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1) The Chang Tang Desert
High, Cold Desert
Chang Tang is the Tibetan word for
“northern plain.” So, it won’t come as a
surprise to learn that the Chang Tang is
located at the northern part of the
Plateau of Tibet. A plateau is an area of
flat land that is raised above the
surrounding land. The northern area of
the Chang Tang is a high desert. Some of
the land is as high as 17,000 feet above
sea level. The desert has high elevation,
temperatures here are very cold in the
winter, and it isn’t much warmer in the
summer, when nighttime temperatures
generally stay around freezing.
Some of the highest mountains in the
world, including the Himalaya, surround
the Chang Tang region. As a result, the
desert lies in the rain shadow, the side
of a mountain that is usually dry
because precipitation falls on the
opposite side. You won’t need your
umbrella in the Chang Tang. Only about
five to ten inches of precipitation—
mostly snow and hail—fall each year.
This precipitation falls mainly in the
summer months.
A Harsh Landscape
Looking around the Chang Tang, you won’t see many trees or shrubs. The soil is too poor to
support them. Permafrost, a permanently frozen layer of soil, lies under much of the northern
end of the Chang Tang, and very few plants grow there. In the south, where there is more
participation, grasslands stretch for miles and miles.
For thousands of years the remote location and
harsh weather of the Chang Tang have
discouraged people from settling there. The
desert’s ecosystem, which is the community of
living things and non-living things that work
together in their environment, remained nearly
undisturbed until recent years.
The Chang Tang Nature Reserve
Who would want to create a nature reserve in
such a remote part of the world? Dr. George
Schaller thought this was just the place for one.
He is a wildlife biologist, a scientist who studies
the way in which plants and animals live and
grow.
Schaller spent many years exploring the Chang
Tang region. He discovered that hunting was
beginning to threaten the wildlife there.
Establishing a nature reserve was one way to try
to protect these animals. Together with the
Chinese government, Schaller helped create the
Chang Tang Nature Reserve in southern areas of
the Chang Tang in 1993.
At 115, 500 square miles the reserve is so large that the state of Arizona would fit inside it. It is the
second largest reserve in the world, Greenland National Park in Greenland.
The Chang Tang Nature Reserve includes vast grasslands and is dotted with hills and snow-capped
mountains. There are also large, salty lakes. No major rivers are found in the reserve, making fresh
water scarce.
Adapted for educational purposes from Reading Expeditions, East Asia: Geography and Environments,
National Georgraphic Learning, 2007
2) The Taklamakan Desert
The Taklamakan (tah kla muh KAHN), like the
Chang Tang, is considered a cold desert despite
its high temperatures in the summer. Located in
western China, it is bordered by the Kunlun
Mountains in the south and the Tian Shan in the
north. As in the Chang Tang, a rain shadow effect
from the mountains that surround the
Taklamakan keeps most moisture from reaching
this area.
“The Sea of Death”
Some people call the Taklamakan “the sea of death.” What is so frightening about this desert to
give it such a name? The Taklamakan is 130,000 square miles of sand, an area almost as big as the
state of Montana. Sand dunes rise as
high as 600 feet. Blinding sandstorms
can last for days, and travelers can
easily get lost. The Taklamakan is so
dry that rain can evaporate even before
it hits the ground. People, plants, and
animals do not live in the center of this
desert because there is no water at all.
With its size and harsh environment
you can imagine how someone might
go into the Taklamakan, never to
return!
Liquid Gold
Scientists have discovered oil in the Taklamakan Desert.
China estimates that there are 74 billion barrels of oil deep
under the sand. That is three times the oil reserve of the
United States.
In the mid-1990s, China built a road deep into the desert to
access these oil reserves. More than 360 oil wells were
drilled. Workers faced brutal building conditions. The
hottest daytime temperature recorded was 104 degrees
Fahrenheit and the coldest was -22 degrees Fahrenheit.
“My men worked on both of those days,” Said Xu Fu Chen, a
manager of some of the wells, “the drilling always goes on.”
The Taklamakan could change China’s economy. This natural resource could provide China with
enough oil to support its economy without having to import oil for a long time.
Adapted for educational purposes from Reading Expeditions, East Asia: Geography and Environments,
National Georgraphic Learning, 2007
3) The Great Gobi
The Gobi is the largest desert in Asia.
It stretches about 500,00 square
miles across China and Mongolia. It
is similar to the Change Tang and
Taklamakan because it too is a cold
desert. Temperatures in the Gobi
can range from 113 degrees
Fahrenheit during the summer to 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter.
However, the Gobi is also different
from the other deserts, in that its
landscape consists mostly of
gravelly plains and small basins.
A Treasure Chest of Dinosaur Bones
How would you feel if you found something 80 million years old? Probably pretty excited. That is
just how a team of United States and Mongolian researchers felt in 1996 when they found one of
the world’s richest dinosaur fossil beds. Fossils are the remains of plants and animals preserved
in rock. These dinosaur fossils were discovered in the Mongolian Gobi, at a place called Ukhaa
Tolgod.
Dinosaurs called theropods lived at this site millions of years ago. Researchers think that the
theropods may have nested here. Evidence shows that some theropods may have developed into
modern birds.
During their dig, the researchers uncovered the skeleton of an oviraptor, a dinosaur belonging to
the theropod family. The oviraptor was a 12-foot-long ostrich-like dinosaur. It was found 150 feet
up in a cliff wall, buried in a hill of sand. When the skeleton was uncovered, researchers found it
sitting on a nest of 20 eggs.
The researchers believe that while these dinosaurs were
nesting, tremendous sandstorms or collapsing dunes
covered this nesting area, burying them. Over time their
bones turned into fossils.
Adapted for educational purposes from Reading Expeditions,
East Asia: Geography and Environments, National Geographic
Learning, 2007
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