Kyzylkum
Kysylkum or Kizilkum ( Uzbek Qizilqum , literally "red sand", Russian Кызылкум ) is a gravel and sand desert , which is mostly in the interior of the Turan lowlands . It is about 200,000 km² and belongs to the territories of Turkmenistan , Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan . Most of the Kyzylkum area ( Navoiy ) was ceded by the Kazakh SSR to the Uzbek SSR in 1932 and 1936, including Karakalpakistan .
In the north it is bounded by the Syr Darya River and in the southwest by the Amu Darya. Beyond the Amu Darya in the west lies the even larger Karakum desert and in the north the newly formed Aralkum desert .
60 million years ago, the Himalaya , Tianshan and Pamir mountains unfolded and transformed the existing sea into an inland lake basin in which the Kysylkum and Karakum deserts are located today. Because some of today's mountain ranges were islands until the Central Asian Inland Sea emptied into the Black Sea around 35 million years ago, the Kyslkum has a relatively varied landscape. Many plains are covered with a mixture of sand and gravel. There you can find the red sand from which the name of the desert is derived.
paleontology
Due to the formerly maritime topography, there are diverse fossils . The Bissekty formation in Uzbekistan from the early phase of the Upper Cretaceous when the Bissekti Delta were found is particularly interesting . Furthermore traces of Troodontidae , Therizinosaurus , Ornithomimosauria or Enantiornis martini are known from the region .
economy
The residents use the extensive areas of the Kyzylkum for (commercial) livestock farming, in particular to let sheep, dromedaries and Bactrian camels graze the poor vegetation (smaller herb plants and bushes).
The area is rich in raw materials such as gold , silver , uranium , copper and petroleum . In the granite massif of Muruntau gold has been mined since the early 1970s. The raw materials are refined in Navoiy , Zarafshon and Uchquduq . Gazli and Muborak are centers of natural gas production.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ G. Mark Johnson: The Ultimate Desert Handbook: A Manual for Desert Hikers, Campers and Travelers. Ragged Mountain Press / McGraw Hill, 2003, ISBN 0-07-139303-X .
- ↑ David B. Weishampel, Paul M. Barrett, Rodolfo A. Coria, Jean Le Loeuff, Xu Xing, Zhao Xijin, Ashok Sahni, Elizabeth MP Gomani, Christopher R. Noto: Dinosaur Distribution. In: David B. Weishampel, Peter Dodson, Halszka Osmólska (eds.): The Dinosauria . 2nd Edition. University of California Press, Berkeley 2004, ISBN 0-520-24209-2 , pp. 517-606.
Coordinates: 43 ° 21 ′ 9.2 ″ N , 64 ° 57 ′ 44.6 ″ E