Mountain Ranges, Deserts and Landforms of Mongolia

Geography

The Gobi measures 1,600 km (1,000 mi) from southwest to northeast and 800 km (500 mi) from north to south. The desert is widest in the west, along the line joining the Lake Bosten and the Lop Nor (87°–89° east). Its area is approximately 1,295,000 square kilometres (500,000 sq mi).

Gobi includes the long stretch of desert extending from the foot of the Pamirs (77° east) to the Greater Khingan Mountains, 116–118° east, on the border of Manchuria; and from the foothills of the Altay, Sayan, and Yablonoi mountain ranges on the north to the Kunlun, Altyn-Tagh, and Qilian mountain ranges, which form the northern edges of the Tibetan Plateau, on the south.

Climate

The Gobi is overall a cold desert, with frost and occasionally snow occurring on its dunes. Besides being quite far north, it is also located on a plateau roughly 910–1,520 m (2,990–4,990 ft) above sea level, which contributes to its low temperatures. An average of about 194 mm (7.6 in) of rain falls annually in the Gobi. Additional moisture reaches parts of the Gobi in winter as snow is blown by the wind from the Siberian Steppes. These winds may cause the Gobi to reach −40 °C (−40 °F) in winter to 45 °C (113 °F) in summer.

However, the climate of the Gobi is one of great extremes, with rapid changes of temperature of as much as 35 °C (63 °F) in 24-hour spans.

In southern Mongolia, the temperature has been recorded as low as −32.8 °C (−27.0 °F).

Conservation, ecology, and economy

The Gobi Desert is the source of many important fossil finds, including the first dinosaur eggs, twenty-six of which, averaging 23 centimetres (9 in) in length, were uncovered in 1923.

Archeologists and paleontologists have done excavations in the Nemegt Basin in the northwestern part of the Gobi Desert (in Mongolia), which is noted for its fossil treasures, including early mammals, dinosaur eggs, and prehistoric stone implements, some 100,000 years old.

Despite the harsh conditions, these deserts and the surrounding regions sustain many animal species. Some are even unique, including black-tailed gazelles, marbled polecats, wild Bactrian camels, Mongolian wild ass and sandplovers. They are occasionally visited by snow leopards, Gobi bears, and wolves.

History

There is little information about early habitation of the Gobi desert.

Lisa Janz has proposed a system of nomenclature for early Gobi desert habitation. They are Oasis I, Oasis II, Oasis III.

honeycomb imprinted, corded, string paddled, low and high fired pottery with a sand and gravel mixture.

Starting around 8000 cal BP there was a warm wet phase in the Gobi desert.By 7500 cal BP lake levels in the Western Gobi reached their peak. Around this time there was meadow steppe vegetation around lakes. In Ulaan Nuur there may have been shrubby riparian woodlands.

Geography

The Altai Mountains are a system of remote mountains in central Asia that cover an area of 845,000 km2 (326,000 sq mi). The mountains stretch for 2,525 km (1,569 mi) from northwest to southeast.

In the north of the region is the Sailughem Mountains, also known as Kolyvan Altai, which stretch northeast from 49° N and 86° E towards the western extremity of the Sayan Mountains in 51° 60' N and 89° E. Their mean elevation is 1,500–1,750 m (4,920–5,740 ft). The snow-line runs at 2,000 m (6,600 ft) on the northern side and at 2,400 m (7,900 ft) on the southern, and above it the peaks rise some 1,000 m (3,300 ft) higher.

Geology

The Siberian Altai represents the northernmost region affected by the tectonic collision of India into Asia. Extensive fault systems run through the area, including the Kurai fault zone and the recently identified Tashanta fault zone. These fault systems are typically thrusts or right lateral strike-slip faults, some of which are tectonically active. Rock types in the mountains are typically granites and metamorphic schists, and some are highly sheared near to fault zones.

Geologist Victor R. Baker "has discovered past cataclysmic floods in the Altai Mountains of Siberia" from "an even larger glacial lake" than Lake Missoula, which was once thought to have been "the largest ice-dammed lake in the world".

History

The Altai mountains have retained a remarkably stable climate, changing little since the last ice age. In addition the mix of mammals has remained largely the same, with a few exceptions such as extinct mammoths, making it one of the few places on Earth to retain an ice age fauna. Genetic analysis in 2026 also determined that the Altai region served as a likely primary refugium for the woolly rhinoceros, which had originated during the Penultimate Glacial Period, during the warmer period of the Last Interglacial.

The Altai mountains were home to the Denisovan branch of hominids who were contemporaries of Neanderthals and of Homo sapiens (modern humans), descended from Hominids who reached Asia earlier than modern humans.

Geography

The average elevation of the Mongolian Plateau ranges from 915 to 1,525 meters (3,002 to 5,003 ft) above sea level. The highest point in the plateau is found in Tavan Bogd at 4,374 meters (14,350 ft) above sea level.

Ecology

The ecology of Mongolia is complex, having varying regions of highland and lowland areas. Grazing species such as yaks, Przewalski's horses, domesticated sheep, saiga antelope, Siberian ibex and Argali are common. Predator species include the Eurasian lynx, snow leopards, Corsac foxes as well as carnivorous birds such as the bearded vulture, saker falcon, and the cinereous vulture. Marmots are common throughout the region including the Tarbagan marmot with large parts of its range located in the Mongolian plateau.

History

The plateau was inhabited and conquered by various groups, including (chronologically) the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Göktürks, Tang dynasty, Liao dynasty, Mongol Empire, Yuan dynasty, Northern Yuan dynasty, and Qing dynasty.

Geography

The northern slopes are part of the watershed of the Yenisei River, facing the western Sayan Mountains. The eastern end touches the large watershed of the Selenge River in Mongolia.

The foothills of the southern slopes cross into Mongolian territory. They form the northern limits of a large basin of steppes that extends south to the Mongolian Altay Mountains and includes the salt lake Uvs Nuur. The western end is located near the northern Altay Mountains in the Russian Altai Republic.