Betpak-Dala or Betpaqdala ( kk, Бетпақдала, ''Betpaqdala''; from Turkic ''batpak'', “swampy,” or Persian ''bedbaht'', “unlucky” and Turkic ''dala'', “plain”; Russian: Бетпак-Дала or Сeверная Голодная степь, lit. ''Hungry Steppe'') is a desert region in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

.Betpak-Dala
- Great Russian Encyclopedia in 35 volumes / ch. ed.

Yu. S. Osipov Yury Sergeyevich Osipov (russian: Ю́рий Серге́евич О́сипов; born 7 July 1936) is a Soviet and Russian mathematician. He was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1987 and was a president of its succ ...

Geography

The Betpak-Dala is located between the lower reaches of the Sarysu River, the

Chu River The Chu (Shu or Chüy) ( kk, Шу, Shu, شۋ; ky, Чүй, Chüy, چۉي; dng, Чў, Chwu (from , ''Chǔ''); russian: Чу, Chu) is a river in Northern Kyrgyzstan and Southern Kazakhstan. Of its total length of ,Lake Balkhash. In the north, near the 46°30’ parallel, Betpak-Dala borders on the Kazakh ''melkosopochnik'' (area of low, rounded, isolated hills). Its area is approximately 75,000 km². To the southwest lies the

Ashchykol Depression The Ashchykol Depression ( kk, Ащыкөл ойпаты; rus, Ащыкольская впадина), is a depression in the Turkistan and Kyzylorda regions, Kazakhstan.Google Earth The village of Taykonyr, Suzak District, Turkistan Region ...

. The desert is a flat, gently rolling plain with an elevation ranging from 300 to 350 m (1,000 to 1,500 feet) and a general south-western incline. Elevations are greatest in the east. In the southeast, the Zheltau highland reaches an elevation of at Mount Suykadyr (Суықадыр). The western part of Betpak-Dala is composed of folded

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

rock and horizontally layered

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning o ...

friable rock (sand, sandstone, clay, and conglomerates). The eastern hilly region has a plicate structure and is composed of Lower

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ...

sedimentary-metamorphic rock series and granite. The climate is sharply continental. The annual precipitation is between 100 and 150 mm, of which only 15 percent occurs in summer. Summers are dry and hot; winters are cold with little snow. The average temperature in January ranges from -12° to -14 °C, and the average temperature in July ranges from 24° to 26 °C. There are many shallow, often saline lakes, such as Arys. Underground waters, emerging in places, are abundant. The predominant soils are gray-brown desert

solonchak Solonchak ( Russian and Ukrainian: Солончак) is a Reference Soil Group of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). It is a pale or grey soil type found in arid to subhumid, poorly drained conditions. The word is Russian for "sa ...

and

solonets Solonetz ( uk, Солонець, rus, Солоне́ц, p=səlɐˈnʲɛts) is a Reference Soil Group of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). They have, within the upper 100 cm of the soil profile, a so-called "natric horizon" ( ...

. The western region of Betpak-Dala is an

argillaceous Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces. Clay minerals ...

sagebrush desert; '' Anabasis salsa'' grows in the salt-marsh depressions, while Pamirian winterfat (''

Krascheninnikovia ceratoides ''Krascheninnikovia ceratoides'', the Pamirian winterfat, is a plant species native to Central Europe and Southern Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia. It has been reported from Russia, China, Mongolia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, ...

'') and Siberian pea shrub (''

Caragana arborescens ''Caragana arborescens'', the Siberian peashrub, Siberian pea-tree, or caragana, is a species of legume native to Siberia and parts of China (Heilongjiang, Xinjiang) and neighboring Mongolia and Kazakhstan. It was taken to the United States by ...

'') grow on the sand dunes. In the east the argillaceous desert merges with the stony desert where '' Salsola arbuscula'' grows on the rocky hills. Betpak-Dala is used as a spring and autumn grazing land. In Autumn 2014, English explorer

Jamie Bunchuk James Benjamin Maddison (born 9 July 1988), formerly known as Jamie Bunchuk, is an English explorer, equestrian Long Rider (assoc.) and an editor of Sidetracked Magazine. He is best known for his exploration of the Central Asia region. Maddison' ...

completed an expedition to cross the Betpak-Dala to its fullest longitudinal extent, from

Lake Balkash Lake Balkhash ( kk, Балқаш көлі, ''Balqaş kóli'', ; russian: озеро Балхаш, ozero Balkhash) is a lake in southeastern Kazakhstan, one of the largest lakes in Asia and the 15th largest in the world. It is located in the ea ...

in the east to the Sarysu River in the west. He also ran 190 miles, nearly eight marathons, back-to-back, over the course of eight days within the region. An

epizootic In epizoology, an epizootic (from Greek: ''epi-'' upon + ''zoon'' animal) is a disease event in a nonhuman animal population analogous to an epidemic in humans. An epizootic may be restricted to a specific locale (an "outbreak"), general (an "epi ...

pasteurellosis Pasteurellosis is an infection with a species of the bacterial genus ''Pasteurella'', which is found in humans and other animals. ''Pasteurella multocida'' (subspecies ''P. m. septica'' and ''P. m. multocida'') is carried in the mouth and respir ...

occurred in Betpak-Dala in May 2015, in which more than 120,000 saiga antelope — representing more than a third of the global population — were confirmed dead.

References

External links

* Natural regions Deserts of Central Asia Deserts of Kazakhstan Jambyl Region {{Kazakhstan-geo-stub

Geography

See also

References

External links