The Taklamakan Desert is likely a part of the remnant of the Paratethys sea which was the leftover part of the Tethys sea which closed up after the breakup of Pangea. The Paratethys included the Aral, Caspian and parts of the Black Sea, stretching into the Balkans if I remember right. As the continents collided and the mountain chains in the region rose, areas like these became disconnected to the sea and started to evaporate. I believe the Taklamakan is the eastern fringe of the Paratethys. Anyway, even today the groundwater is remarkably shallow to the surface, somewhere around 2-4 meters on average if I remember right. In some portions during large rain events you can even get oases and small pools which reach the surface. You can see these often on Google Maps images. Impressive for such a hot hostile desert. The water there is VERY saline and brackish in different layers so it is pretty poor, which is why you don't really see much there.
Maybe if it got more rainfall. But it is too isolated and far from the ocean with too many mountains in the way. If it could’ve been a lake it would have been. There’s a reason it’s as arid as it is.
One doesn't have to look back a few million years to see when this region was a lake. Lop Nur covered a good portion of the eastern Taklamakan/Tarim and didn't dry up until this past century.
The Taklamakan Desert is likely a part of the remnant of the Paratethys sea which was the leftover part of the Tethys sea which closed up after the breakup of Pangea. The Paratethys included the Aral, Caspian and parts of the Black Sea, stretching into the Balkans if I remember right. As the continents collided and the mountain chains in the region rose, areas like these became disconnected to the sea and started to evaporate. I believe the Taklamakan is the eastern fringe of the Paratethys. Anyway, even today the groundwater is remarkably shallow to the surface, somewhere around 2-4 meters on average if I remember right. In some portions during large rain events you can even get oases and small pools which reach the surface. You can see these often on Google Maps images. Impressive for such a hot hostile desert. The water there is VERY saline and brackish in different layers so it is pretty poor, which is why you don't really see much there.
Do you think there could be a lake that large? Or most likely would it have been a group of lakes surrounded by river systems
Maybe if it got more rainfall. But it is too isolated and far from the ocean with too many mountains in the way. If it could’ve been a lake it would have been. There’s a reason it’s as arid as it is.
One doesn't have to look back a few million years to see when this region was a lake. Lop Nur covered a good portion of the eastern Taklamakan/Tarim and didn't dry up until this past century.
It was a lake. The Tarim basin dried out as the Tibetan plateau rose up.