Gobi Desert

The Gobi Desert is a vast and cold desert and grassland area located in southern Mongolia and North China. It is known as the sixth-largest desert in the world, stretching across a huge part of these two countries.

The name "Gobi" comes from the Mongolian word Gov', meaning "dryland." This word is used to describe all the dry and waterless areas on the Mongolian Plateau. In Chinese, a similar word, gēbì, is used to talk about rocky and semi-deserts like the Gobi, instead of sandy deserts.

Geography

The Gobi Desert is very big, stretching about 1,600 kilometers from southwest to northeast and 800 kilometers from north to south. It is widest in the west, near Lake Bosten and Lop Nor. The desert covers around 1,295,000 square kilometers.

The Gobi includes a long stretch of dry land from the foot of the Pamirs mountains to the Greater Khingan Mountains, near the border of Manchuria. It also reaches from the foothills of the Altay, Sayan, and Yablonoi mountains to the Kunlun, Altyn-Tagh, and Qilian mountains, which are part of the Tibetan Plateau.

Much of the Gobi looks like bare rock instead of sand.

Climate

The Gobi Desert is a cold desert, where frost and sometimes snow can appear on its sandy hills. It is quite far north and sits high above sea level, which helps keep its temperatures low. On average, about 194 mm (7.6 inches) of rain falls each year in the Gobi. Extra moisture comes in winter as snow blown by winds from faraway places. These winds can make the Gobi very cold in winter, reaching down to −40 °C (−40 °F), and very hot in summer, going up to 45 °C (113 °F).

The weather in the Gobi changes a lot, sometimes shifting by as much as 35 °C (63 °F) in just one day. In southern Mongolia, temperatures can drop to −32.8 °C (−27.0 °F). But in a place called Alxa, Inner Mongolia, it can get as warm as 37 °C (99 °F) in July. Winter nights are very cold, around −21 °C (−6 °F), while summer days are warm, about 27 °C (81 °F). Most of the rain falls in the summer.

Although some rainy winds reach the southeast part of the Gobi, much of the area is extremely dry, especially in winter. The southern and central parts of the Gobi have more plants because of these rains. The northern parts are very cold and dry, which makes it hard for plants to grow. This cold, dry weather brings icy dust and snowstorms in spring, early summer, and early winter.

Conservation, ecology, and economy

The Gobi Desert has been a place where important fossils have been found, including the first dinosaur eggs. In the Nemegt Basin in Mongolia, scientists have uncovered fossils of early mammals, dinosaur eggs, and very old stone tools.

Even in this dry and tough place, many animals live, some of which are found only here, like black-tailed gazelles, marbled polecats, wild Bactrian camels, Mongolian wild ass, and sandplovers. Sometimes snow leopards, Gobi bears, and wolves can be seen. Many types of lizards also live here. The plants in the Gobi are mostly drought-resistant shrubs, such as gray sparrow's saltwort, gray sagebrush, and low grasses like needle grass. However, because of animals being raised by people, there are fewer shrubs now. To help protect these places, several large nature reserves have been made, including Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, Great Gobi A, and Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area.

Desertification

The Gobi Desert is growing larger through a process called desertification, especially on its southern edge in China. About 3,600 square kilometers of grassland are lost each year. Dust storms have become more frequent, harming farms and the economy. But in some places, efforts have slowed or even reversed this change.

The lines between the desert and grassland keep moving, mainly because of weather before plants start growing. Human actions like cutting down trees, letting too many animals eat the grass, and using up water, along with climate change, are mostly to blame for the desert expanding. China has tried to stop the desert from growing with projects like the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, also called the Green Great Wall. This big tree-planting effort started in 1978 and aims to plant trees across northern China to help fight desertification.

Ecoregions

The Gobi Desert can be split into five different dry areas, depending on its weather and shape.

• Eastern Gobi desert steppe covers a large area and stretches from China into Mongolia. It includes mountains and small ponds.
• Alashan Plateau semi-desert lies to the west and has desert basins and low mountains.
• Gobi Lakes Valley desert steppe is north of the Alashan Plateau, between two mountain ranges.
• Dzungarian Basin semi-desert is between two big mountain ranges and includes parts of China and Mongolia.
• Tian Shan range separates two deserts, with one being a sandy area surrounded by high mountains.

The Eastern Gobi desert steppe has many different landforms but similar heights. There are flat areas and mountains, with some old rocks visible. The land is mostly between 900 and 1,000 meters above sea level. Further south, there are wide flat areas and plains at different heights. Rivers and small lakes are common, and grass grows in some places. The area has very little trees and shrubs, mainly clay and sand. Wind often brings dust, and the plants include wild garlic and various bushes.

The Alashan Plateau semi-desert is flat and was once probably a large lake bed. It has bare sand and salty clay, with few plants like small bushes and grasses. Animals here include antelopes, wolves, foxes, and many birds.

The Dzungarian Basin has tall mountains running from west to east, splitting the land into parts. Rivers flow from the mountains into wide plains, creating marshes with lots of reeds. Some call this a desert, while others see it as land good for camels and other animals with careful management. The plants here often smell nice.

History

Prehistory

There isn't much known about the early people who lived in the Gobi Desert. Researchers have divided this time into three main periods called Oasis I, Oasis II, and Oasis III.

Oasis I, from about 13,500 to 8,000 years ago, is similar to a time called the Mesolithic. People during this time started using places where water gathered, called oases. They made small tools and simple pottery.

Oasis II, from about 8,000 to 5,000 years ago, matches a time called the Neolithic. People used oases more, and they made better tools and different kinds of pottery.

Oasis III, from about 5,000 to 3,000 years ago, is like the Bronze Age. People made tools from metal, used stones for grinding, and created beautiful pieces of pottery. They also made beads from bone and used spindle whorls for spinning thread. During this time, some people who raised animals were buried in the desert. There were also times when the land became drier, making it harder for people to live there.

European and American exploration

The Gobi Desert has been home to many nomadic groups, such as the Mongols, Uyghurs, and Kazakhs. For a long time, people outside the region didn't know much about the Gobi Desert. Information came mainly from travelers who passed through. Many European and American explorers helped us learn more about this area. Some of the most important ones include:

Jean-François Gerbillon, Eberhard Isbrand Ides, Lorenz Lange, Alexander G. von Bunge, Nikolai Przhevalsky, Grigory Potanin, Béla Széchenyi, Lajos Lóczy, the brothers Grigory Grum-Grshimailo, Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov, Vladimir Obruchev, Sven Hedin, and Roy Chapman Andrews from the American Museum of Natural History. Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska also led important research trips in the 1960s.