Physical Geography

of Asia
L E C T U R E P R E PA R E D B Y:
MARVIN R. SORIANO
D E PA R T M E N T O F S O C I A L S C I E N C ES
COLLEGE OF ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
C E N T R A L L U Z O N S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y
Asia: Physical Geography
❑ Asia is the largest of the world’s continents. It can be divided into five
major physical regions: mountain systems; plateaus; plains, steppes,
and deserts; freshwater environments; and saltwater environments.
❑ Asia covers approximately 30 percent of the Earth’s land area. It is also
the world’s most populous continent, with roughly 60 percent of the
total population.
❑ Asia makes up the eastern portion of the Eurasian supercontinent;
Europe occupies the western portion. The border between the two
continents is debated. However, most geographers define Asia’s
western border as an indirect line that follows the Ural Mountains, the
Caucasus Mountains, and the Caspian and Black Seas. Asia is bordered
by the Arctic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
Definition and boundaries
of Asia
❑ The land mass of Asia is not the sum of the land masses of each of its
regions, which have been defined independently of the whole. For example,
the borders of Central Asia and the Middle East depend on who is defining
them and for what purpose. These varying definitions are not generally
reflected in the map of Asia as a whole; for example, Egypt is typically
included in the Middle East, but not in Asia, even though the Middle East is
a division of Asia.
❑ The demarcation between Asia and Africa is the isthmus of Suez and the
Red Sea. The border with Europe starts with the coast of the eastern
Mediterranean, even though Turkey in the Near East extends partly into the
Aegean Islands and includes Istanbul on the European side of the
Bosphorus. On the north the boundary between the continents of Asia and
Europe is commonly regarded as running through the Dardanelles, the Sea
of Marmara, the Bosporus, the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the
Caspian Sea, the Ural River to its source, and a long border generally
following the eastern side of the Ural Mountains to the Kara Sea, Russia.
The Arctic Ocean is the northern border. The Bering Straits divide Asia from
North America.
Definition and boundaries
of Asia
❑ On the southeast of Asia are the Malay Peninsula (the limit of
mainland Asia) and Indonesia ("Isles of India", the former East Indies), a
vast nation among thousands of islands on the Sunda Shelf, large and
small, inhabited and uninhabited. Australia nearby is a different
continent. The Pacific islands northeast of Australia more remotely
removed from Japan and Korea are Oceania rather than Asia. From
Indonesia the border runs along the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea. Most
of the islands in the Indian Ocean are Asian.
❑ Multiple sources give different estimates of the area enclosed by the
imaginary border of Asia. The New York Times Atlas of the World gives
43,608,000 km2 (16,837,000 sq mi). Chambers World Gazetteer rounds
off to 44,000,000 km2 (17,000,000 sq mi), while the Concise Columbia
Encyclopedia gives 44,390,000 km2 (17,140,000 sq mi). The 2011
Pearson's has 44,030,000 km2 (17,000,000 sq mi). The methods of
obtaining these figures and exactly what areas they include have not
been divulged.
Five Major Physical Regions:
1. Mountain Systems
❑ The Himalaya mountains extend for about 2,500 kilometers (1,550
miles), separating the Indian subcontinent from the rest of Asia. The
Indian subcontinent, once connected to Africa, collided with the
Eurasian continent about 50 million to 55 million years ago, forming the
Himalayas. The Indian subcontinent is still crashing northward into Asia,
and the Himalayas are growing about 5 centimeters (2 inches) every
year.
❑ The Himalayas cover more than 612,000 square kilometers (236,000
square miles), passing through the northern states of India and making
up most of the terrain of Nepal and Bhutan. The Himalayas are
so vast that they are composed of three different mountain belts. The
northernmost belt, known as the Great Himalayas, has the highest
average elevation at 6,096 meters (20,000 feet). The belt contains nine
of the highest peaks in the world, which all reach more than 7,925
meters (26,000 feet) tall. This belt includes the highest
mountain summit in the world, Mount Everest, which stands at 8,850
meters (29,035 feet).
Five Major Physical Regions:
1. Mountain Systems
❑ The Tien Shan mountain system stretches for about 2,400 kilometers
(1,500 miles), straddling the border between Kyrgyzstan and China. The
name Tien Shan means “Celestial Mountains” in Chinese. The two
highest peaks in the Tien Shan are Victory Peak, which stands at 7,439
meters (24,406 feet), and Khan Tängiri Peak, which stands at 6,995
meters (22,949 feet). Tien Shan also has more than 10,100 square
kilometers (3,900 square miles) of glaciers. The largest glacier is
Engil'chek Glacier, which is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) long.
❑ The Ural Mountains run for approximately 2,500 kilometers (1,550
miles) in an indirect 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. Millions of years of erosion have lowered the
mountains significantly, and today their average elevation is between
914 and 1,220 meters (3,000 to 4,000 feet). The highest peak is Mount
Narodnaya at 1,895 meters (6,217 feet).
Mount Everest, Nepal is the highest landform
on Earth. Mount Everest is part of the
Himalaya range that runs through central Asia.
This view of Mount Everest was taken from
Kala Pattar, another Himalayan mountain.
Five Major Physical Regions:
2. Plateaus
❑ Asia is home to many plateaus, areas of relatively level high ground.
The Iranian plateau covers more than 3.6 million square kilometers (1.4
million square miles), encompassing most of Iran, Afghanistan, and
Pakistan. The plateau is not uniformly flat, but contains some high
mountains and low river basins. The highest mountain peak is
Damavand, at 5,610 meters (18,410 feet). The plateau also has two
large deserts, the Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut.
❑ The Deccan Plateau makes up most of the southern part of India. The
plateau’s average elevation is about 600 meters (2,000 feet). It is
bordered by three mountain ranges: the Satpura Range in the north,
and the Eastern and Western Ghats on either side. The plateau and its
main waterways—the Godavari and Krishna rivers—gently slope toward
the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal.
Five Major Physical Regions:
2. Plateaus
❑ The Tibetan Plateau is usually considered the largest and highest area
ever to exist in the history of Earth. Known as the “Rooftop of the
World,” the plateau covers an area about half the size of the contiguous
United States and averages more than 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) above
sea level. The Tibetan Plateau is extremely important to the
world’s water cycle because of its tremendous number of glaciers.
These glaciers contain the largest volume of ice outside the poles. The
ice and snow from these glaciers feed Asia’s largest rivers.
Approximately 2 billion people depend on the rivers fed by the plateau’s
glaciers.
Three Rivers
This flat, sandy wetland on the Tibetan Plateau
of China is the headwaters of three major
rivers: the Yangtze, the Yellow, and the
Lancang. The streams on the Tibetan Plateau
are fed by glaciers from the Himalayas.
Five Major Physical Regions:
3. Plains, Steppes, and Deserts
❑ The West Siberian Plain, located in central Russia, is considered one of the
world’s largest areas of continuous flatland. It extends from north to south
about 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) and from west to east about 1,900
kilometers (1,200 miles). With more than 50 percent of its area at less than
100 meters (330 feet) above sea level, the plain contains some of the
world’s largest swamps and flood plains.
❑ Central Asia is dominated by a steppe landscape, a large area of flat,
unforested grassland. Mongolia can be divided into different steppe zones:
the mountain forest steppe, the arid steppe, and the desert steppe. These
zones transition from the country’s mountainous region in the north to the
Gobi Desert on the southern border with China.
❑ The Rub’ al Khali desert, considered the world’s largest sand sea, covers
an area larger than France across Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab
Emirates, and Yemen. It holds roughly half as much sand as Africa’s Sahara
desert, even though it is 15 times smaller in size. The desert is known as the
Empty Quarter because it is virtually inhospitable to humans except for
Bedouin tribes that live on its edges.
Herding Sheep
Herding is the practice of caring for roaming groups of
livestock over a large area. Sheep were one of the first
animals to be domesticated by ancient herders. Here, a
woman herds a large group of piebald sheep near
Arbay Heere, Mongolia.
Five Major Physical Regions:
4. Freshwater
❑ Lake Baikal, located in southern Russia, is the deepest lake in the
world, reaching a depth of 1,620 meters (5,315 feet). The lake contains
20 percent of the world’s unfrozen freshwater, making it the
largest reservoir on Earth. 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 (behind the Amazon of South America and the Nile of Africa).
Reaching 6,300 kilometers (3,915 miles) in length, the Yangtze moves
east from the glaciers of the Tibetan Plateau to the river’s mouth on the
East China Sea. The Yangtze is considered the lifeblood of China. It
drains one-fifth of the country’s land area, is home to one-third of its
population, and contributes greatly to China’s economy.
Five Major Physical Regions:
4. Freshwater
❑ The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers begin in the highlands of eastern
Turkey and flow through Syria and Iraq, joining in the city of Qurna, Iraq,
before emptying into the Persian Gulf. The land between the two rivers,
known as Mesopotamia, was the center of the earliest civilizations,
including Sumer and the Akkadian Empire.
❑ Today, the Tigris-Euphrates river system is under threat from
increased agricultural and industrial use. These pressures have
caused desertification and increased salts in the soil, severely damaging
local watershed habitats.
Tigris River
Mesopotamia, the fertile area between Asia's Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers, is nicknamed the "Cradle of Civilization" for its
thousands of years of continuous habitation. This city, Mosul, sits
on the banks of the Tigris. Mosul was first identified by the Greek
writer Xenophon in 401 BCE. Today, Mosul is part of Iraq, and
this helicopter is an American Black Hawk carrying a medical
evacuation team.
Five Major Physical Regions:
5. Saltwater
❑ The Persian Gulf has an area of more than 234,000 square kilometers
(90,000 square miles). It borders Iran, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi
Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iraq. The gulf is subject to high rates
of evaporation, making it shallow and extremely salty. The seabed beneath
the Persian Gulf contains an estimated 50 percent of the world’s oil
reserves. The countries that border the gulf have engaged in a number of
disputes over this rich resource.
❑ The Sea of Okhotsk covers 1.5 million square kilometers (611,000 square
miles) between the Russian mainland and the Kamchatka Peninsula. The
sea is largely frozen between October and March. Large ice floes make
winter navigation almost impossible.
❑ The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world, covering almost 2.2
million square kilometers (839,000 square miles) and bordering Bangladesh,
India, Sri Lanka, and Burma. Many large rivers, including the Ganges and
Brahmaputra, empty into the bay. The briny wetlands formed by the
Ganges-Brahmaputra on the Bay of Bengal is the largest delta in the world.
Manta Ray
Each year lunar tides and Indian Ocean
monsoon currents combine to drive
plankton and tropical krill into confined
bays around the islands of the Maldives.
These protein-packed waters invite large
concentrations of manta rays to an all-
you-can-eat buffet. Despite their large
size, with wingspans stretching up to 12
feet (3.6 meters), as many as 200 mantas
may pack a football field-sized bay during
these feeding frenzies.
Sea Level
Almost all of Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, lies
near sea level. This makes Maldives the "lowest" country in the
world, and threatened by sea level rise. The nation is hoping to
buy land in India, Sri Lanka, or Australia so native Maldivians can
be safely evacuated if the islands begin to slip underwater.
Terrestrial Flora and Fauna
❑ Botanists nickname China the “Mother of Gardens.” It has more
flowering plant species than North and South America combined.
Because China has such diverse landscapes, from the arid Gobi Desert
to the tropical rain forests of Yunnan Province, many flowers
can adapt to climates all over the world. From roses to peonies, many
familiar flowers most likely originated in northern China. China is the
likely origin of such fruit trees as peaches and oranges. China is also
home to the dawn redwood, the only redwood tree found outside
North America.
❑ Asia’s diverse physical and cultural landscape has dictated the way
animals have been domesticated. In the Himalayas, communities
use yaks as beasts of burden. Yaks are large animals related to cattle,
but with a thick fiber coat and the ability to survive in the oxygen-poor
high altitude of the mountains. Yaks are not only used for transportation
and for pulling plows, but their coats are sources of warm, hardy fiber.
Yak milk is used for butter and cheese.
Terrestrial Flora and Fauna
❑ In the Mongolian steppe, the two-humped Bactrian camel is the
traditional beast of burden. Bactrian camels are critically endangered in
the wild. The camel’s humps store nutrient-rich fat, which the animal
can use in times of drought, heat, or frost. Its size and ability to adapt to
hardship make it an ideal pack animal. Bactrians can actually outrun
horses over long distances. These camels were the traditional animals
used in caravans on the Silk Road, the legendary trade route linking
eastern Asia with India and the Middle East.
Siberian Tiger
The Siberian tiger, the largest cat in the world, is native to
the Russian taiga, like this area near Govaron, Siberia,
Russia. Siberian tigers are one of the few large carnivores
that live in the taiga. They hunt moose and wild boars.
Environmental Richness
This unusual flower was photographed in a
nature preserve outside Nanning, Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region, P. R. China.
Aquatic Flora and Fauna
❑ The freshwater and marine habitats of Asia offer
incredible biodiversity.
❑ Lake Baikal’s age and isolation make it a unique biological site. Aquatic
life has been able to evolve for millions of years relatively undisturbed,
producing a rich variety of flora and fauna. The lake is known as the
“Galápagos of Russia” because of its importance to the study of
evolutionary science. It has 1,340 species of animals and 570 species of
plants.
❑ Hundreds of Lake Baikal’s species are endemic, meaning they are
found nowhere else on Earth. The Baikal seal, for instance, is one of the
few freshwater seal species in the world. The Baikal seal feeds primarily
on the Baikal oil fish and the omul. Both fishes are similar to salmon,
and provide fisheries for the communities on the lake.
 Aquatic Flora and Fauna
❑ The Bay of Bengal, on the Indian Ocean, is one of the world’s largest tropical
marine ecosystems. The bay is home to dozens of marine mammals, including the
bottlenose dolphin, spinner dolphin, spotted dolphin, and Bryde’s whale. The bay
also supports healthy tuna, jack, and marlin fisheries.
❑ Some of the bay’s most diverse array of organisms exist along its coasts and
wetlands. Many wildlife reserves in and around the bay aim to protect its biological
diversity.
❑ The Sundarbans is a wetland area that forms at the delta of the Ganges and
Brahamaputra rivers. The Sundarbans is a huge mangrove forest. Mangroves are
hardy trees that are able to withstand the powerful, salty tides of the Bay of Bengal
as well as the freshwater flows from the Ganges and Brahamaputra. In addition to
mangroves, the Sundarbans is forested by palm trees and swamp grasses.
❑ The swampy jungle of the Sundarbans supports a rich animal community.
Hundreds of species of fish, shrimp, crabs, and snails live in the exposed root
system of the mangrove trees. The Sundarbans supports more than 200 species of
aquatic and wading birds. These small animals are part of a food web that includes
wild boar, macaque monkeys, monitor lizards, and a healthy population of Bengal
tigers.
References:
• The New York Times and Bartholomew, Edinburgh (1992). The New York
Times Atlas of the World. New York: Times Books (Random House)
• "Asia". Chambers World Gazetteer (5th ed.). 1988.
• "Asia". The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (2nd ed.). 1989.
• National Geographic Channel Website