Can anyone tell me about the current state of Lop Nur

Lop Nur did not disappear.

Lop Nur is located in the Taklamakan Desert in the eastern part of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, deep inland, is a former salt lake in northwest China, according to investigation, the formation of Lop Nur has a history of more than 20,000 years, before the fifties of the twentieth century, the area of Lop Nur reached 2,000 square kilometers.

However, after the fifties of the twentieth century, people built water conservancy projects in the middle reaches of the Tarim River, the original tributary of Lop Nur, which greatly reduced the area of Lop Nur, and the large-scale development of the west in the sixties and seventies, the population on both sides of the Tarim River surged, and people continued to draw water from the river, which eventually dried up more than 300 kilometers of the river, and Lop Nur also became a desert.

Since the disappearance of the lake in Lop Nur, wind erosion and salinization have intensified, and the local climatic conditions have also changed from arid to extremely arid.

After the drought, the surface of the basin of Lop Nur is covered with a layer of salt with a thickness of 30 cm to 1 m. In 1980, the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a carbon-14 test to use Lop Nur as a nuclear test site, and it became the site of large-scale mining operations until the discovery of potash here in the 90s.

According to the investigation, Lop Nur has the most abundant potash resources in China, its potash reserves of more than 100 million tons, is the second largest potash mine in China, in 2001, Xinjiang State Investment Corporation launched a 1.2 million tons of potash fertilizer project and brine transport floating pipe project.

Xinjiang State Investment Corporation adopts the technology of extracting potassium from seawater, extracting potassium-containing sulfate salt lake brine from the ground, and processing and producing potassium sulfate through the sun-drying of salt fields. With the development of potash, a large amount of salt lake brine extracted from the ground was discharged into the lowlands, forming a salt lake with an area of 10,000 square kilometers.

In the following year after the state approved the potash development project, Lop Nur Town was officially established with the approval of the people of the autonomous region. With the development of mineral resources such as potash and tourism resources in Lop Nur Town, Lop Nur is gradually becoming a hot spot for the development of the western region, and now it has become the largest town in Xinjiang.

Potash mining has brought Lop Nur back to life, and now Lop Nur has regained its former scenery, from a "place of death" to a "city of hope".

Satellite map to see Lop Nur, the Sea of Death, what is the current situation?

Lop Nur (Uygur: Mongolian: ancient name Yanze, Size, Puchanghai, Gaolanhai, Luopuchi, Furihai, Linhai, Luopuchi, Luobuchi, etc., Mongolian and Uygur called "Luobnaoer, Luobnuoer", which means "flowing into the lake of many waters").

Lop Nur is a dried saltwater lake located in the east of the Tarim Basin in Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and north of Ruoqiang County.

According to the 1928 survey, the area once reached 3,100 square kilometers, and it was once the second largest inland lake in China, second only to Qinghai Province at that time, until 1962, when it completely dried up and became a Gobi, but until the 21st century, many new maps still do not correct its disappearing area, so we can see the extent and shape of the water area of Lop Nur in the 20th century.

The dried up Lop Nur looks like the shape of a human ear from the satellite**, so it has the nickname "Ear of the Earth".

1. Loulan Ancient City, one of the secret realms: Loulan Ancient City is located about 30 kilometers away from the west bank of Lop Nur, across the river from Longcheng Yadan. The ruins of the ancient city of Loulan are represented by the largest city ruins in the center area, and there are more than 10 ruins such as cities, temples, dwellings, fishing villages, burial areas and beacons around it.

2. The second camp ruins of the secret realm: Yingpan is a large ancient site in the westernmost part of Lop Nur, and the ancient city is circular with a diameter of more than 100 meters. The structure of the remnant wall can be seen, and it is made of adobe or sand and earth with sand and reeds.

About one kilometer west of the ancient city, there is a burial area of 60,000 square meters, which is the largest tomb group in the Lop Nur area.

3. The site of the three earth mounds of the secret realm: The earth moat is located on the platform on the north bank of Lop Nur, which was once surrounded by water on three sides, and the land was connected to the land in the north, which was the place where the water and land wharves and post stations were located in the Han Dynasty. It is located at the junction of the South Road and the North Road of the Western Regions, and is the most important transportation hub in the Western Regions.

4. The fourth Xiaohe cemetery in the secret realm: The basin where the Xiaohe cemetery is located is abruptly a white hill, which is full of more than 200 poplar pillars of 3-4 meters high, and there is a dry river next to it, so it is named "Xiaohe cemetery".

Lop Nur is located in the northeast of Ruoqiang County, was once a lake in China, with an altitude of 780 meters and an area of about 2400-3000 square kilometers.

Formerly Lop Nur was a lake. Later, due to climate change and the impact of human water conservancy projects, the upstream water supply decreased until it dried up.