- Geography - basic facts
- Climatic conditions of the Dashti-Margo desert
- Vegetable world
The territory of Afghanistan is characterized by a very difficult relief, since it is located on the Iranian plateau, occupying its northeastern part. Most of the territory of the state is occupied by mountains and the valleys located between them. The salient feature is that many geographic features have beautiful definitions, including:
- Safedkokh - White Mountains;
- Siahkokh - Black Mountains;
- the Naomid plateau - "desert of despair";
- the Dashti-Margo desert - “the desert of death”.
The last region received this name, first of all, due to the fact that a world record was once recorded here, the highest air temperature on the planet Earth. Dashti-Margo translated from the local Farsi language is a combination of two words "dasht" - this is a valley, a valley, a lowland, "marg" - death. Therefore, we can say that "the valley of death" is a literal translation into Russian of the beautiful, but incomprehensible toponym Dashti-Margo.
Geography - basic facts
The toughest desert in Afghanistan, fortunately, does not occupy the entire territory of the country, but a fairly large area in the southwestern part. It is located between the two valleys of the Khashrud River and the Helmand River.
The total area of the desert, according to scientists, is in the region of 150,000 square kilometers, more accurate calculations are impossible due to the difficult terrain. The territories are elevated above sea level to a height of 500 to 700 meters. The main part of the desert is made up of vast tracts of sand, the space between them is occupied by takyrs and salt marshes.
Climatic conditions of the Dashti-Margo desert
It should be noted right away that, since Afghanistan is located in subtropical latitudes, a subtropical continental climate is established on the territory of the Dashti-Margo desert, characterized by dryness and significant amplitudes of temperature regime.
At the same time, in the daytime, very sunny, dry and clear weather is established in the desert, the maximum temperature indicators in summer are close to + 45 ° С, the average temperatures of the hottest month of the year, July, are at around + 30 ° С. At the same time, the winter weather is not uniform, the temperature regime ranges from 0 ° С to the absolute minimum, the indicator of which was –25 ° С.
At the same time, the average annual precipitation that falls in the Dashti-Margo desert is five times lower than on the plateaus, ten times lower than on the windward slopes of the same Hindu Kush, twenty times less than in the southeastern regions of Afghanistan, which are good moistened by the monsoons brought by the Indian Ocean. In fact, in the territory of Dashti-Margo falls from 40 to 50 mm, in the rating by the amount of precipitation it is, in comparison with its “colleagues”, at the bottom of the list.
It should be remembered that this scanty amount of precipitation is unevenly distributed throughout the calendar year. Most of them fall in winter and spring, much less in summer and autumn. In some years, the Dashti-Margo desert, in general, may not see a drop from the sky.
Vegetable world
According to various reference books, there are a large number of schemes or maps of vegetation, but most often five botanical-geographical provinces are distinguished, each of which has its own specific features. The territory of the Dashti-Margo desert, according to this classification, belongs to the southern desert province.
Such regions of Afghanistan are characterized by the presence of drought-tolerant and salt-tolerant shrubs. On the territory of Dashti-Margo, saxauls (including Persian saxaul, solyankovy saxaul), juzguns, curls, and green leaves are widespread. The most famous among them is saxaul, a tree belonging to the subfamily of haze. Has characteristic leaves in the form of colorless scales and tubercles.
Juzgun (other names - Zhuzgun, Kandym) belongs to the shrubs of the buckwheat family. Their development occurs very quickly, the fruits either have wings or are covered with multiple bristles. On the one hand, they are easily carried by the winds, on the other hand, they avoid being buried in the sand. The most widespread is pinnate celine.
Curled also belongs to the buckwheat family, the name in ancient Greek means "non-nutritious", thereby emphasizing that the plant cannot be used as animal feed.
On the territories of Dashti-Margo, covered with sand, only deserted saxaul forests grow, in places where the groundwater is shallow, tamarisks and various plants of the family of hamsters appear. Tamarisks are not very demanding on the soil, they are resistant to salt deposits in the soil. They can withstand temperatures down to -17 ° C, minus - they cannot stand the shadow and quickly die even with a little shade.
