NW China salt lake expands, threatening environment
Concern is growing over the damage the continuous expansion of the salt lake in Northwest China's Hoh Xil region is causing to the surrounding ecological environment and infrastructure.
The China Meteorological News reported Sunday that the salt lake has expanded by 4.5 square kilometers and have been growing since 2011.
The size of most lakes in the region has remained the same since last year, except for the salt lake, based on recent satellite images of the Qinghai Institute of Meteorological Science.
The salt lake expanded 2.3 times from 2011 to 2015 and continued to expand, and that lakes along the upper reaches of the salt lake have lost part of their water storage function, the China Meteorological News reported.
The salt lake is damaging the nearby ecological environment and eroding infrastructure, including the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world's highest, communication cables and pipelines.
Experts said the thawing of glaciers and increased rainfall from global warming is causing the salt lake to expand, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Meanwhile, Qinghai's climate center said over the weekend that the salt lake will continue to expand this year because of increased rainfall and higher temperatures this summer, thepaper.cn reported.
