LOP NOR

Wade-Giles romanization Lo-pu Po, Pinyin Lop Nur, former saline lake in northwestern China that is now a salt-encrusted lake bed. It lies within the Tarim depression of the eastern Takla Makan Desert, in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, and is one of the most barren areas of China. The former lake, occupying roughly 770 square miles (2,000 square km) in the 1950s, ceased to exist by about 1970 upon completion of irrigation works and reservoirs on the middle reaches of the Tarim River, one of its former tributaries. According to carbon-14 dating conducted by Chinese scientific teams in 1980 and 1981, a lake of variable dimensions had constantly existed in the area for about 20,000 years, even though the local climatic conditions have long been arid to extremely arid. The Lop Nor area is experiencing increased wind erosion and salt-encrustation. Salt crust now covers 8,000 square miles (21,000 square km), and yardang (irregularly shaped salt ridges) occupy nearly 1,200 square miles (3,100 square km). The Lop Nor area has not had permanent habitation since about 1920, when Uighur bands fled the depression after a plague decimated them. Native animals include a few wild Bactrian camels. Since 1964 the area has been intermittently used as a test site for Chinese underground and atmospheric nuclear explosions. The generic term nor is derived from the Mongolian word nuur lake.'