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The Changes of Lop Nur Lake and the Disappearance of Loulan

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The Changes of Lop Nur Lake and the Disappearance of Loulan Journal of Arid Land Volume 2 Issue 4 Article 9 12-7-2010 The changes of Lop Nur Lake and the disappearance of Loulan ZhiChao WANG Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://egijournals.researchcommons.org/journal-of-arid-land Part of the Environmental Sciences Commons Recommended Citation WANG, ZhiChao (2010) "The changes of Lop Nur Lake and the disappearance of Loulan," Journal of Arid Land: Vol. 2 : Iss. 4 , Article 9. DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1227.2010.00295 Available at: https://egijournals.researchcommons.org/journal-of-arid-land/vol2/iss4/9 This Research Article is brought to you for free and open access by Journals of EGI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Arid Land by an authorized editor of Journals of EGI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The changes of Lop Nur Lake and the disappearance of Loulan Cover Page Footnote This study was funded by National Basic Research Program of China (2010CB951003) and Opening Fund of Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology and Desert Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This research article is available in Journal of Arid Land: https://egijournals.researchcommons.org/journal-of-arid- land/vol2/iss4/9 JOURNAL OF ARID LAND, 2010, VOL. 2, NO. 4, 295−303 The changes of Lop Nur Lake and the disappearance of Loulan ZhiChao WANG* Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China Abstract: The causes of the disappearance of the ancient town of Loulan in Xinjiang, China have been generally agreed to derive from two factors: human activities and natural factors (environmental variations). In this paper, the Muzart Glacier was selected as an example, and found that the length of the glacier has been gradually decreasing and the snow line has been retreating to a higher altitude, both results contrib- uting to a decrease in river flow below the Muzart Glacier. From the distribution of moraines in the Tianshan Mountains and adjacent areas in different periods, the paper speculates that there have been four minor glacial periods since the Quaternary. Although the durations and scales of the four minor glacial periods were different, they all indirectly influenced the formation and disappearance of the Lop Nur Lake. The events of the fourth minor glacial period are the important impact factors in the existence and disappear- ance of Loulan. Whether the disappearance of Loulan can be related to the events of the three previous minor glacial periods needs further investigation. Keywords: glacier; moraine; Loulan; Lop Nur 1 Introduction short space of time the beautiful city of Loulan de- clined and then disappeared suddenly, and the vast The ancient town of Loulan, once a prosperous and Lop Nur Lake changed to a dry and hard salt encrusted important city along the ancient Silk Road (Zhao, barren land without vegetation. It is necessary to point 1984) running through the Western Regions of China, out that although the Loulan oasis and the has an impressive history. In the Han and Jin dynasties, mist-covered vast Lop Nur Lake were different natural Loulan was the first stop for messengers to travel to landscapes, they were closely related and mutually the Western Regions through the Yumen Pass along dependent. Due to the existence of Lop Nur Lake, the Shule River. Loulan was at a point where the Loulan was renowned in this part of the ancient world, southern and northern Silk Roads branched from the but it was dependent upon the lake for its existence. main route, and there was an endless stream of traffic At the beginning of the 20 century, Sven Hedin, a on the road promoting economic and cultural ex- Swedish geographer, made three expeditions to Lou- change between China and the western world. Typical lan and found the ruins that became very famous both travelers of the route included merchants and messen- in China and abroad. However, he was perplexed at gers, as well as Buddhist monks passing scriptures the rich cultural relic in Loulan and why such a so- from west to east and Buddhist chief and master phisticated society disappeared so rapidly (Sven Hedin, priests from the central plains of China travelling to 1997). Researchers expected to solve the mystery of the western world on pilgrimages for scriptures. The the existence and disappearance of Loulan, but none Loulan oasis had extensive fertile land with numerous fields crisscrossed by footpaths, and Loulan was of the proposed ideas were satisfactory. These views crowded with merchants with plentiful products and can be grouped into two types: one related to human materials to trade and a wealthy class of citizens. From activities, and the other related to natural (environ- numerous historical records and archaeological find- Received 2010-06-10, accepted 2010-09-20 ings, modern authors have been impressed by the doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1227.2010.00295 prosperity of Loulan at that time. However, within a * Corresponding author: ZhiChao WANG (E-mail: [email protected]) 296 JOURNAL OF ARID LAND Vol. 2 mental) variations. hundreds of years ago and it is unlikely to be related to The theories related to human activities include war, geological changes. There is a story of Sand Rain In- pestilence, ecological imbalance due to excessive land undating Helaoluojia in the Buddhist Records of the clearing, and changes in the silk traffic route (Xie, Western World, which describes natural phenomena in 2001; Zhang, 2004; Zhou, 2007; Song, 2009). Al- a superstitious and religious manner owing to a lack of though these theories are based on some facts, they scientific knowledge. The Sand Rain Inundating He- could not actually explain why Loulan was deserted. laoluojia suggested that Loulan was turned to desert In addition, there is another view, this is the change in by “sand rain”. In fact, “sand rain” was a very com- the Peacock River water system resulted in the aban- mon natural phenomenon in Loulan, and occurred donment of the city. This could be a reasonable ex- frequently in extremely dry environments. There was a planation. frequent and strong wind in Loulan that caused strong The river diversion theory (Yuan and Zhao, 1997; wind erosion and aeolian accumulation, generating Zhang, 2001) relating to natural (environmental) large areas of Yardang landform and multiple types of variations suggests that the midstream and down- sand dunes. Sand streams had great destructive power, stream riverbeds of the Tarim River were elevated by especially sandstorms caused by gales, which could siltation, causing the river diversion with the river lead to chaos and darkness, and dust floating in the air drifting to south and north. In the areas where the river up to a height of thousands of metres and travelled was diverted, the water became shallow and the land over the ocean as far as the air spaces of Japan and turned dry, but the total amount of water in the river Taiwan. Constant sand streams on the ground surface varied little. At the present time (within the last 200 might have inundated some roads and houses under years) the amount of water in all rivers in the region certain conditions, but not a city. The disappearance of has decreased greatly. For example, in the National Loulan had no relationship with the "sand rain". Map of the Qing Dynasty drawn in 1775 (Hu and Yan, The objective of the paper is to provide evidence to 2003), the convergence of the four rivers, the Yarkand, show that the decrease in water flow resulting from the Kaxkar, the Aksu and the Hotan Rivers, was at glacial changes was a main contributor to the change Alaer city to the south of Aksu city. However, today of Lop Nur and the disappearance of Loulan. there is too little water in the Kaxkar River to reach Alaer city, and the water flow in the Hotan River de- 2 Study area and methods creased greatly and cannot continue to flow into the Muzart River, whose water comes from the southeast Tarim River for replenishment. The water flow in the of the Tuomuer−Hantenggeli Mountains, the east of other two rivers has decreased as well. the Haerke Moutains and the south of the Ha- Environmental variations have been explained by a lazhouliha Mountains, is one of important branches of neotectonic movement theory, which was popular for the Weigan River which flows into the Tarim River. a time (Gao et al., 2004). It was believed that the neo- The direction of the river is basically from north to tectonic movement lifted the earth’s crust greatly and south. The modern glaciers of 254 are distributed in blocked the source of water vapor and further led to the source region of Muzart River. The famous three drought in the Loulan region. The research of the for- glaciers are the Muzart Glacier, Karakule Glacier and mer Soviet Union geologist Sinichyn (1995) suggested that the climate drying in central Asia occurred and Tugaibieliqi Glacier. In the past, the melting water developed over the whole Quaternary Period (2.5 mil- from Muzart Glacier flowed into the Tarim River and lion years ago to the present day). Based on the evolu- then supplied to Lop Nur Lake and ancient Loulan. tionary processes of the earth’s crust, climate drying This paper chose the Muzart Glacier as a typical should have started from the Tertiary Period, have example of mountain glaciers, and analyzed the been especially strong in the mid-Pleistocene (26 mil- mountain glaciers’ dynamics and the relation between lion years ago), and continued to develop in the Qua- the glaciers’ oscillations and the water area of Lop ternary Period on the basis of the Tertiary Period Nur Lake by the field investigation and referring to changes.
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