Golden Gate Friends of Mongolia

Geography

Mongolia is a landlocked country located in Northern Asia, between China and Russia with total area of 1,564,116 sq. km. The land slopes from the high Altai Mountains of the west and the north to plains and depressions in the east and the south. The country has an average elevation of 1,580 meters.

Mongolia has one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes (Lake Khovsgol). The landscape includes many salt lakes, marshes, sand dunes, rolling grasslands, alpine forests and permanent mountain glaciers. Northern and western parts of Mongolia have seismically active zones, with frequent earthquakes and many hot springs and extinct volcanoes.

Mongolia is high, cold and dry. It has an extreme continental climate with long, cold winters and short summers. Average temperatures over most of the country are below freezing from November through March and the temperatures rise up in April.

Current environmental issues include limited natural fresh water resources; rapid urbanization and industrial growth have raised concerns about their negative effects on the environment; the burning of soft coal in power plants and the lack of enforcement of environmental laws have severely polluted the air in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar; deforestation and overgrazing; most of all the mining activities have a deleterious effect on the virgin land of Mongolia.