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natesm

This structure[1] is so large that you can see it when you zoom out to view all of China.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=40.42761,90.793762&...

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http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=51039

This should be on top. It explains what this area is and its scale.

Specifically, the area is a collection of evaporation ponds for the production of potash, an excellent fertilizer.

WP has an image of it[1] and states that it is a Potassium Chloride factory at Lop Lake[2]. It's not visible on Bing Maps[3], so perhaps it's relatively new.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lop_Nur,_Xinjiang,_China....

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lop_Lake

[3]: http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=40.509883876307235~90.7...

Try switching to "Map" view (vs. "Satellite" view) -- the whole region around that huge facility was a big lake. Did they suck it dry?

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=40.42761,90.793762&...

Using the map scale, it looks like it was a triangular shaped lake measuring 70 miles by 60 miles by 60 miles.

I think that area is part of the Turpan basin which has been a salt mining zone for centuries. I'm totally guessing here, but the Google Maps images look like a massive salt evaporation facility.

Note that the above link is NOT what is referenced in the original post.

If you zoom in, you can see it's not a single structure or building. Most of the area (all the blue parts) is some kind of liquid, probably water. Zoom in far enough and you can see buildings on the edges of the pools.

Follow the little blue line upwards from the structure and you'll see a dam clearly pumping water, and the canals extend up to around 50km.

The Map View also shows a large area around it as a huge lake, so I'm guessing they drained the lake. Still pretty impressive in my opinion.

They've got a pool table out in the middle of the Gobi? I'm feeling a little underprivileged.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=40.469935,90.856934...

Looks like a salt evaporation pond to me. like:

http://g.co/maps/8d83k

or a little closer to home:

http://g.co/maps/tr7w5

Unrelated to the article.

You want this: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=40.458148,93.393145

Looks to be a water treatment centre. On a rather large scale.

That's the Gobi desert. There isn't a whole lot of water to treat, let alone polluted water. It looks like salt production on a truly massive scale.

That's not the Gobi desert. It's in Eastern Turkestan, not in Mongolia.

Taklamakan Desert. Looks like they're mining something...

Mummies!

Or evaporation mineral collection ponds or something of that nature. The facility in Wendover on the salt flats is pretty large too though there's no ponds like these images appear to show. There's lots mineral collection ponds like this in California and Nevada.

Wendover: http://maps.google.com/?ll=40.696778,-113.939209&spn=0.4...

Owens lake has evaporative collection ponds that can be really bright red some times, the salt itself is pink: http://maps.google.com/?ll=36.411336,-117.892742&spn=0.1...

The one in China is 10X bigger.

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