Lake Hala (also: Hala Hu, Har Hu), is a closed lake located at 4078m above sea level in the

Qilian mountains The Qilian Mountains (), together with the Altyn-Tagh sometimes known as the Nan Shan, as it is to the south of the Hexi Corridor, is a northern outlier of the Kunlun Mountains, forming the border between Qinghai and the Gansu provinces of n ...

, at the northeastern margin of the

Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or Qingzang Plateau, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central Asia, Central, South Asia, South, and East Asia. Geographically, it is located to the north of H ...

Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...

Province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Its surface area is 596 km². It is a

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

lake with a salinity of ca 1.8% (18 psu). The shore zone is relatively shallow, while the maximum depth at the center of the lake is 65 m. The lake catchment is a basin of 4690 km² without an outflow. The highest surrounding mountains (Shule Nanshan north of the lake), exceed 5800 m above sea level. Due to the influence of the surrounding glaciers, the water level of the lake and its ecosystem reacts sensitively to meltwater pulses.

References

{{Authority control Lakes of Qinghai Qinghai Lakes of China Tibetan Plateau