Asia
From Encyclopædia
This article provides a description of the Asian continent and a survey of its resources, people, economy, and recent developments. Further information may be found in ASIA, HISTORY OF, and separate articles on the Asian countries.Asia is the largest of all the continents and includes within its limits an area of 44,441,100 sq km (17,159,995 sq mi), or about 33% of the
world's total land surface and the greater part of the Eurasian landmass. The border between
Europe is traditionally drawn as an imaginary zigzag line passing
Down the spine of the URAL MOUNTAINS and through the CASPIAN SEA,
Caucasus Mountains, and BLACK SEA. The boundary dividing Asia and
Africa is generally placed along the
Suez CANAL, and the boundary between Asia and
Australia is usually placed between the island of New Guinea and
Australia.Asia is by far the most populous of all the continents, with an estimated population in 1992 of 3,275,200,000, or more than 60% of the
world's total population. The population is, however, diverse and divided by
language,
race, religion, politics,
economics, and cultural origins into a complex cultural
mosaic.The
nations of Asia are usually grouped into five main geographical and political-cultural subdivisions:1. Southwest Asia, which includes
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iran,
Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, plus Asian Turkey and
Egypt east of the
Suez Canal (
Sinai Peninsula);2. South Asia, which includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon);3. East Asia, which includes most of the People's Republic of China, Japan, North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), South Korea (Republic of Korea), and
Taiwan (Republic of China);4. Southeast Asia, which includes Brunei,
Myanmar (formerly Burma),
Indonesia, Cambodia,
Laos, Malaysia,
Papua New Guinea, the
Philippines,
Singapore,
Thailand, and
Vietnam;5.
Central and North Asia, which includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan plus Asian
Russia (
Siberia) and three of the five autonomous regions of China--Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang-Uygur, and Tibet.LAND AND RESOURCESTopographyThe topography of Asia comprises a series of high mountain belts, which are the dominant landforms, and a related complex of
plateaus, basins, island arcs, and alluvial lowlands. The highest point is Mount EVEREST, which towers to 8,848 m (29,028 ft) in Nepal; the lowest point is 395 m (1,296 ft) below sea level along the shores of the DEAD SEA in Israel and Jordan. The Ural Mountains on the western edge of Asia trend in a north-south direction, but most other belts extend across the continent in a general west-east direction and converge in a knot of high mountains in the PAMIRS, located where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, China, and
Afghanistan come together. West of the Pamirs, two main mountain belts are discernible. The southern one crosses the island of Cyprus, enters the mainland to form the
Taurus Mountains along the southern edge of Turkey, swings along the southern edge of the Iranian
plateau to form the
Zagros Mountains, and on into
Pakistan before turning north to become the
Hindu Kush and join the Pamirs. The northern mountain belt in Asia west of the Pamirs enters the continent at the Crimean Peninsula; swings eastward to form the
Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian seas; continues south of the Caspian Sea as the
Elburz Mountains of Iran and the Kopet Mountains on the Iran-Azerbaijan border; and crosses into
Afghanistan to merge with the
Hindu Kush and the Pamirs.East of the Pamirs, three mountain belts are discernible. One belt trends northeastward toward the Pacific Ocean and forms the Alai Range in Kyrgyzstan, the Tian Shan (Tien Shan) and Da Hinggan (Greater Khinghan) Range in China, the
Altai Mountains in Kazakhstan, and the Sayan, YABLONOVY, and STANOVOI mountains in
Russia. A second mountain belt, located farther south, extends eastward from the Pamirs to form the
Kunlun Mountains, Astin Tagh, and Nan Shan in China. This belt continues across the middle of China, separating North China from South China, as the Qin Ling (Tsinling).The third and most southerly of the mountain belts radiating eastward from the Pamirs turns southeastward to form the
Karakoram Range and the broad arc of the HIMALAYAS and then abruptly southward at the eastern end of the Tibetan
plateau, where it
Splits into a
number of lesser ranges that continue southward as the Arakan Yoma in
Myanmar (Burma), the mountainous rib of the
Malay Peninsula, and the Annam Mountains (Annamitic Cordillera) in
Vietnam.Numerous
plateaus and structural basins are located within or along the margins of these mountain ranges. The highest is the Tibetan
plateau, which has an
average elevation of over 4,000 m (13,000 ft) and is bordered by some of the
world's highest mountains, including the Himalayas on the south, the Karakoram on the west, and the
Kunlun Mountains on the north. This entire complex of high mountains and
plateaus is often referred to as the "roof of the
world." To the north of Tibet are three important Chinese basins: the Qaidam (Tsaidam) Basin, the Tarim Basin (see TAKLIMAKAN), and the Junggar Pendi (Dzungarian) Basin.Also important to China are the Sichuan (Szechwan, or Red) Basin, located in the western Chinese province of Sichuan; the Gobi
plateau, a vast, semidesert upland located in Mongolia and China's Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (see
GOBI); and the Loess
plateau, located south of the Gobi, which is covered with an immense thickness of windblown loess deposits derived from the Gobi. Other
plateaus in Asia are the Anatolian
plateau, in Turkey; the Arabian
plateau, mainly in Saudi Arabia; the
Deccan Plateau, in peninsular India; and the Vitim and Aldan
plateaus, in
Russia.Numerous islands, arranged in a series of arcs, fringe the Southeast Asian and Pacific coasts of the continent. The islands of the Southeast Asia archipelago pick up the main trend lines of
Myanmar's Arakan Yoma and continue them through the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands of India and the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Bali in the Indonesian archipelago. Near Bali, the main trend of the mountainous belt
Splits into two segments. One segment?continues eastward through the islands of Timor, the Moluccas, and New Guinea and eventually forms the mountains of New
Zealand; the other segment turns northeastward and passes in a series of arcs through Borneo, the Philippine archipelago,
Taiwan, the
Ryukyu Islands, Japan, and
Sakhalin and the
Kuril Islands before touching the mainland in the
Kamchatka Peninsula (
Russia). These island arcs are seismically active, and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions frequently occur.Asia's most extensive lowlands are located in the former Soviet Union. They are the Western Siberian Plain, a vast, subarctic forested region located east of the Urals, and the
Kirghiz Steppe, a semiarid plain located mainly in Kazakhstan. Other important lowlands are mainly in the alluvial valleys and
Deltas developed by rivers flowing to the south and east. The largest of the alluvial valleys is the Indo-Gangetic Plain, located in the Indian subcontinent between the Himalayas and the
Deccan Plateau. Occupying parts of
Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, it is drained by the
Indus, Ganges, and
Brahmaputra Rivers; river water is diverted extensively across the plain for
irrigation, and the region is one of the
world's most intensively cultivated and most densely populated places. Other Asian lowlands are the North China Plain, its
soils enriched for centuries by loess sediments spread over the valley and
Deltas of the Huang He (Hwang Ho, or Yellow River); the alluvial valleys and
Deltas of the Chiang Jiang (Yangtze), Irrawaddy (
Myanmar), and Mekong (
Laos,
Thailand, Cambodia, and
Vietnam) rivers; and the Fertile Crescent of the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers in
Iraq.GeologyFive Asian "shield" areas (geologically stable areas of ancient crystalline rock) are usually recognized. They are the Arabian and Indian shields in the south and the Tarim Basin (Seridian massif), Northern China (the Chinese massif), and the Siberian (Angara) Shield. Great thicknesses of sediments accumulated between these blocks of stable rocks and were subsequently folded and uplifted in periods of mountain building (orogenies). Asia has had a complex orogenic or mountain building history. The Caldonian
orogeny occurred in the Silurian and Devonian periods and is recorded in Asia by the Sayan and other mountains of eastern
Siberia. The Hercynian
orogeny occurred in the Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) and
Permian Periods and created the Urals, Tian Shan, Kunlun, and Qin Ling mountains.
