Mongolia is a landlocked country in Central Asia and East Asia, located
between China and Russia. The terrain is one of mountains and rolling plateaus,
with a high degree of relief. The total land area of Mongolia is 1,564,116
square kilometres. Overall, the land slopes from the high Altay Mountains of
the west and the north to plains and depressions in the east and the south.
The Khüiten Peak in extreme western Mongolia on the Chinese border is the
highest point. The lowest is 518 metres, an otherwise undistinguished spot in the
eastern Mongolian plain. The country has an average elevation of 1,580 metres.
The landscape includes one of Asia's largest freshwater lakes, many salt
lakes, marshes, sand dunes, rolling grasslands, alpine forests, and
permanent mountain glaciers. Northern and western Mongolia are seismically
active zones, with frequent earthquakes and many hot springs and extinct
volcanoes. The nation's closest point to any ocean is approximately 645
kilometres from the country's easternmost tip bordering northern China
to Jinzhou in Liaoning province, China along the coastline of the Bohai Sea.
Mountain regions Mongolia has three major mountain
ranges. The highest is the Altai Mountains, which stretch across the
western and the southwestern regions of the country on a northwest-to-southeast
axis. The Khangai Mountains, mountains also trending northwest to southeast,
occupy much of central and north-central Mongolia. These are older, lower, and
more eroded mountains, with many forests and alpine pastures. The Khentii
Mountains near the Russian border to the northeast of Ulaanbaatar, are lower
still. Much of eastern Mongolia is occupied by a plain, and the lowest area
is a southwest-to-northeast trending depression that reaches from the Gobi
Desert region in the south to the eastern frontier. The rivers drain in
three directions: north to the Arctic Ocean, east to the Pacific, or into the
deserts and the depressions of Inner Asia. Rivers are most extensively
developed in the north, and the country's major river system is that of
the Selenge, which drains into Lake Baikal. Some minor tributaries of
Siberia's Yenisei River also rise in the mountains of northwestern Mongolia.
Rivers in northeastern Mongolia drain into the Pacific through the Argun and
Amur rivers, while the few streams of southern and western Mongolia do not
reach the sea but run into lakes or deserts.
Climate = Overview=
Mongolia is high, cold, and dry. It has an extreme continental climate with
long, cold winters and short summers, during which most precipitation falls.
The country averages 257 cloudless days a year, and it is usually at the centre
of a region of high atmospheric pressure. Precipitation is highest in
the north, which averages 200 to 350 millimetres per year, and lowest in the
south, which receives 100 to 200 millimeters. The extreme south is the
Gobi Desert, some regions of which receive no precipitation at all in most
years. The name Gobi is a Mongol word meaning desert, depression, salt marsh,
or steppe, but which usually refers to a category of arid rangeland with
insufficient vegetation to support marmots but with enough to support
camels. Mongols distinguish Gobi from desert proper, although the distinction
is not always apparent to outsiders unfamiliar with the Mongolian landscape.
Gobi rangelands are fragile and are easily destroyed by overgrazing, which
results in expansion of the true desert, a stony waste where not even Bactrian
camels can survive. Average temperatures over most of the
country are below freezing from November through March and are about freezing in
April and October. January and February averages of −20 °C are common, with
winter nights of −40 °C occurring most years. Summer extremes reach as high as
38 °C in the southern Gobi region and 33 °C in Ulaanbaatar. Most of Mongolia is
covered by discontinuous permafrost, which makes construction, road building,
and mining difficult. All rivers and freshwater lakes freeze over in the
winter, and smaller streams commonly freeze to the bottom. Ulaanbaatar lies
at 1,351 meters above sea level in the valley of the Tuul River. Located in the
relatively well-watered north, it receives an annual average of 310
millimetres of precipitation, almost all of which falls in July and in August.
Ulaanbaatar has an average annual temperature of −2.9 °C and a frost-free
period extending on the average from mid-June to late August.
Mongolia's weather is characterized by extreme variability and short-term
unpredictability in the summer, and the multiyear averages conceal wide
variations in precipitation, dates of frosts, and occurrences of blizzards and
spring dust storms. Such weather poses severe challenges to human and livestock
survival. Official statistics list less than 1% of the country as arable, 8 to
10% as forest, and the rest as pasture or desert. Grain, mostly wheat, is grown
in the valleys of the Selenge river system in the north, but yields
fluctuate widely and unpredictably as a result of the amount and the timing of
rain and the dates of killing frosts. = Zud=
Although winters are generally cold and clear, and livestock can survive, under
various weather conditions livestock are unable to graze and die in large
numbers. A winter in which this occurs is known as a zud; causes include
blizzards, drought, extreme cold, and freezing rain. Such losses of livestock,
which are an inevitable and, in a sense, normal consequence of the climate, have
made it difficult for planned increases in livestock numbers to be achieved.
= Seasonal blizzards= Severe blizzards can occur in the
region. The winters of 1970–1971, 2000–2001, 2008–2009 and 2009–2010 were
particularly harsh, featuring extremely severe zuds.
The blizzards of December 2000 blocked many roads, and killed 16,000 livestock
and 10 people. The Mongolian State Emergency Commission said it was the
coldest winter in 30 years and, like the preceding harsh summer drought, could
have been the result of global warming. The United Nations provided major aid
due to the high level of damage caused. In the snowstorms between the 8 and 28
May 2008, 21 people were killed and 100 others went missing in seven provinces
in eastern Mongolia. The toll finally reached at least 52 people and 200,000
livestock by the end of June. Most of the victims were herders who froze to
death along with their livestock. It was the worst cold snap since the founding
of the modern state in 1922. Snowstorms in December 2009–February
2010 also killed 8,000,000 livestock and 60 people.
Ecoregions Altai montane forest and forest steppe
Khangai Mountains conifer forests Selenge-Orkhon forest steppe
Sayan montane conifer forests Trans-Baikal conifer forests
Daurian forest steppe Mongolian-Manchurian grassland
Altai alpine meadow and tundra Khangai Mountains alpine meadow
Sayan Alpine meadows and tundra Alashan Plateau semi-desert
Eastern Gobi desert steppe Gobi desert
Gobi Lakes Valley desert steppe Great Lakes Basin desert steppe
Junggar Basin semi-desert Area and boundaries
Area:total: 1,564,116 km2land: 1,553,556 million km2water: 10,560 km²
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than Quebec, slightly larger than Alaska
Land boundaries:total: 8,220 kmborder countries: China 4,677 km, Russia 3,543
km Coastline: 0 km
Maritime claims: none Elevation extremes:lowest point: Hoh
Nuur 518 mhighest point: Khüiten Peak 4,374 m
Resources and land use Natural resources: oil, coal, copper,
molybdenum, tungsten, phosphates, tin, nickel, zinc, fluorspar, gold, silver,
iron Land use:arable land: 0.39%permanent
crops: 0%other: 99.61% Irrigated land: 843 km²
Total renewable water resources: 34.8 km Antipodes
Much of central and western Mongolia, including Ulaanbaatar, is antipodal to
southern Patagonia. See Geography of Chile#Antipodes and Geography of
Argentina#Antipodes for details. See also
Greater Mongolia Mongolian Plateau
List of reptiles of Mongolia References
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of
the Library of Congress Country Studies. This article incorporates public domain
material from websites or documents of the CIA World Factbook.
External links (Mongolian) Administration of Land
Affairs, Geodesy and Cartography (English) Official government site -
Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (English) Official government site -
Mineral Resources Authority (English) Official government site -
Water Agency of Mongolia Limnological Catalogue of Mongolian
Lakes GEOLOGY OF THE KHARKHIRAA UUL, MONGOLIAN
ALTAI