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Water resources

Groundwater maintains dune landscape

Nature volume 432, pages 459–460 (2004)Cite this article

A remote water source helps giant sand dunes to stand their ground in a windy desert.

Abstract

The Badain Jaran desert in western Inner Mongolia in China has a unique landscape that contains 72 lakes, with a total water surface area of 23 km2, and the world's highest stationary sand dunes, which are up to 500 m tall — despite the prevailing dry and windy weather conditions1,2. Here we present evidence of a major groundwater system that underpins the factors leading to this landscape. Our finding could transform plans for the region's water resources.

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Figure 1: Evidence for a groundwater system under the Badain Jaran desert.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Isotope Research, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Jian Sheng Chen, Ji Yang Wang, Wei Zu Gu, Xia Zhao & Liang Chen

  2. Centre for Eco-Environmental Modelling, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Ling Li

  3. School of Engineering, University of Queensland, St Lucia, 4072, Queensland, Australia

    Ling Li

  4. Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Science Academy, Beijing, 100018, China

    Ji Yang Wang

  5. School of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JL, UK

    D. A. Barry

  6. Department of Earth Sciences, Institute of Surficial Geochemistry, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Xue Fen Sheng

Authors
  1. Jian Sheng Chen
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  2. Ling Li
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  3. Ji Yang Wang
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  4. D. A. Barry
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  5. Xue Fen Sheng
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  6. Wei Zu Gu
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  7. Xia Zhao
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  8. Liang Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ling Li.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Figure S1

Map of the study area. (DOC 153 kb)

Supplementary Figure S2

Schematic diagram of the groundwater system. (DOC 4628 kb)

Supplementary Method

Estimation of the groundwater yield. (DOC 22 kb)

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Chen, J., Li, L., Wang, J. et al. Groundwater maintains dune landscape. Nature 432, 459–460 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/432459a

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