Puma Yumco
| Puma Yumco | |
|---|---|
| ཕུ་མ་གཡུ་མཚོ · 普莫雍错 | |
| Puma Yumco in winter. The north-south white line is a possible ice ridge, formed by east-west winds subsequently highlighted by snow. | |
Puma Yumco is located in Tibet Puma Yumco Puma Yumco Location in the Tibet A.R. | |
| Location | Nagarzê County, Tibet |
| Coordinates | 28°34′N 90°25′E / 28.567°N 90.417°E / 28.567; 90.417 |
| Type | ultraoligotrophic |
| Basin countries | China |
| Max. length | 32 km (20 mi) |
| Max. width | 14 km (8.7 mi) |
| Surface area | 280 km2 (110 sq mi) |
| Surface elevation | 5,030 m (16,500 ft) |
Puma Yumco (Tibetan: ཕུ་མ་གཡུ་མཚོ, Wylie: phu ma g.yu mtsho; simplified Chinese: 普莫雍错; traditional Chinese: 普莫雍錯; pinyin: Pǔmò Yōngcuò) is a lake located at 5,030 m (16,500 ft) above mean sea level on the southern Tibetan Plateau, and is situated within Nagarzê County of the Tibet Autonomous Region. It is 32 km (20 mi) long, 14 km (8.7 mi) wide, and covers an area of 280 km2 (110 sq mi).[1] Streams of water from the snow-capped surrounding mountains feed the lake, and its water surplus flows into Yamdrok Lake via an outlet located at its southeastern end. Some sediment can be seen entering the lake at its western end.[2]
Puma Yum literally means The Blue Jewel which is floating in the sky. The lake freezes in winter and is crossed by shepherds with their sheep. The lake is considered ultraoligotrophic, meaning that nutrient concentrations in both the water column and lake sediments are extremely low. Water in such lakes tends to be blue to blue-green and to have high clarity due to low levels of photosynthesizing organisms such as phytoplankton.[3]
During the winter, the lake develops intricate ice block patterns on the surface, ranging from less than ten to hundreds of metres in diameter. The ice pattern is caused by repeated cycles of freezing, fracturing, and refreezing of the ice due to variations in temperature and wind-induced ice motion.[4]
Climate
[edit ]The area around Puma Yumco has a dry alpine climate (Köppen ETH) with long, freezing, very dry winters and short, cool, somewhat humid summers. There is a great variety between day and night. Summer temperatures often rise to 15 °C or 59 °F, but even then they often fall below freezing at night time. Likewise, while temperatures do quite normally reach above freezing even in January, at night time they commonly reach −20 °C or −4 °F. Thanks to the low temperatures, the lake is frozen over most of the year.
A majority of the 243 millimetres or 9.6 inches of precipitation that falls during a year occurs during July and August, and as rain.[5] There is almost no precipitation in the winter months, so that snow is uncommon.
| Climate data for Puma Yumco | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −0.5 (31.1) |
0.5 (32.9) |
2.5 (36.5) |
6.1 (43.0) |
9.8 (49.6) |
13.1 (55.6) |
12.9 (55.2) |
12.2 (54.0) |
10.9 (51.6) |
7.0 (44.6) |
3.2 (37.8) |
1.1 (34.0) |
6.6 (43.8) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −10.0 (14.0) |
−8.2 (17.2) |
−5.2 (22.6) |
−1.0 (30.2) |
3.1 (37.6) |
7.1 (44.8) |
7.7 (45.9) |
7.1 (44.8) |
5.3 (41.5) |
−0.2 (31.6) |
−5.5 (22.1) |
−8.5 (16.7) |
−0.7 (30.8) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −19.5 (−3.1) |
−16.8 (1.8) |
−12.8 (9.0) |
−8.1 (17.4) |
−3.5 (25.7) |
1.2 (34.2) |
2.6 (36.7) |
2.0 (35.6) |
−0.2 (31.6) |
−7.3 (18.9) |
−14.2 (6.4) |
−18.1 (−0.6) |
−7.9 (17.8) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 0 (0) |
1 (0.0) |
2 (0.1) |
5 (0.2) |
10 (0.4) |
31 (1.2) |
75 (3.0) |
76 (3.0) |
33 (1.3) |
9 (0.4) |
1 (0.0) |
0 (0) |
243 (9.6) |
| Source: "Pumajiangtang Climate". Climate-Data.org. | |||||||||||||
References
[edit ]Media related to Lake Puma Yumco at Wikimedia Commons
- ^ Herdendorf, Charles E. (1982). "Large Lakes of the World". Journal of Great Lakes Research. 8 (3): 379–412. Bibcode:1982JGLR....8..379H. doi:10.1016/S0380-1330(82)71982-3.
- ^ 山南地区农牧局 (1991). 西藏山南土地资源. 西藏土地资源调查丛书 (in Chinese). 中国农业科技出版社. p. 285. ISBN 978-7-80026-216-6 . Retrieved 2025年02月24日.
- ^ 青藏大冰盖. 地质专报: 地层古生物 (in Chinese). 地質出版社. 1991. p. 34. ISBN 978-7-116-00884-7 . Retrieved 2025年02月24日.
- ^ 中国西南民族硏究会 (1988). 西南民族地区经济概况 (in Chinese). p. 116. Retrieved 2025年02月24日.
- ^ 《西藏自治区概况》编写组; 《西藏自治区概况》修订本编写组 (2009). 西藏自治区概况. 国家民委《民族问题五种从书》 (in Chinese). 民族出版社. p. 16. ISBN 978-7-105-08625-2 . Retrieved 2025年02月24日.
External links
[edit ]- An Icy Journey from Tibet's Sky Village – NHK World-Japan
- "Lake Puma Yumco, Tibet, China". NASA Earth Observatory . 27 February 2006. Retrieved 2017年02月20日.*
