Everything about Dzungaria totally explained
Dzungaria (also
Jungaria,
Sungaria,
Zungaria;
Mongolian: Зүүнгар
Züüngar, |t=|p=Zhǔngáěr}},
Dzhungariya) is a geographical region covering approximately 777,000 km², lying mostly within the
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of northwestern
China, and extending into western
Mongolia.
Junggar Basin
The extensive Junggar Basin is in the
Autonomous Region of
Xinjiang in northwestern China. It is surrounded by mountains. The basin is located between the Mongolian Altai Mountains and
Tian Shan to the north. The basin is similar to the larger
Tarim Basin on the southern side of the Tian Shan Range. Only a gap in the mountains to the north allows moist air masses to provide the basin lands with enough moisture to remain semi-desert rather than becoming a true desert and allows a thin layer of vegetation to grow. This is enough to sustain populations of wild
camels,
jerboas, and other wild species.
The Junggar Basin is a structural basin with thick sequences of Paleozoic-Pleistocene rocks with large estimated oil reserves. The
Gurbantunggut Desert, China’s second largest, is in the center of the basin.
Lake Aibi is the basin's
catchment center.
The cold climate of nearby Siberia influences the climate of the Junggar Basin, making the temperature colder s low as -4°F (-20°C) and providing more precipitation, ranging from 3 to 10 inches (80 to 250 mm), compared to the warmer, drier basins to the south. Runoff from the surrounding mountains into the basin supplies several lakes. The ecologically rich habitats traditionally included meadows, marshlands, and rivers. However most of the land is now used for agriculture. hailing from the rocky outcrops located in an eponymous sedimentary basin of that region, the
Junggar Basin.
A recent notable find, in February 2006, is the oldest
tyrannosaur fossil unearthed by a team of scientists from
George Washington University who were conducting a study in the Junggar Basin. The species, named
Guanlong, lived 160 million years ago, more than 90 million years before the famed
Tyrannosaurus rex.
Ecology
Dzungaria is home to a semi-desert
steppe ecoregion known as the
Junggar Basin semi-desert. The vegetation consists mostly of low scrub of
Anabasis brevifolia. Taller shrublands of
saxaul bush
(Haloxylon ammodendron) and
Ephedra przewalskii can be found near the margins of the basin. Streams descending from the Tian Shan and Altai ranges support stands of
poplar (Populus diversifolia) together with
Nitraria roborovsky, N. sibirica, Achnatherum splendens, tamarisk (Tamarix sibirimosissima), and
willow (Salix ledebouriana).
The northeastern portion of the Junggar Basin semi-desert lies within
Great Gobi National Park, and is home to herds of
Asian wild ass (Equus hemionus) and
goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa), and wild
Bactrian camels
(Camelus ferus).
The basin was one of the last
habitats of
Przewalski's Horse (Equus przewalskii), which is now
extinct in the wild.
History
One of the earliest mentions of the Dzungaria region occurs when the Han Dynasty dispatched an explorer to investigate lands to the west. Using the
North Silk Road, the northernmost
Silk Road trackway of about 2600 kilometres in length, which connected the ancient Chinese capital of Xian to the west over the
Wushao Ling Pass to
Wuwei and emerging in
Kashgar before linking to ancient
Parthia. Istami received the lands of Dzungaria as an inheritance after the death of his father in the latter half of the sixth century
AD.
Dzungaria is named after a
Mongolian kingdom which existed in
Central Asia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It derived its name from the
Dzungars, who were so called because they formed the left wing (
züün, left;
gar, hand) of the Mongolian army. It was raised to its highest pitch by
Kaldan (also known as Galdan Boshigtu Khan) in the latter half of the 17th century, but completely destroyed by the
Qing government about
1757-
1759. It has played an important part in the history of
Mongolia and the great migrations of Mongolian stems westward.
In 1911, its territory fell partly to the Qing Empire (
Xinjiang also known as
East Turkestan, and north-western Mongolia) and partly to
Russian Turkestan (provinces of
Semirechye and Semipalatinsk).
Its widest limit included
Kashgar,
Yarkand,
Khotan, the whole region of the
Tian Shan, and in short the greater proportion of that part of Central Asia which extends from 35º to 50º N and from 72º to 97º E.
As a political or geographical term
Dzungaria has practically disappeared from the map; but the range of mountains stretching north-east along the southern frontier of the
Jeti-su, as the district to the south-east of
Lake Balkhash preserves the name of
Dzungarian Alatau. It also gave name to
Dzungarian Hamsters.
People
The population consists of
Uyghurs,
Kazakhs,
Kyrgyz,
Mongols, and
Han Chinese. Since
1953 there has been a massive influx of Han Chinese to work on water conservation and industrial projects.
Economy
Wheat,
barley,
oats, and
sugar beets are grown, and
cattle,
sheep, and
horses are raised. The fields are irrigated with melted snow from the permanently white-capped mountains.
Dzungaria has deposits of
coal,
iron, and
gold, as well as large
oil fields.
Line notes
References and external links
Junggar Basin semi-desert (WWF)
Junggar Basin semi-desert (National Geographic)
Further Information
Get more info on 'Dzungaria'.
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