Uvs Lake Basin | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Uvs Lake Basin  Uvs Lake Basin | |
| Coordinates: 50°10′N 93°50′E / 50.167°N 93.833°E | |
| Countries | Russia and Mongolia |
| States | Tuva (Russia) |
| Provinces | Uvs, Zavkhan and Khövsgöl in Mongolia |
| Districts | Mongun-Tayginsky, Ovyursky, Tes-Khemsky and Erzinsky in Tuva |
| Area | |
| • Total | 70,000 km2 (30,000 sq mi) |
| • Protected | 10,688 km2 (4,127 sq mi) |
| Ubsunorskaya Kotlovina (Russia) | |
 | |
| Area | 2,843 km2 (1,098 sq mi) |
| Designation | Biosphere Reserve |
| Designated | 1997 |
| Uvs Nuur Basin (Mongolia) | |
| |
| Area | 7,717 km2 (2,980 sq mi) |
| Designation | Biosphere Reserve |
| Designated | 1997 |
| Location | Russia and Mongolia |
| Criteria | Natural: (ix)(x) |
| Reference | 769rev |
| Inscription | 2003 (27th Session) |
| Area | 8,980.635 km2 (3,467.443 sq mi) |
| Buffer zone | 1,707.90 km2 (659.42 sq mi) |
| Official name | Lake Uvs and its surrounding wetlands |
| Designated | 2004 |
| Country | Mongolia |
| Area | 5,850 km2 (2,260 sq mi) |
Uvs Lake Basin (also Uvs Nuur Basin or Ubs Nuur Basin; Mongolian: Увс нуурын хотгор, romanized: Uws nuuriin hotgor) is an endorheic basin located on the territorial border of Mongolia and Tuva, a republic of the Russian Federation. The basin is part of the Central Asian Internal Drainage Basin and is named after Uvs Lake (Uvs Nuur, Ubsu Nur), a large saline lake situated in the western part of its drainage basin, and is one of the last remnants of the mammoth steppes. Uvs Lake is a shallow lake with an area of 3,350 km2 (1,290 sq mi). Its entire basin, which includes several smaller lakes, is 70,000 km2 (27,000 sq mi).[1]
Uvs Lake Basin may also refer to Ubsunur Hollow (Russian: Убсунурская котловина, Ubsunorskaya Kotlovina), which is the western part of the drainage basin, or to over 10,000 km2 (3,900 sq mi) of protected areas covering the lake and its surroundings. The hollow forms the northern part of the Great Lakes Depression, which has a surface of over 100,000 km2 (39,000 sq mi). The hollow, and most of the drainage basin, are situated in the Khövsgöl, Zavkhan and Uvs Provinces of north-western Mongolia, and the Mongun-Tayginsky, Ovyursky, Tes-Khemsky and Erzinsky Districts of southern Tuva.
The basin is part of a combination of raised lands and hollows located throughout the Tannu-Ola and Altai mountainous regions. Here, the world's most northern desert meets the Northern Hemisphere's most southern tundra zone. An area of 10,560 km2 (4,080 sq mi), around three quarters of which lies in Mongolia, was designated Biosphere Reserve in 1997, and a partly overlapping zone of around the same size was designated UNESCO World Heritage in 2003. The Mongolian part of the lake and its immediate surroundings were further adopted as Ramsar wetland in 2004.
- ^ "Uvs Nuur Basin in Mongolia". Nasa.gov. Archived from the original on 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2008-02-07.