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Turkmenistan
Physical Features
Turkmenistan's average elevation is 100 to 220 meters above
sea level, with its highest point being Mount Ayrybaba (3,137
meters) in the Kugitang Range of the Pamir-Alay chain in the far
east, and its lowest point in the Transcaspian Depression (100
kilometers below sea level). Nearly 80 percent of the republic
lies within the Turon Depression, which slopes from south to north
and from east to west.
Turkmenistan's mountains include 600 kilometers of the northern
reaches of the Kopetdag Range, which it shares with Iran. The
Kopetdag Range is a region characterized by foothills, dry and
sandy slopes, mountain plateaus, and steep ravines; Mount Shahshah
(2,912 meters), southwest of Ashgabat, is the highest elevation
of the range in Turkmenistan. The Kopetdag is undergoing tectonic
transformation, meaning that the region is threatened by earthquakes
such as the one that destroyed Ashgabat in 1948 and registered
nine on the Richter Scale. The Krasnovodsk and Üstirt plateaus
are the prominent topographical features of northwestern Turkmenistan.
A dominant feature of the republic's landscape is the Garagum
Desert, which occupies about 350,000 square kilometers (see Environmental
Issues, this ch.). Shifting winds create desert mountains that
range from two to twenty meters in height and may be several kilometers
in length. Chains of such structures are common, as are steep
elevations and smooth, concrete-like clay deposits formed by the
rapid evaporation of flood waters in the same area for a number
of years. Large marshy salt flats, formed by capillary action
in the soil, exist in many depressions, including the Kara Shor,
which occupies 1,500 square kilometers in the northwest. The Sundukly
Desert west of the Amu Darya is the southernmost extremity of
the Qizilqum (Russian spelling Kyzyl Kum) Desert, most of which
lies in Uzbekistan to the northeast.
Data as of March 1996
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