Curse of Lop Nur

Lop Nur, is a lake in southeastern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. Known as the "ear of the Earth" because of its ear-like shape, Lop Nur is also known as the "Sea of Death," or Lop Nur. It was transformed into a "city of hope" by geoengineers. In the 1960s and 1970s, the lake dried up quickly and became an adventure playground, attracting many people to explore, but also leaving too much suspense.

The riddle of dry

How long Lop Nur dried up remains an open mystery. As the "throat" area of ancient China's Silk Road, it was once an oasis of life with herds of cattle and horses, surrounded by green forests and clear rivers, and there was once a populous kingdom of Loulan.

There are five rivers in the upper reaches of Lop Nur Lake, among which the Kongque River and Tarim River are its main water sources. It is believed that in 1940, the flow of Kongque River in the upper reaches of Lop Nur decreased, leading to the shrinkage and disappearance of Lop Nur lake; Others say that Lop Nur gradually dried up in the early 1960s due to the construction of reservoirs in the lower reaches of the Tarim River and the construction of dikes on the Tongue River. In 1972, NASA's Landsat satellite took a satellite image of the dry Lop Nur Lake, so many people believe that Lop Nur dried up in 1972.

This time, through the joint efforts of 29 experts, the mystery was finally solved. "When Lop Nur dried up, it was 1962." This scientific research expert Xia Xuncheng said. He holds a photo of Zhao Ji, a professor at Beijing Normal University, paddling a rubber boat on Lop Nor Lake to measure water depth in 1959. Lop Nur had just been hit by a massive flood in 1958, and the water in this picture is rippling over 5,000 square kilometers. This time, Xia Xuncheng invited 78-year-old Zhao Ji to revisit the scene and visit Lop Nur again. Zhao Ji confirmed that he had indeed taken the photo in the Kongque River Delta located on the north bank of Lop Nur.

Why did such a large area of water dry up in just three or four years? Through this scientific investigation, Xia Xuncheng finally concluded that Lop Nur is a wide and shallow lake with the bottom lake only three meters above the ground on average. In a lake this shallow, the water can change very quickly. Xia further cites the Bosten Lake near Lop Nur, an inland lake just west of Lop Nur. According to Xia, Bosten Lake can lose one meter of water depth a year due to evaporation without any replenishment. Thus, it is not surprising that Lop Nur dried up completely in just three or four years.

Moving the mystery

The first Chinese and foreign scientists who visited Xinjiang had been arguing about the exact location of Lop Nur. However, the question was not settled, but the "wandering theory of Lop Nur" was even more hotly debated. This saying is presented by the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin, exists between the north and the south lake, he thought the lop nur were systematically studded Ed due to large amounts of river water into the lake with sediment deposition after pushed up the lake, the lake is natural to another flow to a lower place, for many years, pushing up the bottom due to wind erosion will be down again, the lake back again, the cycle of 1500 years.

Although this theory of Sven Heding has been universally recognized in the world, there are not a few people who question it. In recent years, Chinese scientists have also questioned and denied the wandering theory of Lop Nur based on the results of scientific research. The debate over the issue, however, adds to the confusion surrounding Lop Nur, a ghostly lake.

The mystery of Big Ears

Even as people debate the mysteries of Lop Nur, one after another. In July 1972, NASA's Landsat satellite took a picture of Lop Nur, which resembles a human ear, not only the ear wheel, the ear hole, and even the ear lobe. As to how this ear formed, it is believed that it was mainly caused by floods from the southern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains in the late 1950s. When the flood flows into the lake basin, it passes through the desert, carrying a large amount of sediment, impinging and eroding the original dry lake basin, and forming underwater protruding ring bands in the direction of the current. It is because of the subtle geomorphological changes of the dry lake bed that the local composition changes, which inevitably affects the spectral characteristics of the dry lake bed, thus forming the "big ears". But others have a different view. Scientists have been arguing about Lop Nur, and the debate may never end.

Weird mystery

Some people say that Lop Nur is a "devil's triangle" on the Asian continent, through which the ancient Silk Road passes. Many ghosts and ghosts have wandered here through the ages, and dry bones are everywhere.

In 1949, a plane flying from Chongqing to Urumqi disappeared over Shanshan County. But in 1958 it was found east of Lop Nur, all on board dead, the mystery is, that the plane was originally flying northwest, why suddenly changed course to due south?

In 1950, a guard of the People's Liberation Army bandits disappeared, after more than 30 years, the ground team was far away from the site of the accident more than 100 kilometers from the south bank of Lop Nur found his body in the red willow ditch.

On June 17, 1980, the famous scientist Pengjia wood in Lop Nur's investigation disappeared, the country dispatched planes, troops, and police dogs spent a lot of manpower and material resources, carpet search, but nothing.

In 1990, seven people from Hami went to Lop Nur in a passenger car to look for crystal mines, never to return. Two years later, three mummified bodies were found at the bottom of a steep slope. The car was 30 kilometers from the victim. Others are unaccounted for.

In the summer of 1995, three Milano farm workers went missing in a Beijing Jeep on a treasure hunt in Lop Nur. Later explorers found the bodies of two of them 17 kilometers away from Loulan. The cause of death is unknown, and the whereabouts of the other are unknown. Amazingly, their car was intact, and there was no shortage of water or gasoline.

In June 1996, Chinese explorer Yu Chunshun went missing during a solo trekking expedition in Lop Nur. When the helicopter found his body, the medical examiner identified that he had been dead for five days, neither suicide nor homicide, so he was so strong that how did he die?

Lop Nur has left us with a lot of questions for scientists to answer.