Gobi Desert

Coordinates: 42°35′N 103°26′E / 42.59°N 103.43°E / 42.59; 103.43
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Gobi Desert
Length1,500 km (930 mi)
Width800 km (500 mi)
Area1,295,000 km2 (500,000 sq mi)
Naming
Native name
Geography
CountriesChina and Mongolia
StateÖmnögovi and Sükhbaatar
RegionInner Mongolia
Coordinates42°35′N 103°26′E / 42.59°N 103.43°E / 42.59; 103.43

The Gobi (/ˈɡ.bi/; Mongolian: Говь, Govi , "semidesert"; Chinese: 戈壁; pinyin: Gēbì ) is a desert in Mongolia and China. It is the largest desert in Asia, and the sixth largest in the world.

The Gobi is a rain shadow desert, caused by the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas shielding it from rain.

The desert basins of the Gobi are bounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands and steppes of Mongolia on the north, by the Hexi Corridor and Tibetan Plateau to the southwest, and by the North China Plain to the southeast. The Gobi is made up of several pieces of geological and geographic regions.

This desert is home to many animals, such as the Bactrian Camel, Pit Viper, Mongolian wild ass, Gobi Bear and even Snow Leopards. There is also many types of wild sheep and goats around the desert. The most common vegetation is the gray sparrows saltwort, grey sagebrush and short grasses.

Climate[change | change source]

The Gobi is a high plateau with daily and seasonal extremes of temperature.

Temperature
Sivantse (1190 m) Ulaanbaatar (1150 m)
Annual mean −2.5 °C (27.5 °F) 2.8 °C (37.0 °F)
January mean −26.5 °C (−15.7 °F) −16.5 °C (2.3 °F)
July mean 17.5 °C (63.5 °F) 19.0 °C (66.2 °F)
Extremes −43 to 38 °C (−45 to 100 °F) −47 to 38.6 °C (−53 to 101 °F)

References[change | change source]

  • Owen Lattimore. (1973) "Return to China's Northern Frontier." The Geographical Journal, Vol. 139, No. 2 (Jun., 1973), pp. 233–242.

Further reading[change | change source]

  • Cable, Mildred and French, Francesca (1943) The Gobi Desert London. Landsborough Publications, hentaiporns.net
  • Man, John (1997) Gobi: Tracking the Desert Yale University Press, New Haven, ISBN 0-300-07609-6
  • Stewart, Stanley (2001) In the Empire of Genghis Khan: A Journey among Nomads Harper Collins Publishers, London, ISBN 0-00-653027-3.
  • Thay'er, Helen (2007) Walking the Gobi: 1,600 Mile-trek Across a Desert of Hope and Despair Mountaineer Books, Seattle, WA, ISBN 978-1-59485-064-6
  • Young husband, Francis (1904) The Heart of a Continent John Murray

Other websites[change | change source]

Media related to Gobi Desert at Wikimedia Commons