The highest basin in the world is Qaidam Basin.

Ten famous basins in the world, each with its own characteristics, are also one of the five basic land topography in the world. Do you know where the highest basin in the world is and how many meters the waves are? Let's have a look!

The highest basin in the world is Qaidam Basin.

The Qaidam Basin (China) is about 2600 ~ 3000m.

Located in the northwest of Qinghai Province, with an altitude of 2,600-3,000m, it is the highest inland basin in China. Between Altun Mountain, Qilian Mountain and Kunlun Mountain, it is about 800 kilometers long from east to west and 350 kilometers wide from north to south, covering an area of about 200,000 square kilometers. The terrain gently slopes from northwest to southeast.

Topographic characteristics of Qaidam basin

The basement of the basin is Precambrian crystalline metamorphic rock series. The terrain is slightly inclined from northwest to southeast, and the altitude gradually drops from 3000 meters to about 2600 meters. The landform is concentric and annular, and from the edge to the center, it is alluvial gravel fan-shaped land (Gobi), alluvial-alluvial silt plain, lacustrine-alluvial silty clay plain and lacustrine silt saline soil plain in turn, and the change law is. Salt lakes and swamps are widely distributed in low-lying areas.

On the inner edge of the Gobi belt in the northwest of the basin, the hills below 100 meters are clustered into bundles. The southeastern part of the basin has serious subsidence, and the alluvial area and lake plain are vast. Major lakes, such as South and North Horuson Lake and Dabson Lake, are distributed here. There are large swamps in the lower reaches of Qaidam River, Sulingole River and Golmud River and around the lake.

Due to the uplift of a series of low mountain fault blocks of metamorphic rocks in the northeast of the basin, a secondary small intermountain basin was formed between the basin and Qilian Mountain. From west to east, there are Huahaizi, Dachaidan, Delingha and Wulan basins in turn, and the rivers in these basins pour into lakes in their low-lying centers respectively. Most rivers are intermittent, and the total number of rivers is only 100, mainly distributed in the east of the basin, and the water network in the west is extremely sparse. Most lakes in the basin have been salinized, and there are more than 20 large and small salt lakes.

Ecological status of Qaidam basin

Vegetation condition

The natural landscape of Qaidam Basin is arid desert, and the main soil types are salinized desert soil and gypsum desert soil. The latter is mainly distributed in the west of the basin, and meadow soil and swamp soil are generally salinized. Vegetation is sparse and simple, with less than 200 species, mainly shrubs, semi-shrubs and herbs with high drought resistance, and more halophytes. The vegetation structure is simple, and about 6/ 10 associations are composed of one or several species. (fortune telling)

In the foothill alluvial fan and alluvial plain, the desert vegetation community is mainly composed of ramie, ephedra, Haloxylon ammodendron and red sand shrubs; In salt marshes, along salt lakes and rivers, Cyperaceae plants densely form grass mounds, among which the dominant halophytes are Iris purpurea, centipede and Carex nigricans. Reed and Leymus chinensis dominate the periphery of salt lakes and swamps.

Animal distribution

The fauna in Qaidam Basin is characterized by the transition from Meng Xin to Qinghai-Tibet. Wild animals mainly include wild camels, wild donkeys, wild yaks, antelopes, green sheep, marmots, wolves, Ma Xiong, roe deer, foxes and badgers. Due to reclamation and hunting, wild animals have been greatly reduced, and some are on the verge of extinction.

Climatic conditions in Qaidam basin

From 196 1 to 2006, the temperature in China increased by 0. 10-0.20℃ and that in Qinghai Plateau by 0.33℃ every 10. Among them, the Qaidam basin is as high as 0.44℃ per 10 year. As a result, the Qaidam basin has become the most significant warming area in Qinghai Plateau and even the whole country.

While the temperature rises, the precipitation in the Qaidam Basin continues to increase. Since 1998, the precipitation in most areas of Qaidam basin has been increasing continuously, and the increasing trend is obviously greater than that in other areas of Qinghai Province. From 1998 to 2008, the average annual precipitation in all parts of the Qaidam Basin ranged from13.5mm to 95.5mm. Compared with the historical average, the precipitation in most areas increased by more than 10%.

The remarkable influence of global warming on the Qaidam Basin also makes it the most sensitive and significant area of climate change in the whole Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. There are various indications that the climate in Qaidam basin has changed from warm dry to warm wet.