Asia Physical Geography

Asia: Physical geography
By National Geographic, adapted by Newsela staff on 09.26.17 Word

Count 1,150
Level 950L
Stone forest, a set of Karst Limestone rock formations in Shilin, Yunnan, China. Photo by: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas.
Asia is the largest of the world's continents. It covers about 30 percent of the Earth's land area.
It also has more people than the rest of the world combined, with roughly 60 percent of the
total population.
Asia makes up the eastern portion of the Eurasian

supercontinent. Europe occupies the western portion.
Most geographers define Asia's western border as
a zigzagging line that follows the Ural Mountains,
the Caucasus Mountains, and the Caspian and
Black
Seas.
Mountain Systems
The Himalaya mountains extend for about 1,550

miles, separating the Indian subcontinent from the
rest of Asia. The Himalayas formed about 50
million
This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.
to 55 million years ago and are still growing about 2 inches every year.

The Himalayas cover more than 236,000 square
miles, passing through northern India and making
up most of Nepal and Bhutan. The Himalayas are
composed of three different mountain belts. The
northernmost belt, known as the Great Himalayas,
has the highest average elevation at 20,000 feet. The
belt contains nine of the highest peaks in the world.
This belt includes the tallest mountain in the
world, Mount Everest, which stands at 29,035
feet.
The Tien Shan mountain system stretches for

about 1,500 miles, on the border between
Kyrgyzstan and
China. The highest peak in the Tien Shan is Victory Peak, which stands at 24,406 feet. Tien
Shan also has more than 3,900 square miles of glaciers. The largest glacier is about 37 miles
long.
The Ural Mountains run for about 1,550 miles in a north-south line from Russia to
Kazakhstan. The Ural Mountains are some of the world's oldest, at 250 million to 300 million
years old. Their average elevation is between 3,000 and 4,000 feet.
Plateaus
Asia is home to many plateaus, areas of level high ground. The Iranian plateau covers more than
1.4 million square miles, covering most of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The plateau is
not completely flat. The highest mountain peak is Damavand, at 18,410 feet.
The Deccan Plateau makes up most of the southern part of India. The plateau's average
elevation is about 2,000 feet.
The Tibetan Plateau is the largest and highest area ever to exist in the history of Earth. It covers
an area about half the size of the United States and averages more than 16,400 feet above sea
level.
The Tibetan Plateau's glaciers contain the most ice outside the poles. The ice and snow from
these glaciers feed Asia's largest rivers. About 2 billion people depend on the rivers fed by the
plateau's glaciers.
Plains, Steppes And Deserts
The West Siberian Plain, located in central Russia, is one of the world's largest areas of flatland.
It extends from north to south about 1,500 miles and from west to east about 1,200 miles. The
plain contains some of the world's largest swamps and floodplains.
Central Asia is covered mostly by a steppe, a large area of flat grassland. Mongolia can be
divided into a mountain forest zone, a dry zone, and a desert zone.
The Rub' al Khali desert covers an area larger than France. It stretches across Saudi Arabia,
Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen in the Middle East. It holds roughly half as
much sand as Africa's Sahara desert, even though it is 15 times smaller in size.
Freshwater
Lake Baikal, located in southern Russia, is the deepest lake in the world, reaching a depth of
5,315 feet. The lake contains 20 percent of the world’s unfrozen freshwater. It is also the world's
oldest

lake, at 25 million years old.
The Yangtze is the longest river in Asia and the

third longest in the world, reaching 3,915 miles in
length. The Yangtze drains one-fifth of the China's
land area and is home to one-third of its
population.
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers begin in the

highlands of eastern Turkey and flow through
Syria and Iraq before emptying into the Persian
Gulf. The land between the two rivers was known
as Mesopotamia. It was the center of the earliest
civilizations.
Saltwater
The Persian Gulf has an area of more than 90,000 square miles. Eight Middle Eastern countries
border it. The Gulf is shallow and extremely salty. The seabed contains about half of the world's
oil reserves.
The Sea of Okhotsk covers 611,000 square miles between the Russian mainland and
the Kamchatka Peninsula. Large ice floes make winter navigation almost impossible.
The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world.

It covers almost 839,000 square miles and
borders Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and
Myanmar. Many large rivers empty into the bay,
forming the largest delta in the world.
Terrestrial Flora And Fauna
China has more flowering plant species than

North and South America combined. Many
flowers, like
roses, most likely came from northern China. China is
the likely origin of such fruit trees as peaches and oranges.
In the Himalayas, communities use yaks for work. Yaks are large animals related to cattle, but
with a thick fiber coat and the ability to survive in the high altitude of the mountains. Yaks are
used for transportation and for pulling plows. Their coats are sources of warm fiber for clothes.
Yak milk is used for butter and cheese.
In the Mongolian steppe, the two-humped Bactrian camel is used for work. The camel's
humps store nutrient-rich fat. Some camels are slow, Bactrians can actually outrun horses
over long distances.
Aquatic Flora And Fauna
Lake Baikal is a unique site. Marine life has been able to evolve for millions of years
relatively undisturbed. The lake has 1,340 species of animals and 570 species of plants.

Hundreds of Lake Baikal's species are found
nowhere else on Earth. The Baikal seal, for instance,
is one of the few freshwater seal species in the
world.
The Bay of Bengal, on the Indian Ocean, is one of

the world's largest tropical marine ecosystems. The
bay is home to many fish, dolphins, whales, and
other sea animals.
The
Sundarbans is a wetland area that forms at a delta in the Bay of Bengal. The Sundarbans is a
huge mangrove forest. Mangroves are strong trees that grow in wet, marshy places.
Hundreds of species of fish, shrimp, crabs and snails live in the exposed roots of the mangrove
trees. The Sundarbans supports more than 200 species of birds. There are also wild boar,
macaque monkeys, monitor lizards and Bengal tigers.


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Asia: Physical geography

By National Geographic, adapted by Newsela staff on 09.26.17 Word

Asia makes up the eastern portion of the Eurasian

The Himalaya mountains extend for about 1,550

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.

The Tien Shan mountain system stretches for

Plains, Steppes And Deserts

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.

The Yangtze is the longest river in Asia and the

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers begin in the

The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world.

Terrestrial Flora And Fauna

China has more flowering plant species than

Aquatic Flora And Fauna

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.

The Bay of Bengal, on the Indian Ocean, is one of

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.

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