Siling Lake

The Serling Tso (Tib.: ser gling mtsho, Tibetan: སེར་གླིང་མཚོ, Serling Co ) is the second largest lake in the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China.

Location

The Serling Tso is on 4530 meters above sea level, north of the transition Tise Mountains, on the border of the circles Pelgön (班 戈 县/ དཔལ་མགོན་རྫོང་ ) and Shentsa (申 扎 县/ ཤན་རྩ་རྫོང་ ) in the district Nagchu, extends from west to east about 72 km, from north to south about 22.8 km, has an area of 1640 square kilometers and is up to 33 meters deep. The Serling Tso is a salt lake. It is fed by the rivers Za'gya Tsangpo (扎加 藏 布) and the Boqu Tsangpo (波 曲 藏 布).

History

In the early and middle Pleistocene of Serling Tso formed, along with today's Namtsho and other lakes a common water area of ​​29,800 square kilometers. In the late Pleistocene 30,0000 years ago, reduced the water surface, so that the current extension Tsho Tsho and Nag came. 16,000 years ago the Bangkog Tsho Tsho from Serling was disconnected. 5200-3600 years ago, the water surface of Bangkog Tsho was separated into three smaller lakes.

Climate

The temperature at the lake is an annual average of -3 to -0.6 ° C, the maximum annual temperature 9.4 ° C, the lowest monthly average in January -16 ° C, the temperatures may well fall to -40 ° C. The lake freezes in winter, therefore, to all. Floes can drift on the lake until the end of May, but in the summer months, the lake is ice-free. The average rainfall is 290 millimeters per year, 90 percent of this in the months of June to September, in the summer frequently as hail.

Use

The Serling Tso is a national nature reserve. In the lake, only a single species occurs, Gymnocypris selincuoensis; it is used by fishermen. The steppe on the banks of the lake is traditionally used as grazing land for yaks and sheep.