Mongolia 2005

Yearbook 2005

Mongolia. Following the political stalemate that arose through the regular and disputed parliamentary elections in 2004, Mongolia returned to elections in 2005, now to appoint a new president after departing Natsagiyn Bagabandi. The non-socialist opposition had almost taken back the majority in Parliament a year earlier, but in the presidential election, the socialist candidate Nambarijn Enchbajar clearly defeated his fellow voters and received 53.4% of the vote. According to countryaah, Ulaanbaatar is the capital and one of the major cities within the country of Mongolia. Enchbajar was prime minister until 2004, when he left that post to a non-socialist to resolve the government crisis and himself was elected President of Parliament. Unlike the parliamentary elections, the presidential elections went smoothly and the approximately 100 foreign observers had no complaints.

• Also see abbreviationfinder.org for how the acronym MN stands for the country of Mongolia and other meanings of this two-letter abbreviation.

Mongolia is plagued by a weak economy and high unemployment, but corruption is perceived as the country’s major problem. The election was preceded by widespread protests against the social clutter and demands for greater transparency in the state’s operations.

Mongolia (Russian Mongolija; Chinese Menggu) Vast region of Asia (2,700,000 km ² approx.), Located between Siberia and China, with peculiar characteristics from a physical and anthropic point of view. The Altaj, the Eastern Saian, the Western Saian and the mountains delimit it to the North Baikal, to East the Great Khingan ; to the S the border partly coincides with the Great Wall, and is partly marked by the Nanshan ; a W it remains open towards the basins of the Zungaria he was born in Tarim. Taken as a whole, it is comparable to a high plateau, sloping from W to East and interrupted by mountain ranges.

The geology of Mongolia is part of the wider geological structure of Asia and in particular of China. The base of the Mongolia is made up of rocks of the Precambrian age, on which a Paleozoic sedimentary platform succession was deposited which was affected by the orogeny of the lower and upper Paleozoic, which defined the main structural features of the region. During the Mesozoic and Tertiary, sedimentary successions of continental type accumulated in the newly formed basins that were deformed during the Meso-Cenozoic in connection with the collisions of Asia with the Arabian Bloc (Upper Cretaceous) and with the Indian Bloc (Cenozoic). These processes led to the formation of a megasuture  megasutura which in Mongolia, as well as in the surrounding regions, is highlighted by intrusions of felsitic rocks of the Mesozoic and Tertiary ages.

Starting from the West, the mountains are represented above all by the Mongolian Altaj, a system that, in an arc, slopes irregularly from NW to SE, in three successive chains, for about 1500 km: the Altaj proper, a mighty and rugged relief, with very high peaks (four of them exceed 4000 m), sunken valleys, rocky and tormented landscapes; the Altaj del gobi / “> Gobi, whose absolute and relative altitudes are lower than those of the previous section (only three peaks rise above 3000 m); finally a set of three small chains in which the characteristic aspects are accentuated (gentler slopes, softer reliefs, wider valleys) of the Altaj del Gobi. Khangai (or Changajn) and Khentei (or Chentijn), which occupy a considerable area in the center and in the northern half. Similar only for the general orientation to the Altaj, the Khangai appears as a mountainous front of almost constant altitude. Separated for about 200 km by a very shattered plot of relatively modest hills (they culminate, in fact, between 1600 and 1800 m), the Khentei stretches in the same direction as the Khangai up to the Russian border, with ridges generally around 2000 m in height . Here wide valleys and rounded summits dominate, wooded on the northern slopes. Further north, near the border with Russian territory, stands the rugged Khöbsögöl Dalai massif, an extension in Mongolian territory of the Obručeva and Eastern Saian ranges, located in neighboring Siberia: also quite high (the peaks often approach 3000 m), completes to the W the edge of a lake basin of capital importance for local hydrography. On the edge of the region we note the presence of several other chains, of which only the buttresses penetrate the country: such are the cases of the Tannu-Ola to the NW and the Great Khingan to the East. The flat areas constitute vast plateaus that occupy two distinct zones, albeit with certain common physical features, including, in the higher parts, a type of arid steppe landscape. AO extends the vast, roughly triangular depression of the gods large lakes (Uvs nuur, Char-Us nuur, Char nuur etc.): more than a plain, it can be considered a succession of large basins, not very high and separated from each other by weak undulations. The eastern plain appears as a large sloping space from 1000-1500 m of altitude in its southern section to less than 600 m in the NE of the Mongolian region. Finally, the large basins, to which the Mongolian language attributes the toponym of Gobi, located above 800 m in height, in the southern portion of the eastern plain, and scattered in the valley of the great lakes, especially at noon. These are desert areas with discontinuous sandy expanses, characterized by the presence of dunes up to 70-75 m high, subject to continuous movements under the pressure of the winds; and of regions with not very pronounced relief, often slightly depressed, in which low and arid hills, often rocky and therefore with a rather tormented physiognomy, creep in (➔ Gobi).