Where is the Loess Plateau in China?

Where is the Loess Plateau in China?

Loess Plateau, Chinese (Pinyin) Huangtu Gaoyuan or (Wade-Giles romanization) Huang-t’u Kao-yüan, highland area in north-central China, covering much of Shanxi, northern Henan, Shaanxi, and eastern Gansu provinces and the middle part of the Huang He (Yellow River) basin.

What caused degradation of Loess Plateau in China?

Home to more than 50 million people, the Loess Plateau in China’s Northwest takes its name from the dry powdery wind-blown soil. Centuries of overuse and overgrazing led to one of the highest erosion rates in the world and widespread poverty.

What happened in Loess Plateau?

Around 3,000 years ago, farmers settled on the fertile Loess Plateau in western China, a region about the size of France. By the 7th century, the rich soils were feeding about one quarter of the Chinese population. But intense pressure on the land eroded the soil.

How was the Loess Plateau restored?

In the Loess Plateau, funding from the World Bank and the Chinese government helped restore 4 million hectares of land, more than doubling the incomes of local farmers, reducing erosion by 100 million tons of sediment annually, reducing flood risk, and dramatically increasing grain production.

Where is the Mongolian Plateau?

Mongolian Plateau, extensive northeastern highland region of the great plateau of Central Asia, covering an area of approximately 1,000,000 square miles (2,600,000 square km) in east-central Asia.

Is loess good for farming?

Loess often develops into extremely fertile agricultural soil. It is full of minerals and drains water very well. It is easily tilled, or broken up, for planting seeds. Loess usually erodes very slowly—Chinese farmers have been working the loess around the Yellow River for more than a thousand years.

How was Loess Plateau formed?

China’s Loess Plateau was formed by wind alternately depositing dust or removing dust over the last 2.6 million years, according to a new report from University of Arizona geoscientists. About the size of the state of Arizona, the Loess Plateau is the largest accumulation of dust on Earth.

What happened to the forests that originally grew on the Loess Plateau?

Because the loess plateau is well-suited to agriculture, natural forests in most areas were largely replaced centuries ago by agricultural cropland and pasture.

What is Chinese loess?

The Chinese Loess Plateau, or simply the Loess Plateau, is a plateau in north-central China formed of loess, a clastic silt-like sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Most of the loess comes from the Gobi Desert and other nearby deserts.

How are plateaus destroyed?

As with all elevated areas, plateaus are continuously carved by erosion, the gradual wearing away of Earth’s surfaces through the action of wind and water.

Where does loess come from in China?

The thickest loess deposits are near the Missouri River in the U.S. state of Iowa and along the Yellow River in China. Loess accumulates, or builds up, at the edges of deserts. For example, as wind blows across the Gobi, a desert in Asia, it picks up and carries fine particles.

Where is Tibetan plateau located?

Tibetan Plateau
Location	China (Tibet, Qinghai, Western Sichuan, Northern Yunnan, Southern Xinjiang, Western Gansu) India (Ladakh, Lahaul & Spiti, Northern Arunachal Pradesh, Northern Sikkim) Pakistan (Baltistan) Nepal (Northern Nepal) Bhutan Tajikistan (Eastern Tajikistan) Kyrgyzstan (Southern Kyrgyzstan)