Tso Moriri

Lake in Ladakh, India

Tso Moriri or Lake Moriri or "Mountain Lake", is a lake in the Changthang Plateau (literally: northern plains) in Leh district of the union territory of Ladakh in India. It is located approx. 219 km from Leh City, capital of Ladakh. The lake and surrounding area are protected as the Tso Moriri Wetland Conservation Reserve. The lake is at an altitude of It is the largest of the high altitude lakes entirely within India and entirely within Ladakh in this Trans Himalayan biogeographic region. It is about 16 miles (26 km) north to south in length and two to three miles (3 to 5 km) wide. The lake has no outlet at present and the water is brackish though not very perceptible to taste. The lake is fed by springs and snow melt from the adjacent mountains. Most water enters the lake in two major stream systems, one entering the lake from the north, the other from the southwest. Both stream systems include extensive marshes where they enter the lake. It formerly had an outlet to the south, but this has become blocked and the lake has become an endorheic lake. The lake is oligotrophic in nature, and its waters are alkaline. Accessibility to the lake is largely limited to summer season, though Karzok on the northwest shore and the military facilities on the eastern shores have year round habitation.

Karzok has homestays, Buddhist monastery and lake tourism.

As per a classification of the Himalayan Lakes done on the basis of their origin, there are four groups and Tso Moriri falls under the third group of "remnant lakes". The classification as reported states: (i) Glacial lakes which are formed in and around glaciers; (ii) Structural lakes, formed by folds or faults due to movements in earth’s crust (e. g. Nainital lake in Uttarakhand), (iii) Remnant lakes which were originally structural but represent the remnants of vast lakes (e. g., Tso Moriri, Tso Kar, Pangong Tso in Ladakh, and Dal Lake in Kashmir), (iv) Natural dammed lakes i. e., temporary water bodies formed along the river courses due to deposition of rocks or debris e. g. Gohna Tal in Garhwal, Uttarakhand. The Changthang Plateau in the eastern Ladakh represents a landscape of low productive ecosystems which protects unique floral and faunal species. The area is an extension of the western Tibetan plateau that lies above msl and supports diverse but low populations of several globally threatened mammals. Changpa (Champa) herders use the land of this valley as grazing ground and for cultivation. This valley contains the Nuro Sumdo wetlands (with a catchment area of ), a boggy area that mostly drains into the Pare Chu. Several small mountain streams feed the lake, including one through pasture land at Peldo Le. The lake is fed by springs and snow melt and has a maximum depth of Aridity and cold desert conditions prevail in the lake region; with summer temperature varying from 0° to 30 °C (32° to 86 °F) and winter temperature recording −10° and −40 °C (14° to 40 °F). Geologically the lake is in Ordovician rock.