柴达木盆地
Orographically, the Qaidam Basin is a comparatively low area in the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau. With an elevation of around , Qaidam forms a kind of shelf between Tibet to the south (around ) and Gansu to the north (around ). A low water divide separates the Qaidam Basin proper from that of Qinghai Lake to the east. Despite this lower elevation, Qaidam is still high enough that its mean annual temperature is despite lying on the same latitude as Algeria, Greece, and Virginia in the United States.