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The Gobi is made up of several distinct ecological and
geographic regions based on variations in climate and topography. One is the
Eastern Gobi desert steppe ecoregion, a Palearctic ecoregion in the deserts and
xeric shrublands biome, home to the Bactrian camel and various other animals.
It is a rain shadow desert formed by the Himalaya range blocking rain-carrying
clouds from the Indian Ocean from reaching the Gobi territory.
The Gobi measures over 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. It
occupies an arc of land 1,295,000 km2 500,000 sq mi in area as of 2007; it is
the fifth-largest desert in the world and Asia's largest. Much of the Gobi is
not sandy but has exposed bare rock.
The Gobi has several different Chinese names, including, a
generic term for deserts and, In its
broadest definition, the Gobi includes the long stretch of desert and
semi-desert area 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. citation needed
Gobi desert near Dunhuang
A relatively large area on the east side of the Greater
Khingan range, between the upper waters of the Songhua Sungari and the upper
waters of the Liao-ho, is reckoned to belong to the Gobi by conventional usage.
Some geographers and ecologists prefer to regard the western area of the Gobi
region as defined above: the basin of the Tarim in Xinjiang and the desert basin
of Lop Nor and Hami Kumul, as forming a separate and independent desert, called
the Taklamakan Desert.
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. Citation needed.
Climate;
The Gobi is 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 metres 2,990–4,990 ft above sea level, which
contributes to its low temperatures. An average of approximately 194
millimetres 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 cause the Gobi to reach extremes of temperature
ranging from –40°C –40°F in winter to
+50°C 122°F in summer
The climate of the Gobi is one of great extremes, combined
with rapid changes of temperature of as much as 35 °C 63 °F. These can occur
not only seasonally but within 24 hours.
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