PANGONG: A GLACIAL LAKE IN THE TIBETAN 

 PLATEAU 



ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON 

 Milton, Mass. 



At the western end of Tibet the Tso-mo-gualari, a series of five 

 connected lakes, hes at an elevation of 14,000 feet in a narrow valley 

 winding for over 100 miles from east to west, among magnifi- 

 cent snowy mountains. The upper lakes, which drain from one 

 to the other and are fresh, lie in Tibetan territory and are but imper- 

 fectly known; the lowest and largest lake, Pangong, which has no 

 outlet and is saline, lies in the Indian province of Ladakh or Little 

 Tibet, and is visited almost yearly by British sportsmen. As the 

 two main lakes, Pangong and Nyak Tso, with a combined length 

 of 75 miles, and apparently the others also, he at nearly the same 

 level and are separated from one another only by an alluvial fan or 

 delta like that at Interlaken in Switzerland, the whole series may be 

 regarded as occupying a single basin with a length of 105 miles, a 

 maximum width of 4 miles, and an average width of only i . 8 miles 

 where covered with water. The basin appears to be due to glacial 

 erosion, and the lakes, as their scenery indicates, belong to the same 

 type as the famous valley lakes of Switzerland. Old moraines 

 show that previous to the formation of the present lake the basin 

 was once or twice filled with ice; while lacustrine deposits and 

 elevated beaches show that in later times the lake-level has fluctuated 

 in response to changes of climate less severe than those which, 

 caused the invasion of the basin by glaciers. Thus a record of. 

 various phases of the glacial period is preserved in a region where it 

 is especially valuable for purposes of comparison. 



While on the way to Chinese Turkestan as a member of the 

 Barrett Expedition to central Asia, I visited Pangong, remaining 

 there from May i to May 6, 1905. The lake is exquisitely beautiful, 

 a sparkhng sheet of the clearest, deepest blue, shading dehcately to 

 purple in the shadows and to pure, pearly green in the shallow rim 



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