Earth Science 7-North Asia3

Earth Science 7-Global Regions Index

Countries:

This region consists of the countries China, Mongolia, Japan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Korea, and Taiwan.

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Climate:

Kyrgyzstan: The temperature ranges from -30°C to 27°C. The weather is varied in this region due to it’s position in the middle of the Eurasian landmass, and the absence of any body of water big enough to change weather patterns. The country is usually sunny. It gets as much as 2,900 hours of sunlight per year in some areas.

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Tajikistan: At Tajikistan's lower elevation areas, the average temperature range is 23° to 30° C in July and -1° to 3°C in January. In the eastern Pamirs, which are higher in elevations, the average July temperature is 5° to 10°C, and the average January temperature is -15° to -20°C. Tajikistan's climate is continental, subtropical, and semiarid, with some areas that are desert.

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Turkmenistan: Turkmenistan has a subtropical desert climate. Summers are long, hot, and dry, while winters are mild and dry, although occasionally cold and damp in the north. Most precipitation falls between January and May. Precipitation is very slight throughout the country.

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Uzbekistan: Uzbekistan's climate is continental, with hot summers and cool winters. Summer temperatures are sometimes more than 40°C. Winter temperatures on average are about -23°C, but fall as low as -40°C. Most of the country arid, with an average annual rainfall between 100 and 200 millimeters and occurring mostly in winter and spring.

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Climate Zones:

Northern Asia has many different climate zones which include: snow, fully humid, extremely continental, cool summer, winter dry, warm summer, arid desert, cold arid, polar, and polar tundra. There is a wide variety of climates in this region. The more north you go in the region, the colder it gets, and the more you go towards the equator, the hotter it gets. Most of the humidity is in the north and it is more arid towards the south.

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Latitude and Longitude:

Russia to South Korea: 44 degrees 44 minutes North to 34 degrees 24 minutes North

Russia to South Korea: 87 degrees 9 minutes East to 126 degrees 14 minutes East

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Elevation Range:

The highest elevation is 8,850m Mt. Everest. The lowest elevation is -28m the Caspian Sea.

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Bodies of Water:

Kyrgyzstan: There are many lakes and fast-flowing rivers coming down from the top’s of mountains. Most of Kyrgyzstan's rivers are tributaries of the Syrdariya, which has its head in the Tian Shan by the Chinese border. Ref 1

Tajikistan: A dense river network creates valleys through mountain ranges. Lakes are mostly located in the Pamir region in the east. Ref 1

Turkmenistan: Has some rivers running through it and neighboring countries. Ref 1

Uzbekistan: There are few lakes and rivers here. There is the shrinking Aral Sea that Uzbekistan shares with Kazakstan. Ref 1

China: There are many seas here. The East China Sea, The South China Sea, and The Yellow Sea. Also bordering it is the Korea Bay. Ref 1

Russia: Russia borders the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, in the east it touches the baring straight. It also touches the Caspian Sea. Ref 1

Kazakhstan: In Kazakhstan there are a few lakes and rivers and it borders the Caspian Sea. Ref 1

Japan: Japan is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and contains the Sea of Japan. Ref 1

Mongolia: In Mongolia there are very few lakes and there are almost no rivers. It touches no oceans or seas. Ref 1

In North Asia there is very little ice cover except in Siberia where the ground is frozen tundra.

Rocks and Minerals

In Northern Asia you can find metallic minerals ( Copper, Titanium, Gold, lead, Zinc, Platinum, Uranium, Iron, Tin). Many other resources in the region include oil, coal, natural gases, and diamonds. Russia is ranked 6th in the world in terms of copper production. Russia has 10% of global copper reserves. In Russia there are volcanoes with lots of igneous extrusive rock. There are many other rocks such as gneisses, mitigates, and granites. Some of the sediments contain rich hematite ores and manganese ores. Gold also occurs associated with basic volcanic rocks or intrusions in the green stone belts. Kazakhstan is the world’s 11th largest copper producer. Kazakhstan also has many elements that are found in the metallic rocks in minerals. Japan has coal, which is a metamorphic rock.

References: 1, 2

Major Topographic Features:

In the Tajikistan area of Asia, there are three mountain chains that make up the most west extension of the massive Tian Shan system are the Turkestan, Zarafshon, and Hisor (Gisar) mountains. In north Asia there is also the Turan Depression and the Garagum Desert. The Kopetdag Range along the southwestern border reaches 2,912 meters. The Balkan Mountains in far west and the Kugitang Range in far east are the only other large elevations. In Uzbekistan there is the Qizilqum Desert that is a vast desert shared with southern Kazakstan. In Russia there are vast expances of plains west of the Ural Mountains and also has tunras, forests, and mountains. It also has many hills and uplands. In Kazakhstan there are the Altai mountains and also contains the Gobi Desert.

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Oceans:

Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan do not have any bordering oceans because the are very inland.

Japan is an island that is surrounded by water. It is surrounded by the North Pacific Ocean and receives very high tides. They experience many earthquakes and tsunamis due to the water surroundings. China is bordered by an ocean as well, but they do not experience as much rough weather as places such as Japan. One easy way to tell that, is that their name does not pop up on television as much as other places for storms that have hit due to ocean surroundings

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Tectonic Plates

North Asia is located on, around, and near part of the Eurasian plate, the Amur plate, the Yangtze plate, the Okinawa plate, and the Okhotsk plate. This part of the world is very seismically active. The Yangtze plate boundary has a oceanic and continental transform fault on the bottom edge of the plate, and the Amur plate has the same on the southern boundary and the northeast boundary. Majority of the plates are oceanic faults, not continental. Most volcanoes are located at plate boundaries.

Volcanoes:

Some large volcanoes in North Asia are the Balagan-Tas and Udokan Plateau in Russia. Mout Fugi in a Japanese volcanic arc, is another large volcano. The Keluo Group, Tengchong, and the Kunlun Volcanic group, are all pyroclastic cones in China. Volcanoes are scattered throughout China, but most are located in eastern China near the plate boundaries. There have been no large, recent eruptions.

Earthquakes:

North Asia contains to some of the most active countries earthquake wise. One of them is Japan. Japan is extremely earthquake prone because it on the Juan de Fuca plate. Another counrty with lots of earthquakes is china. China is very near the Australian Idian plate that splits China and India. This is also where the Hymalayan Mountains are. Where the plate touches China is where India slammed into Asia.

Links:

1: http://memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/

2: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

3: http://koeppen-geiger.vu-wien.ac.at/present.htm

4: Google Earth