Geomorphology of Turkmenistan

43646

With its area of 491,200 km² Turkmenistan is one of the Turkish countries situated in the Central Asia. The country’s landforms are quite simple. All of the parts outside of Koyten Mountains in the Southeast, Kopet Mountains in the south, Karabil and Bathyz plateaus in the southwest have a flat landform appearance. Considered to be one of the branches of Alp Himalayan Mountains, these mountain systems are remarkable with their worn bare surfaces. By being resistant enough against the rocks, Koyten Mountain form the highest point with the height of 3139 meters. At the same time fault lines are located on these mountain areas. Began to nascent Neogene, Karakum desert covers a large portion of 80% area of the country. By being Turkmenistan’s most important stream, the Amu Darya (Jeyhun) river after collecting the materials from the southern mountains and by being deprived of moisture due to lack of rain and great violence of evaporation as a result of changing the direction of the river made the formation and improvement of topography of arid regions within the country. As a result of this, the formation of the arid region’s topography in Turkmenistan has been accelerated even more. Dominating to topography of arid region the Karakum desert is remarkable with its relief like barchans, dunes like ridges and ripple marks.

566

Turkmenistan , geomorphology , topography of arid region

International Journal of Geography and Geography Education

588

International Journal of Geography and Geography Education