Drilling aims to shed light on climate change

URUMQI — In the middle of China's largest desert, the Taklimakan in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, stands a research station. Baked by the scorching sun, the station is surrounded by seemingly endless yellow sand.

Situated in this harsh environment, it is an important field research station that penetrates deep into the interior of the sprawling desert. Scientists go there to carry out various kinds of experimental research in the fields of wind and sand science, as well as plant ecology.

Tanned after years of working at the station, Gao Xin, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, is in charge of a project focused on conducting surveys and risk assessments for drought and sand hazards in the Tarim River Basin.

His team has been using a large rig to drill beneath the sand-covered land to gather core samples of sedimentary rock. The layers of core samples show the researchers what environmental events have occurred in the Taklimakan during various geological periods.

Scientists believe that this research can provide an accurate record of the desert's evolution.

"We are in the middle of the Taklimakan Desert, and the cores here best represent the desert. With our drill rig, we pull out the strata pipe by pipe to reconstruct the formation process of the Taklimakan over millions of years," said Wang Xin, a researcher at Lanzhou University.

"The Taklimakan has a huge impact on climate, and it's not well known exactly how its own climatic environment evolved," he added.

For Wang, this desert holds many secrets. Was it dry or wet during global warming? What kind of changes were there during the glacial period? How does it influence the climate? He hopes to find clues through this research.

Led by the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, the project also involves researchers from other institutes, including Lanzhou University, the CAS' Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, and the Urumqi Institute of Desert Meteorology under the China Meteorological Administration.

"Through the in-depth investigation of the formation and evolution of the Taklimakan, we can deeply understand the formation and evolution of large deserts driven by global change and plateau uplift," Gao said.

"Our research can also provide a scientific decision-making basis for this region to cope with climate change and draw up a green development plan," he added.

According to the Xinjiang institute, the project is also a part of the third comprehensive scientific expedition in the autonomous region.

The ongoing scientific expedition, which was launched in 2021 and is due to last for five years, is expected to outline a roadmap for ecological construction and green development in Xinjiang for the next 30 years.