Qaidam

English

Alternative forms

• Tsaidam

Etymology

A romanization of Tibetan ཚྭའི་འདམ (tshwa'i 'dam), from ཚྭ (tshwa, “salt”) + འི ('i, possessive particle) + འདམ ('dam, “marsh, swamp, morass”)

Proper noun

Qaidam

1. An arid basin of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau covered with deserts and salt flats, making up most of northwestern Qinghai Province, China.
   • 1984 November 23, Christopher S. Wren, “CHINA'S FORGOTTEN CORNER DREAMS OF DAYS TO COME”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on May 24, 2015, Section A, page 2‎^[2]:

     According to Qinghai's Deputy Governor, Ga Bulong, 100 million tons of oil have been verified under the salt flats of the Qaidam Basin.

   • 1990, Salt Diapirs of the Great Kavir, Central Iran‎^[3], →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 134:

     No salt diapirs are exposed in Qaidam. But given the close similarity of Landsat images of the Kavir and Qaidam basins, the subsurface role of halokinesis or halotectonics in the Qaidam basin has probably been underestimated.

   • 2022 March 29, Aizhu Chen, “PetroChina taps shale oil in ageing western China field”, in Edmund Blair, editor, Reuters‎^[4], archived from the original on 29 March 2022‎^[5]:

     The state giant started drilling four horizontal wells in Yingxiongling in Qinghai oilfield, part of the Qaidam basin in western province of Qinghai where oil exploration began in the 1950s, Petrochina's parent company CNPC said on Tuesday.

2. A river in the basin.

Translations

Translations

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 柴達木／柴达木 (caai⁴ daat⁶ muk⁶)

  Mandarin: 柴達木／柴达木 (zh) (Cháidámù)

• Manchu: ᠴᠠᡳᡩᠠᠮ (caidam)

Further reading

• Qaidam, Tsaidam at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.
• Saul B. Cohen, editor (1998), “Qaidam”, in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[6], volume 3, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 2543, column 1