After millennia apart, these Tibetan lakes are now linked and could merge by 2030

Scientists are warning of climate change risks after Tibet’s biggest inland lake spilled over into another one

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Siling, the largest inland lake in Tibet, has significantly expanded in the past two decades, driven by climate change. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 2:00pm, 10 Sep 2024

Tibet’s largest inland lake, Siling, has spilled over into another nearby salt lake, Bange, for the first time in more than 4,000 years, after decades of rising water levels driven by climate change.

The Tibetan Plateau, known as “Asia’s water tower”, has more than 1,000 lakes and is the source of 10 major rivers in Asia that provide water resources to about 2 billion people in downstream countries.

Scientists monitoring the two lakes on the plateau – which are about 6km (4 miles) apart – say they could merge, and that might have significant implications for people living nearby.

A team from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences published their analysis of the changes at Siling lake in the peer-reviewed Science Bulletin in July.

Siling has significantly expanded in the past two decades. It covered an area of some 1,640 sq km (630 sq miles) in the 1970s, but by 2023 the lake had swollen to 2,445 sq km (945 sq miles), according to Lei Yanbin, a professor with the institute and lead author of the study.

As the Tibetan Plateau gets warmer and wetter, scientists say more monitoring needs to be done. Photo: Xinhua

Siling and nearby lake Bange – once a source of borax – have been part of separate watersheds with no hydrological connection for more than 4,000 years but potentially as far back as 8,200 years ago, when glaciers melted and sea levels rose.