Increased flooding in northwestern China along a section of the old 'Silk Road' trade route is due to accelerated glacier melting, indicating that climate warming is affecting arid communities and their water resources.
Jian Sheng Chen of Hohai University in Nanjing, China, and Chi-yuen Wang of the University of California, Berkeley, analysed oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in the unusually high spring upwelling in a portion of the Hexi Corridor that abuts the Badian Jaran Desert. They traced the water's origin to glaciers four kilometres above sea level in the Qilian Mountains, 40 kilometres away.
The researchers suspect that earthquakes starting in 2003 are responsible for releasing stored groundwater. They also estimate that, at current melting rates, most of the Qilian Mountains' glaciers could disappear by 2050, ultimately depleting the valley aquifer.
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Geology: Flooding on the Silk Road. Nature 458, 683 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/458683d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/458683d
