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The Tarim River (Mandarin Tǎlǐmù Hé, 塔里木河; Uyghur: تارىم دەرياسى), known in Sanskrit as the Śītā〔Ram Rahul (2000) ''March of Central Asia'', Indus Publishing〕 is the principal river of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China. It gives its name to the great Tarim Basin between the Tian Shan and Kunlun Mountains systems (the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau) of Central Asia. It is the longest inland river in China with an annual flow of or . Its basin is home to nearly 10 million Uyghur and other ethnic minorities. ==Geography and hydrology== The Tarim river and most of its tributaries flow down from the Himalayas. The name Tarim is applied to the river formed by the union of the Aksu River, flowing from the north, and Yarkand River, coming from the southwest, near the Aral City in western Xinjiang.〔Hill (2009), p. 13.〕 The third river, the Khotan River comes to the same junction area from the south, but it is usually dry at this location, as it has to cross the Taklamakan Desert to get here. Another river of western Xinjiang is the Kashgar River, which falls (at least theoretically, i.e., when it has water in it) into the Yarkand River some upstream from the Yarkand's merger with the Aksu. By another definition, however, Tarim starts at the Kashgar/Yarkand merger, and Aksu, then, is considered just a tributary of the Tarim. The Tarim flows in an eastward direction around the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert.〔 It receives another tributary, the Muzat River from the north; however, out of these four rivers (Aksu, Yarkand, Khotan, and Muzart), only the Aksu flows into the Tarim year-round〔Vladimir B. Aizen and Elena M. Aizen (1998), (Estimation of glacial runoff to the Tarim River, central Tien Shan ). In: ''Hydrology, Water Resources and Ecology in Headwaters''〕 It is the Tarim's most important tributary, supplying 70–80 percent of its water volume. The word ''tarim'' is used to designate the bank of a river that flows into a lake or that is not able to be differentiated from the sands of a desert. This is a characteristic hydrographic feature of many rivers that traverse the sands of the Taklamakan Desert. Another characteristic of the rivers of the Tarim Basin, including the Tarim River itself, is their active migration, that is, the shifting of their beds and banks. The total length of the Yarkand-Tarim river system is , although, as the Tarim frequently changes its channel, the length tends to vary over the years. It is shallow, unsuitable for navigation,〔"Tarim", in 〕 and because of its heavy silt load, forms a braided stream near its terminus. Prior to the completion of reservoirs and irrigation works in the mid-20th century, the Tarim's waters eventually reached Lop Nur (now a salt-encrusted lake bed). The river's waters now drain intermittently into Taitema Lake, which is located about southwest of Lop Nur. The area of the Tarim River Basin is about . A considerable part of the Tarim's course is unformed, following no clearly defined riverbed. The water volume of the lower course of the river diminishes as a result of extensive evaporation and water-diversion schemes. The Tarim's low-water period is from October through April. The spring and summer high waters begin in May and continue through September as the snows melt on the distant Tian Shan and Kunlun mountains. The Lower Tarim Basin is an arid plain composed of alluvium and lake sediments and is bordered by massive mountain ranges. The basin is the driest region of Eurasia. The predominant part of it is occupied by the Taklamakan Desert, whose sand area exceeds . In addition, there are several comparatively small sand massifs with areas of from . Sand dunes are the predominant relief. Precipitation in the Tarim Basin is extremely scanty, and in some years it is nonexistent. In the Taklamakan Desert and in the Lop Nur basin, the average annual total of precipitation is about . In the foothills and in several other areas of the river's basin, the precipitation amounts to from a year. In the Tian Shan it is much wetter, precipitation often exceeding . Maximum temperatures in the Tarim Basin are about 40°C (104°F). The Tarim River freezes over every year from December through March. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tarim River」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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