Geography of Mongolia
The map showing the major cities and the neighbouring countries of Mongolia
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| Continent | Asia |
|---|---|
| Region | East Asia |
| Coordinates | 46°0′N 105°0′E / 46.000°N 105.000°E |
| Area | Ranked 19 |
| • Total | 1,564,116 km2 (603,909 sq mi) |
| • Land | 99.3% |
| • Water | 0.7% |
| Borders | Russia, China |
| Highest point | Khüiten Peak (4,374 metres) |
| Lowest point | Hoh Nuur (560 metres) |
| Longest river | Orkhon River |
| Largest lake | Uvs Lake by area, Khövsgöl Nuur by volume |
| Climate | desert; continental |
| Terrain | vast semidesert and desert plains, grassy steppe, mountains in west and southwest |
| Natural Resources | oil, coal, copper, molybdenum, tungsten, phosphates, tin, nickel, zinc, fluorspar, gold, silver, iron |
| Natural Hazards | dust storms; grassland and forest fires; drought |
| Environmental Issues | limited natural freshwater; the burning of soft coal for power; poor enforcement of environmental laws; severe air pollution in Ulaanbaatar; deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion; desertification and poor mining practise |
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 (4,374 metres). 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 (Lake Khövsgöl), 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 (401 mi) from the country's easternmost tip bordering northern China to Jinzhou in Liaoning province, China along the coastline of the Bohai Sea.
Mongolia has two 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 highest peak in the country, Khüiten Peak at 4734 metres, is in the Altai range.
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. 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.
Some of Mongolia's waterways drain to the oceans, but many finish at Endorheic basins in 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 via Lake Baikal to the Arctic Ocean. Some minor tributaries of Siberia's Yenisei River, which also flows to the Arctic Ocean, rise in the mountains of northwestern Mongolia. In northeastern Mongolia the Onon River drains into the Pacific Ocean through the Shilka River in Russia and the Amur (Heilong Jiang) rivers, forming the tenth longest river system in the world.
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Wikipedia