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In this section you will:

Objectives. In this section you will:. Learn about the main physical features of Central Asia. Discover which natural resources are important in Central Asia. Find out how people use the land in Central Asia. Key Term.

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In this section you will:

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  1. Objectives In this section you will: • Learn about the main physical features of Central Asia. • Discover which natural resources are important in Central Asia. • Find out how people use the land in Central Asia.

  2. Key Term • steppe (step)n. vast, mostly level, treeless plains that are covered in grasses

  3. The nations of Central Asia are: • Afghanistan • Kazakhstan • Kyrgyzstan • Tajikistan • Turkmenistan • Uzbekistan Except for Afghanistan, the nations of Central Asia were once part of the Soviet Union.

  4. Central Asia: Physical

  5. Central Asia’s main physical features are highlands, deserts, and steppes, such as the Kirghiz Steppe in Kazakhstan. The Kara Kum desert covers much of the land in Turkmenistan, while the Kyzyl Kum desert covers much of Uzbekistan.

  6. Mountains of Central Asia

  7. Central Asia: Climate Regions

  8. Most of Central Asia has an arid or semiarid climate with cold winters. At the western edge of this dry region is the Caspian Sea, which is actually a salt lake. The Caspian Sea is the largest lake in the world, and it has some of the world’s largest oil reserves.

  9. Natural Resources in Central Asia

  10. Central Asia: Natural Resources

  11. Most of the land in Central Asia is used for agriculture, especially livestock raising and commercial farming. People in Central Asia have raised sheep, horses, goats, and camels for thousands of years. Agriculture in Central Asia depends on irrigation.

  12. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union wanted to increase cotton production, so it began to irrigate Central Asia. Today, cotton is a major crop in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. However, the irrigation projects have caused major damage to the Aral Sea, a salt lake that was once the fourth-largest inland lake in the world.

  13. Heavy irrigation took great amounts of water from the Amu Darya and Sry Darya rivers, which flow into the Aral Sea. As a result, the Aral Sea is drying up, and pesticides used on the cotton crops have polluted the soil around the sea. The destruction of the Aral Sea has been called one of the world’s worst environmental disasters.

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