The map showing the major cities and the neighbouring countries of Mongolia

The southern part of the territory of Mongolia is desert.

Mongolia is a landlocked country in Northern Asia, strategically located between China and Russia. The terrain is one of mountains and rolling plateaus, with a high degree of relief. 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. Huitenii Orgil (soc.period. sometimes called Nayramdalin Orgil--Mount Friendship) in extreme western Mongolia, where the Mongolian, the Russian, and the Chinese borders meet, is the highest point (4,374 meters). The lowest is 560 meters, an otherwise undistinguished spot in the eastern Mongolian plain. The country has an average elevation of 1,580 meters. The landscape includes one of Asia's largest freshwater lakes (Lake Khövsgöl), many salt lakes, marshes, sand dunes, rolling grasslands, alpine forests, and permanent montane glaciers. Northern and western Mongolia are seismically active zones, with frequent earthquakes and many hot springs and extinct volcanoes. Map of Mongolia. ... Map of Mongolia. ... Image File history File links GobiDessertReliefMap. ... Image File history File links GobiDessertReliefMap. ... World map showing the location of Asia. ... The Altay Mountains (alternative spelling Altai) is a mountain range in central Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together, and where the great rivers Irtysh, Ob and Yenisei have their sources. ... Lake Khövsgöl. ...

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 Soviet border to the northeast of Ulan Bator, 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 south to 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 (Heilong Jiang) rivers, while the few streams of southern and southwestern Mongolia do not reach the sea but run into salt lakes or deserts. The Khangai mountains (mongolian , Khangain nuruu) are a mountain range in central Mongolia, some 400 kilometres south-west of Ulaanbaatar. ... The Khentii Mountains (Mongolian: ) are a mountain range in the Khentii province, Mongolia. ... Ulaanbaatar, September 2004 Traffic in Ulaanbaatar Ulan Bator, or Ulaanbaatar (Улаанбаатар, [Ulaɣan Baɣatar]) in Mongolian, is the capital of Mongolia. ... The Gobi (Chinese: [Gēbì (Shāmò)]; Mongolian: Говь [Gowi]) is a large desert region in China and southern Mongolia. ... Selenga River Delta from space, October 1994 The Selenga or Selenge (Mongolian: Сэлэнгэ, Russian: Селенга́) is a river in Mongolia and Russia. ... The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ... The Yenisei (Енисе́й) is the greatest river system flowing to the Arctic Ocean, and the fifth longest river in the world. ... Argun (Russian: Аргу́нь) is the Russian name of a river which is a part of the Russia-China border. ... The Amur River (Russian: Амур; Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: , or Black Dragon River; Mayan; Mongolian: Хара-Мурэн, Khara-Muren or Black River; Manchu: Sahaliyan Ula, literal meaning Black River) is Earths eighth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Manchuria in China. ...

Climate

Snow covers Mongolia in patches in this image from December 21, 2003. Snowfall is normally light and blows away quickly during the winter, so to see this much snow on the ground at once is rather unusual.

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 center of a region of high atmospheric pressure. Precipitation is highest in the north, which averages 20 to 35 centimeters per year, and lowest in the south, which receives 10 to 20 centimeters. 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 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. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 780 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2600 × 2000 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 780 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (2600 × 2000 pixel, file size: 1. ... The Gobi (Chinese: [Gēbì (Shāmò)]; Mongolian: Говь [Gowi]) is a large desert region in China and southern Mongolia. ...

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. More than half the country is covered by 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. Ulan Bator 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 31 centimeters 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. Tuul River- Originating in Terelj (Khan Khentii Special Protected Area), and the Bogd Khaan Mountain, this body of water runs through the southern part of the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. ...

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. Although winters are generally cold and clear, there are occasional blizzards that do not deposit much snow but cover the grasses with enough snow and ice to make grazing impossible, killing off tens of thousands of sheep or cattle. 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.

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 Lakes Valley desert steppe
• Great Lakes Basin desert steppe
• Junggar Basin semi-desert

The Mongolian-Manchurian grassland, also known as the Mongolian-Manchurian steppe, is a temperate grassland of Mongolia and northern China. ... The Gobi is a large desert region in northern China and southern Mongolia. ...

Environmental concerns

Detailed map of Mongolia

After many years of uncritical fostering of industrial and urban growth, Mongolia's authorities became aware in the late 1980s of the environmental costs of such policies. Belated Soviet concern over the pollution of Lake Baikal encouraged Mongolian actions to preserve their counterpart Lake Khövsgöl, which is linked to Lake Baykal through the Selenge-Moron. A wool-scouring plant that had been discharging wastes into Lake Khövsgöl was closed; truck traffic on the winter ice was banned; and the shipping of oil in barges on the lake was stopped. Deforestation in the Hangayn Nuruu, had reduced the flow of northern Mongolia's rivers, which were polluted by runoff from the fertilized and pesticide-treated grain fields along their banks, by industrial wastes, and by untreated sewage from growing settlements. Ulaanbaatar--located in a valley--with factories and 500,000 inhabitants who depend on soft coal, had severe air pollution, especially when the air was still and cold in winter. Deforestation, overgrazing of pastures, and efforts to increase grain and hay production by plowing up more virgin land had resulted in increased soil erosion, both from wind and from heavy downpours of the severe thunderstorms that bring much of Mongolia's rain. In the south, the desert area of the Gobi was expanding, threatening the fragile Gobi pasturelands. The government responded by founding the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 1987 and by giving increased publicity to environmental issues. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2000x1649, 1359 KB) Mongolia. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2000x1649, 1359 KB) Mongolia. ... Lake Khövsgöl. ... Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forest land use such as arable land, pasture, urban use, logged area or wasteland. ...

Natural hazards: dust storms can occur in the spring; grassland fires

Environment - current issues: limited natural fresh water resources; policies of the former communist regime promoting rapid urbanization and industrial growth have raised concerns about their negative effects on the environment; the burning of soft coal in power plants and the lack of enforcement of environmental laws have severely polluted the air in Ulaanbaatar; deforestation, overgrazing, the converting of virgin land to agricultural production have increased soil erosion from wind and rain; desertification and mining activities have also had a deleterious effect on the environment

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements Rainforests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth Biodiversity is the variation of taxonomic life forms within a given ecosystem, biome or for the entire Earth. ... UNFCCC logo. ... Earth as seen by Apollo 17 The Kyoto Protocol is an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international treaty on global warming. ... Ship stranded by the retreat of the Aral Sea Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors including climatic variations, but primarily human activities. ... The critically endangered Siberian Tiger, a rare subspecies of tiger. ... note - abbreviated as Environmental Modification opened for signature - December 10, 1976 entered into force - October 5, 1978 objective - to prohibit the military or other hostile use of environmental modification techniques in order to further world peace and trust among nations parties - (66) Afghanistan, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria... Hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment and generally exhibits one or more of these characteristics: ignitability corrosivity reactivity (explosive) toxicity Many types of businesses generate hazardous waste. ... Admiralty law (usually referred to as simply admiralty and also referred to as maritime law) is a distinct body of law which governs maritime questions and offenses. ... The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes and was opened for signature in New York on 24 September 1996, when it was signed by 71 States, including the five nuclear weapon states at the time (which did not... A subtropical wetland in Florida, USA, with an endangered American Crocodile. ...

Area and boundaries

Desert - Inner Mongolia

Area:
total: 1.565 million km²
land: 1.565 million km²
water: 0 km² Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1280x960, 97 KB) Summary See original: Image:Desert - Inner Mongolia. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1280x960, 97 KB) Summary See original: Image:Desert - Inner Mongolia. ...

Area - comparative: slightly smaller than Alaska Official language(s) English Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Area  Ranked 1st  - Total 663,267 sq mi (1,717,855 km²)  - Width 808 miles (1,300 km)  - Length 1,479 miles (2,380 km)  - % water 13. ...

Land boundaries:
total: 8,114 km
border countries: China 4,673 km, Russia 3,441 km

Coastline: 0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims: none (landlocked)

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Hoh Nuur 518 m
highest point: Khuitny Orgil, Tavan Bogd Uul 4,374 m

Resources and land use

Natural resources: petroleum, coal, copper, molybdenum, tungsten, phosphates, tin, nickel, zinc, fluorspar, gold Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Lubbock, Texas Ignacy Łukasiewicz - inventor of the refining of kerosene from crude oil. ... Coal Coal (IPA: ) is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by coal mining, either underground mining or open-pit mining (surface mining). ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic pinkish red Atomic mass 63. ... General Name, Symbol, Number molybdenum, Mo, 42 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 6, 5, d Appearance gray metallic Atomic mass 95. ... General Name, Symbol, Number tungsten, W, 74 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 6, 6, d Appearance grayish white, lustrous Atomic mass 183. ... In chemistry, a phosphate is a polyatomic ion or radical consisting of one phosphorus atom and four oxygen. ... General Name, Symbol, Number tin, Sn, 50 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 5, p Appearance silvery lustrous gray Atomic mass 118. ... General Name, Symbol, Number nickel, Ni, 28 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 10, 4, d Appearance lustrous, metallic and silvery with a gold tinge Atomic mass 58. ... General Name, Symbol, Number zinc, Zn, 30 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 12, 4, d Appearance bluish pale gray Atomic mass 65. ... Octahedral fluorite crystals from New Mexico, USA Fluorite (also called fluor-spar or Blue John) is a mineral composed of calcium fluoride, CaF2. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ...

Land use:
arable land: 1%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 80%
forests and woodland: 9%
other: 10% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 800 km² (1993 est.)

See also

• Mongolia
• Achit Nuur

Achit Nuur (Mongolian: Ачит Нуур) is the largest freshwater lake in the Uvs Aymag (province) of Mongolia, in the west of the country. ...

References

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.
• This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.

Coordinates: 46°00′N 105°00′E Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...