Flood water forms rare lakes in China’s largest desert

China’s largest desert in the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has seen multiple lake formations this year, which an environmental expert described as a warning about climate change.

The lakes were formed around the Taklamakan Desert after the Tarim River recorded its largest water volume in the past 10 years, causing the water to flood into the dunes, state broadcaster China Central Television reported Tuesday.

The Tarim is the longest inland river in China and flows along the northern edges of the desert.

“The formation of the lakes is due to the impacts of climate change — more rain, more melting glacier water,” Ma Quanlin, deputy head of the Gansu Desert Control Research Institute, told China’s Sixth Tone on Wednesday.

According to Ma, similar trends have also been noticed in Dunhuang, located on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwest China.

“In recent years, a trend of increased precipitation and heat was observed in the western part of the northwestern areas,” he said.

Earlier this year, authorities in Xinjiang said that extreme temperatures were rapidly melting the region’s glaciers and causing natural disasters such as flooding.

Xinhua reported that this year, flooding was recorded in the main stream of the Tarim River for 80 consecutive days – since May.

The floods, which also occurred in the river’s 24 tributaries, were mostly due to melting snow and rainfall.

The Taklamakan Desert spans about 277,000 square kilometers.