<!-- This short description is INTENTIONALLY "none" - please see WP:SDNONE before you consider changing it! -->

Mongolia is a landlocked country in 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 Altai Mountains of the west and the north to plains and depressions in the east and the south. These mountains also house the capital of Ulaanbaatar.

The Khövsgöl Mountains occupy the north of the country. It trends from north to south and generally has a lot of steep peaks. Young mountain range with Alpine characteristics, high gradient, with narrow cliffs. Rivers are most extensively developed in the north, and the country's major river system is that of the Selenge, which drains via Lake Baikal to the Arctic Ocean. The few streams of southern Mongolia do not reach the sea but run into lakes or deserts. In total, the lakes and rivers of Mongolia cover 10,560 square kilometres, or 0.67% of the country. Summer extremes reach as high as in the southern Gobi region and in Ulaanbaatar.

|source 2 = NOAA (sun, 1961–1990)

Zud

thumb|Goats that died as result of a 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. 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. The Mongolian State Emergency Commission said it was the coldest winter in thirty years and, like the preceding harsh summer drought,

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.

Climate change

Ecoregions

thumb|[[Endorheic lake in Northern Mongolia]]

  • 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

Resources and land use

Land use:

<br>arable land:

9.10%

<br>permanent crops:

0%

<br>other:

99.61% (2011)

Irrigated land:

843&nbsp;km² (2011)

Total renewable water resources:

34.8&nbsp;km <sup>3</sup> (2011)

See also

  • Greater Mongolia
  • Mongolian Plateau
  • List of reptiles of Mongolia

References

  • Administration of Land Affairs, Geodesy and Cartography
  • Official government site – Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology
  • Official government site – Mineral Resources Authority
  • Official government site – Water Agency of Mongolia
  • Limnological Catalogue of Mongolian Lakes
  • GEOLOGY OF THE KHARKHIRAA UUL, MONGOLIAN ALTAI

bn:মঙ্গোলিয়া#ভূগোল