A high-altitude anomaly
Pangong Tso is a land-locked, or endorheic, lake situated at an elevation of about 4,350 meters (14,270 feet) in the Himalayas. The lake stretches for 134 kilometers, with approximately 40% of its length in the Ladakh region of India and the remainder in Tibet. It is a brackish body of water, with salinity levels on the Indian side measured at 11.02 grams per liter. This high salinity is a result of the lake having no outlet; water is lost only through evaporation, which concentrates salts and minerals. The lake's formation is tied to the region's complex geology, lying within the Karakoram Shear Zone, a product of the tectonic collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates.
Despite its salt content, the entire lake freezes solid during the winter, when air temperatures can drop to -30°C (-22°F). The water itself is highly alkaline, with a pH of around 9.0. The lake's depth reaches up to 100 meters (328 feet). The surrounding environment is a cold desert, with intense solar radiation and extreme temperature fluctuations. Strand lines visible above the current water level indicate the lake has shrunk in recent geological history. Fossil evidence of freshwater mollusks suggests it was once a freshwater lake that had an outlet to the Shyok River, a tributary of the Indus.