Salt on the bank of Lake Kara-Kul along the Pamir Highway. Tajikistan.
Image details
Contributor:
Bert de Ruiter / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
2C7KYA4File size:
102.4 MB (4 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
7322 x 4887 px | 62 x 41.4 cm | 24.4 x 16.3 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
20 August 2019Location:
Lake Karakul, TajikistanMore information:
Wikipedia: Karakul, Qarokul (Kyrgyz for "black lake", replacing the older Tajik name Siob) is a 25 km (16 mi) diameter lake within a 52 km (32 mi) impact crater. It is located in the Tajik National Park in the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan. Karakul lies within a circular depression interpreted as an impact crater with a rim diameter of 52 km (32 mi). The crater is relatively recent: its age is estimated as approximately 25 Ma or less than 23 Ma or probably from the Pliocene (5.3 to 2.6 Ma). But the Earth Impact Database (EID) also lists it as younger than 5 Ma. It is larger than the Eltanin impact (2.5 Ma), which has already been suggested as a contributor to the cooling and ice cap formation in the Northern Hemisphere during the late Pliocene. The Karakul impact structure was first identified around 1987 through studies of imagery taken from space.The lake/crater lies at an elevation of 3, 960 m (12, 990 ft) above mean sea level. A peninsula projecting from the south shore and an island off the north shore divide the lake into two basins: a smaller, relatively shallow eastern one, between 13 to 19 m (43 to 62 ft) deep, and a larger western one, 221 to 230 m (725 to 755 ft) deep. It is endorheic (lacking a drainage outlet) and the water is brackish. There is a small village with the same name on the eastern shore of the lake.Although the lake lies within a national park, much of the surroundings are used as pasture. The lake, with its islands, marshes, wet meadows, peat bogs, and pebbly and sandy plains, has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it supports significant numbers of the populations of various bird species, either as residents, or as breeding or passage migrants.