Qualla: Yangbajain Geothermal Field

Yangbajain Geothermal Field: Introduction

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Taken by Fanghong, CC BY 2.5. On a clear morning, steam rises from the plateau basin in columns thick enough to see from kilometers away. At over 4,000 meters elevation on the southern slopes of the Nyainqentanglha Mountains, the earth's heat breaks through in geysers, boiling springs, and a 7,300-square-meter hot water lake that never cools below 49 degrees Celsius. This is the Yangbajain Geothermal Field, the largest proven geothermal field in China and arguably the highest-altitude hot springs in the world -- a place where the boundary between geology and daily life has been erased.

Image: Taken by Fanghong | CC BY 2.5

Yangbajain Geothermal Field: Fire Beneath the Roof of the World

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Taken by Fanghong, CC BY 2.5. The heat at Yangbajain comes from deep below. A granite batholith underlies the basin, and magmatic intrusions dating back nearly 90 million years to the Yanshanian period have left the rock fractured and warm. Rain and snowmelt from the Nyainqentanglha Range seep downward throug...

Image: Taken by Fanghong | CC BY 2.5

Yangbajain Geothermal Field: Powering a Capital

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Taken by Fanghong, CC BY 2.5. The Yangbajain Geothermal Station, established in 1977, was the first geothermal power station built in Tibet and remains the largest geothermal steam power plant in China. By 1981, 4,000 kilowatts of electricity were flowing to Lhasa along a transmission line running southeast a...

Image: Taken by Fanghong | CC BY 2.5

Yangbajain Geothermal Field: Where Tourists Soak at 4,000 Meters

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Taken by Fanghong, CC BY 2.5. Alongside the industrial infrastructure, Yangbajain has become a tourist destination. A government-developed resort opened in 1998, offering hot spring baths reputed to have curative powers. Two warm indoor pools and an outdoor pool let visitors soak while the Nyainqentanglha Mou...

Image: Taken by Fanghong | CC BY 2.5

Yangbajain Geothermal Field: The Cost Downstream

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Taken by Fanghong, CC BY 2.5. The Duilong River carries more than electricity transmission lines alongside it. A 2015 study found that arsenic levels in the river during the non-monsoon season reached 205.6 micrograms per liter -- more than twenty times the World Health Organization's guideline of 10 microgra...

Image: Taken by Fanghong | CC BY 2.5

Yangbajain Geothermal Field: Geology as Landscape

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Taken by Fanghong, CC BY 2.5. Yangbajain sits within the Himalayan Geothermal Belt, in the Lhasa-Gangdise terrane, between the Nyainqentanglha Range to the northwest and the Yarlu-Zangbo suture zone to the south. The basin itself is a semi-graben, a depression formed by a detachment fault that began developin...

Image: Taken by Fanghong | CC BY 2.5