page_title: Lake Ayakum
hierarchical_section_title: Lake Ayakum
caption_attribution_description: English: This astronaut photograph highlights two river deltas formed along Lake Ayakum's south-western shoreline. Gray to tan surfaces indicate prior positions of the river channels; the uniform coloration and smooth texture suggest that they are relatively old and now inactive. By contrast, the younger and currently active delta surfaces have reddish-brown sediment and visible river channels. Lateral channel migration is particularly evident in the approximately 8-kilometer wide active delta at image upper left. The reddish color of the fresh sediment may indicate a change from the sources that formed the older parts of the deltas. It might indicate weathering and soil formation on the older deposits. It could even be a sign of episodic inputs of dust or other material to the river catchments.
context_page_description: Ayakum Lake is a lake near the northern boundary of the Tibetan Plateau, to the southeast of the Kunlun Mountains. While many of the small glacier and snowmelt-fed streams on the Plateau give rise to major South-east Asian rivers, some empty into saline lakes such as Lake Ayakum.
context_section_description: Ayakum Lake is a lake near the northern boundary of the Tibetan Plateau, to the southeast of the Kunlun Mountains. While many of the small glacier and snowmelt-fed streams on the Plateau give rise to major South-east Asian rivers (including the Mekong and Yangtze), some empty into saline lakes such as Lake Ayakum.
caption: Astronaut photograph highlighting two river deltas formed along Lake Ayakum's south-western shoreline
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