1 Introduction The Lop Nur Salt Lake, located in the eastern part of the Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China, has become a playa in the Quaternary. It is under the jurisdiction of Ruoqiang County, Xinjiang, being ~450 km east of Korla City, the capital of the Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture (Fig. 1), and 300 km south of the seat of Shanshan County. The geographic coordinates are 90o00'–91o30' E and 39o40'– 41o20' N. Field survey and drilling since 1995 have revealed an occurren…