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Geological Formations

Valley of the Lakes

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The Valley of the Lakes is an intermontane depression in southwestern Mongolia, separating the Khangai and Govi-Altai mountain ranges. It stretches about 500 kilometers long and 100 kilometers wide, at altitudes between 1,000 and 1,400 meters above sea level, with a topography dominated by sandy and rocky plains and solonchak and takir soils. A chain of shallow, saucer-shaped saline lakes lies along the valley floor, the largest being Böön Tsagaan Lake and Orog Lake, fed by rivers rising in the Khangai Mountains. Barchan sand dunes lie along the valley's margins, and the region near the Govi-Altai is seismically active, having produced the 1957 Mongolia earthquake.

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