The Barsuki Desert is a

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

zone in the

Aktobe Aktobe (, ; ) is a major city located on the Ilek River in western Kazakhstan. It serves as the administrative center of the Aktobe Region and is an important cultural, economic, and industrial hub in the region. As of 2023, the city has a popu ...

and

Kyzylorda Kyzylorda ( , formerly known as Kzyl-Orda (), Ak-Mechet (Ак-Мечеть), Perovsk (Перовск), and Fort-Perovsky (Форт-Перовский), is a city in south-central Kazakhstan, capital of Kyzylorda Region and former capital of the ...

regions of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. It has two parts, the Greater Barsuki (; ) in the west and the Lesser Barsuki (; ) in the east. They are elongated strips of sand desert parallel to each other and separated by a roughly wide stretch of non-desert terrain.Барсуки Большие и Малые
''

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

'' in 30 vols. — Ch. ed.

A.M. Prokhorov Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov (born Alexander Michael Prochoroff, ; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was an Australian-born Russian physicist and researcher on lasers and masers, in the former Soviet Union. He shared the Nobel Prize in Ph ...

. - 3rd ed. - M. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978. (in Russian) The sands of the deserts are the result of the weathering of

Paleogene The Paleogene Period ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period Ma. It is the fir ...

rocks; only the northern section of the Greater Barsuki was formed from more recent

alluvial deposits Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

Geography

The Barsuki are roughly aligned in a SSW - NNE direction. They are located at the southern end of the

Turgay Depression The Turgay Depression, also known as Turgay Basin, Turgay Trough, and Turgay Hollow (; ), is a structural basin in Kazakhstan.Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhst ...

in the

Kyzylorda Region Qyzylorda Region (, ; ), formerly known as Kyzyl-Orda Region until 1991, is a region of Kazakhstan. Its capital is the city of Qyzylorda, with a population of 234,736. The region itself has a population of 823,251. Other notable settlements incl ...

to the southeastern sector of the Aktobe Region. The Shalkar Basin extends to the west.

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

The desert is sandy and receives very little rainfall. Its sands are subject to eolic action, forming mounds, ridges and

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s.Full text of "Natural regions of the U.S.S.R"
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Greater Barsuki

The Greater Barsuki, also known as "Major Barsuki",The Aral Sea
/ref> has a length of , an average width of and an area of . It stretches from the area southeast of Begimbet in the south to a little to the northeast of Shalkar town.

Lesser Barsuki

The Lesser Barsuki, also known as "Minor Barsuki", lies to the east of its greater neighbor and stretches for from Butakov Bay in the

North Aral Sea The North Aral Sea () is the portion of the former Aral Sea that is fed by the Syr Darya River. It split from the South Aral Sea in 1987–1988 as water levels dropped due to river diversion for agriculture. In 1925 a large site containing numer ...

by Akespe, to a little to the northwest of Karashokat in the Kyzylorda Region. Its width is between and . The average height is to , with the highest elevation of located roughly in the middle.

Flora

The vegetation of the flat areas consists mainly of

xerophytic A xerophyte () is a species of plant that has adaptations to survive in an environment with little liquid water. Examples of xerophytes include cactus, cacti, pineapple and some gymnosperm plants. The morphology (biology), morphology and physiology ...

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s, including wormwood,

saltwort Saltwort is a common name for various genera of flowering plants that thrive in salty environments, typically in coastal salt marshes and seashores, including: :*'' Salsola'' and related genera within subfamily '' Salsoloideae'' :*''Salicornia'' :* ...

and

ephemeral plant An ephemeral plant is a plant with a very short life cycle or very short period of active growth, often one that grows only during brief periods when conditions are favorable. Several types of ephemeral plants exist. The first, spring ephemeral, r ...

s. In the slopes of hills and ridges there are thickets of dzhuzgun, sand acacia,

astragalus Astragalus may refer to: * ''Astragalus'' (plant), a large genus of herbs and small shrubs *Astragalus (bone) The talus (; Latin for ankle or ankle bone; : tali), talus bone, astragalus (), or ankle bone is one of the group of foot bones known ...

, kandym and chingil.

References

External links