KARAKUM DESERT

Drought-resistant plants in the Repetek Preserve in the southeastern Karakum Desert, Turkmenistan. also spelled Kara-kum, Turkmen Garagum great sandy region in Central Asia constituting about 135,000 square miles (350,000 square km) of the area of Turkmenistan. The Karakum (Black Sand) Desert is bordered by the Sarykamysh Basin on the north, by the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus River) valley on the northeast and east, and by the Garabil Plateau and the Badkhyz steppe region on the southeast. In the south and southwest the desert runs parallel to the foot of the Kopet-Dag Range, and in the west and northwest the Karakum borders the course of the ancient valley of the Uzboy River near the Caspian Sea. The name is also applied to another, smaller desert situated to the northeast of the Aral Sea in Kazakstan and known as the Aral Karakum. The relief of the Karakum is quite sharp and well defined and may be subdivided into three parts: the elevated northern Trans-Unguz Karakum, the surface of which has been eroded by violent winds; the low-lying plain of the Central Karakum; and the southeastern Karakum, through which a chain of salt marshes runs. Wind-accumulated, half-overgrown sand ridges in the desert region range in height from 250 to 300 feet (75 to 90 m), depending on their age and local wind velocities. Large barchans (crescent-shaped dunes), some of them more than 30 feet (9 m) in height, cover somewhat less than 10 percent of the area. The climate of the Karakum is continental, with long, hot summers and unpredictable but generally warm winters. The average annual rainfall varies from 2.75 inches (70 mm) in the north to 6 inches (150 mm) in the south. The vegetation is quite varied, consisting chiefly of grass, small shrubs, bushes, and trees. Some of the vegetation can be used as hay in winter by camels, sheep, and goats. The population of the desert is composed of Turkmens, most of whom were formerly nomadic but have since settled into agricultural pursuits or into fishing on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Irrigation has made the desert suitable for the raising of livestock on a large scale, especially Karakul sheep; fine-fibred cotton is grown in the oasis areas. Intensive economic development after World War II brought an industrial revolution to the Karakum, resulting in the construction of factories, oil and natural-gas pipelines, railroads, highways, and power stations. The Caspian Sea and Karakum Desert. also spelled Kara-Kum, Turkmen Garagum, or Gara Gum, Russian Karakumy (Black Sand), great sandy region in Central Asia. It occupies about 70 percent of the area of Turkmenistan. Another, smaller desert in Kazakstan near the Aral Sea is called the Aral Karakum. Additional reading Sources in English on the Karakum are scarce. E.M. Murzaev, Pervye sovetskie issledovateli Karakumov (1983), is a concise survey of the area's early geologic exploration by Soviet researchers. A.G. Babaev and Z.G. Freikin, Pustyni SSSR vchera, segodnia, zavtra (1977), covers all deserts in the territory of the former U.S.S.R. The features of the Karakum are discussed in V.N. Kunin (ed.), Ocherki prirody Kara-Kumov (1955); and A. Arnageldyev and V.I. Kostiukovskii, Pustynia Karakumy: priroda i chelovek (1985), on the natural environment and the place of humans in it, and Ekosistemy Karakumov (1988), on the general ecology of the desert. Only brief surveys are available in English translation: S. Tatur, From the Great Fergana to the Kara-Kum Canal (1976), on the development of water resources; and B. Ovezov, The Kara Kum in Flower (1967), on socioeconomic conditions in the area. Agadjan G. Babaev