The Gobi Desert is the second largest desert in Asia (after the Arabian Desert) and is the fourth largest desert in the world. It covers parts of both northern China and southern Mongolia and is about 500,000 square miles in size. The Gobi has temperatures ranging from minus 40 degrees in winter to 113 degrees in the summer.
Except for the Badain Jaran region, the Gobi has few sand dunes; only three percent of the Gobi is sandy desert. The height of some of the sand dunes in the Badain Jaran region exceeds 1,300 feet. The Gobi is mostly made up of gravel plains and rocky terrain. The Gobi is a very dry and windy desert. Some regions of the desert average two to eight inches of rain a year, however, other regions may go years without rainfall. Sand storms present a great danger in the Gobi; winds can reach 85 miles per hour. The Gobi is expanding due to overgrazing and over plowing in the fertile areas along its borders. This growing desertification has worsened the dust and sand storms. There have been cases reported of dust/dirt from the Gobi blown as far away as Seoul, South Korea.
The Gobi Desert is also well known to dinosaur hunters. In 1922, an expedition led by Roy Chapman Andrews first discovered dinosaur fossils. Subsequently, hundreds of dinosaur fossils have been discovered. It is estimated that the Gobi holds "the world's richest and most diverse deposits of dinosaur and early mammal remains from 80 million years ago." (New York Times, September 13, 2005, p. F1)
The Great Gobi National Park contains the last remaining wild Bacterian (two-humped) camels. Other animals inhabiting the Gobi are wild asses, Saiga antelopes, wild horses, and the only desert dwelling bear.
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