east, with dense water networks. It is a paradise and a bright pearl in the western regions. Lop Nur nurtured people from the western regions and gave birth to the Loulan Kingdom with a large population and strong national strength. According to historical records, Loulan was founded about 176 years ago, lasting more than 800 years, and mysteriously disappeared in the early Tang Dynasty around 630 AD.
In BC 126, Zhang Qian was ordered to go to the Western Regions. After passing through Loulan, he found that the geographical position here is very superior. After returning to the Han Dynasty, he made a suggestion to the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty: "Loulan, Sicheng has a city wall and is close to salt." Since then, Loulan has become the gateway to the south of the Silk Road. Lop Nur, a 300-mile-long expanse of water, continues unabated in winter and spring, and it is speculated that it is the upstream source of the Yellow River. It was not until Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty sent Amitabha to Qinghai and Xinjiang to inspect the source of the Yellow River that this statement was changed and the water source of Lop Nur was corrected from the injection of Tarim River and Peacock River.
According to reports, after the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to the diversion of the middle reaches of the Tarim River, the amount of water in Lop Nur decreased, resulting in a water shortage crisis in Loulan. Later, Loulan people gathered 4,000 people in Dunhuang, Shanshan, Yanqi and Qiuci, cut off the Zhubin River day and night, and introduced water into Loulan, thus alleviating the water shortage in Loulan. Since then, due to environmental impact and river diversion, the amount of water in Lop Nur has become less and less. In order to survive, Loulan people had to leave their hometown to find a new home, and the once dazzling ancient country of Loulan disappeared. In the late Qing Dynasty, when Lop Nur was flooded, it was only a few hundred square kilometers.
The first researcher in China who went to Lop Nur for archaeological work was Mr. Huang Wenbi. During the period of 1930, he came here twice for field investigation and excavation. He found more than 70 Han bamboo slips around Lop Nur, four of which were from the Western Han Dynasty, so he named them "Tuyin". Since then, the Swedish archaeologist Fokker Begemann has discovered the ancient tomb of Loulan people in 1934.
192 1 year, the Tarim River diverted eastward and directly injected into Lop Nur, which improved the gradual drying up of Lop Nur. 193 1 year, and the area of lop Nur is 1900 square kilometers. 194 1 year, covering an area of 3006 square kilometers. 1958, lop Nur reached the largest area, 5350 square kilometers. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), in order to guard against foreign enemies and help Xinjiang's construction, a large number of people came to the banks of the Tarim River, resulting in water shortage in the Tarim River. In the past decades, more than 130 reservoirs have been built, resulting in the drying up of the lower reaches of Tarim River. 1962 The lower reaches of Tarim River were cut off, and Lop Nur also dried up.
After Lop Nur dried up, the surrounding plants were irrigated without water, and the ecological environment deteriorated rapidly. Almost all the herbs have dried up, resulting in serious desertification. In less than a few years, Lop Nur has merged with the Taklimakan Desert, becoming a new generation of "forbidden area for human beings". It used to be a lake, so it is also called the "sea of death".
1980 Peng, a scientist from China, disappeared while looking for water, but his body has not been found so far, causing controversy.
The Mystery of Lop Nur Wandering
Loulan civilization, born in Lop Nur, attracts Chinese and foreign scholars to study it. The Italian Kyle Polo in the early Ming Dynasty, the Russian explorer Pleger Val in the Qing Dynasty, the Swedish explorer, Mr. Huang Wenbi, Peng and others all came here to study, in order to find the mysterious disappearance of Loulan ancient country and the mystery of Lop Nur migration. They tried to explain it from geography, climate and archaeology.
1876, Pu R Waer, who crossed the Tianshan Mountains from Yili, walked along the southeast direction of the lower reaches of Tarim River, and found Karabrown and Karakushun Lake 60 miles away from Altengtage. At that time, Tarim River flowed into Lake Karakushun. He tasted the lake and found it very weak. He compared the measured map of Lop Nur drawn by himself with the map of Qing Dynasty, and found that there was a whole latitude difference between them, so he accused the map of Qing Dynasty of being wrong and announced to the academic circles that he had discovered the "real" Lop Nur.
After he announced this discovery to the outside world, he got some support, but Richthofen, then president of the German Geographical Society, expressed opposition. He published an article in Berlin Geography magazine, saying: According to the unified map of China in Qing Dynasty published in 1836, the real Lop Nur should be at 40 degrees and 40 minutes north latitude. Moreover, the Tarim River flows eastward into Lop Nur, not southward, so the lake he discovered was recently formed. In addition, Lop Nur is a salty lake, and the lake is salty rather than light.
After Richthofen's article was published, his student Sven Hedin, a Swede, decided to go to Lop Nur to support his tutor's paper. 1896 and 1900 visited the lower reaches of Tarim River twice, and found that Lop Nur was just like his tutor's paper, and also put forward a theory about Lop Nur wandering.
In 2 1 century, China scientists confirmed that Lop Nur belongs to the depression in the east of Tarim Basin through field investigation and satellite observation, so there will be no backflow in Lop Nur.
According to the determination of carbon 14 in the sediment of Lop Nur Lake, Lop Nur is the center of water flow in Tarim Basin, where many rivers collect water. Thus negating the vagrancy theory.
Lop Nur "resurrected"?
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lop Nur was cut off for human reasons and turned into a deserted Gobi and a dead sea. No creature can escape his sickle, just like the Monkey King can never turn out the palm of the Tathagata. There are wrecks and deaths everywhere. It's the owner here. We regret the fishing songs and the beautiful scenery of Ling Bo, and lament that it is not easy to survive.
In our impression, Lop Nur always seems to be a desolate Gobi with bright sunshine and yellow sand everywhere, but recently satellites show that Lop Nur has water and is gradually "resurrected". What's going on here? It turns out that all these water sources come from the potash mine in the north of Lop Nur. Lop Nur is a salty lake, and the water contains salt. After tens of thousands of years of accumulation, it has formed a huge potash mine. It is estimated that Lop Nur has a potassium salt reserve as high as 250 million tons, making it the second largest potassium salt mine in China.
Potassium in potassium salt is one of the essential elements to maintain human life activities and plant growth, and plays a role in promoting plant growth and development, which is very important for a large agricultural country like China. Potassium salt can be used as industrial and agricultural fertilizer. Potassium fertilizer is one of the three major fertilizers in agriculture, which is very important for agricultural production. Now that potassium ore has been discovered in Lop Nur, it is just right to take a nap and have a pillow.
The drilling crew pumped the potash brine from Lop Nur, and then separated the potash from the brine through a series of operations, and the remaining brine was discharged into Lop Nur along the pipeline. So the dry Lop Nur was "alive". Lop Nur, once full of ravines and yellow sand, has become beautiful and graceful. Throughout the history of Lop Nur, although its interruption was influenced by climate and geography, it was more caused by human activities. Looking at its "resurrection", it can be said that success is also caused by people, and failure is also caused by people.