Ebi Lake ( Mongolian: Ev nuur,

Middle Mongolian Middle Mongol or Middle Mongolian, was a Mongolic koiné language spoken in the Mongol Empire. Originating from Genghis Khan's home region of Northeastern Mongolia, it diversified into several Mongolic languages after the collapse of the empire ...

: Ebi; ) is a

rift lake A rift lake is a lake formed as a result of subsidence related to movement on faults within a rift zone, an area of extensional tectonics in the continental crust. They are often found within rift valleys and may be very deep. Rift lakes may be ...

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

in Northwestern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, near the border of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. Lying at the southeast end of the

Dzungarian Gate The Dzungarian Gate (or Altai Gap or Altay Gap) is a geographically and historically significant mountain pass between China and Central Asia. It has been described as the "one and only gateway in the mountain-wall which stretches from Manchur ...

, Ebi Lake is the center of the

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the ...

of the southwestern part of the

Dzungarian Basin The Junggar Basin () is one of the largest sedimentary basins in Northwest China. It is located in Xinjiang, and enclosed by the Tarbagatai Mountains of Kazakhstan in the northwest, the Altai Mountains of Mongolia in the northeast, and the Tian Sh ...

. The lake previously covered over 1000 km² (400 miles²) with an average depth of less than 2 meters (6.5 feet). In August 2007, the Chinese government designated the adjoining Aibi Lake wetland as a National Nature Reserve. The high salt concentration (87 g/L) of its water prevents plants and fish from living in the actual lake, though many kinds of fish do live in the mouths of its source rivers. The lake currently covers only 500 km² surface.

References

External links

Location Maps - Ebi Nur (Ebi lake; Aibi lake)Lake Ebi
Aibi Lakes of Xinjiang {{Xinjiang-geo-stub