Mongolia is an inner Asiatic state, situated between N China and the Siberian part of Russia, between latitudes 42–52° N and longitudes 88–120° E with an area of 1 565 000 km2 (604 250 mi2). It has a population density of about 0.7 inhabitants km2. The capital is Ulan Bator. Consisting of an interior plateau and mountainous areas, Mongolia has a mean elevation of 1580 m. Its best known features are the Altai Mountains and the Gobi Desert. Most of the drainage is internal, except for the Selenga River and its tributaries, which drain into Lake Baikal (Russia).
Vegetation is strongly zoned in the mountains and from N to S. In the N there is some mountain taiga with Larix siberica, passing SW into an area of Pinus, Picea and Abies. In the mostly swampy valleys there is Betula.About 51% of the land has a steppe landscape. With increasing dryness to the S some 27% of the country is classified as desert-steppe and 14% as full desert (the Gobi). The climate is characterized by extreme...
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Misar, Z. (1997). Mongolia. In: Encyclopedia of European and Asian Regional Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4495-X_71
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