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The Badain Jaran Desert occupies parts of China and
Inner Mongolia covering an area of 49,000 sq. kilometers making it the
third largest desert in China.
Although not a lot of people are familiar with this desert, outside
China, it is known for having the tallest stationary dunes on earth.
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Some of these dunes have been measured to reach heights of more than 500
meters. Badain Jaran has an extremely arid climate with an annual
precipitation between 50-60mm.
Nearly 40-80 times of the precipitation gets evaporated away before it
falls as rainfall.
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Despite these dry conditions, one of the most remarkable feature of
Badain Jaran is the existence of nearly 140 permanent lakes that lie
between the dunes. It’s these lakes that give the desert its name which
in Mongolian means "mysterious lakes".
These mysterious lakes are believed to be fed by underground water
springs that flow under the gravel deposits and appear between the dunes
where the deposits become fine-grained and the water flow is blocked.
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The source of this water is precipitation and snowmelt in the mountains
surrounding the desert hundreds of kilometers away. Runoff from these
mountains flows through the fractured rocks and through gravel deposits
beneath the desert, and emerge at scattered places giving rise to
numerous lakes.
Although the springs carry fresh water, most of the lakes are saline,
which can be explained by their high rate of evaporation.
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Some of the lakes change color due to the presence of a large
populations of algae, brine shrimp and minerals. Evaporation have also
led some hypersaline lakes to form salt crust around the rim of the
lakes.
The fresh water lakes provide the life sustenance in the desert
supporting camels, goats and horses which are herded by nomads that
travel through the desert. Most lakes also support a green ring of
vegetation that populate the close vicinity around the lakes.
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In recent decades, some of these lakes have shrunk or even disappeared,
as a result of reduction in groundwater brought about by urbanization,
irrigation, water diversion, and an increase in population.
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