Karasor ( kk, Қарасор; russian: Карасор),
''Great Soviet Encyclopedia
The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...
'' in 30 vols. — Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov
Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov (born Alexander Michael Prochoroff, russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Про́хоров; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was an Australian-born Soviet-Russian physicist known ...
. - 3rd ed. - M. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978. (in Russian) is a
salt lake
A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre). ...
in
Karkaraly District,
Karaganda Region
Karaganda Region ( kk, Qarağandy oblysy; russian: Карагандинская область, translit=Karagandinskaja oblast′), also spelled Qaraghandy Region, is a region of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Karaganda.
On 17 March 2022 it was an ...
,
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
.
Karasor is the largest lake in Karaganda Region. It is located to the north of
Karkaraly
Karkaraly ( kk, Қарқаралы, ''Qarqaraly'') (russian: Каркаралинск, ''Karkaralinsk''), also known as Karkaralinsk, is the capital of the Karkaraly District in the Karaganda Region of Kazakhstan. Permanent settlement in the are ...
city. There are no settlements by the lakeshore. The nearest inhabited pace is
Koyandy village, close to the eastern end.
The mud at the bottom of the lake has medicinal properties.
Geography
Karasor is an
endorheic lake in the central
Kazakh Uplands. It stretches from east to west to the north of the
Karkaraly Range
Karkaraly Range ( kk, Қарқаралы таулары; russian: Каркаралинские горы) is a range of mountains in Karkaraly District, Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan. and to the south of the
Ayr Mountains
The Ayr Mountains ( kk, Айыр тауы; russian: Горы Айыр) are a mountain range in Karkaraly District, Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan.''Kazakhstan National Encyclopedia'' Vol. 1 / Ch. ed. B.O. Jakyp. — Almaty: « Kazakh encyclopedia» ...
. It is the largest of the lakes at the bottom of a vast depression without drainage. Smaller lake
Katynkol
Katynkol ( kk, Қатынкөл) is a salt lake in Karkaraly District, Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan.
The lake is located to the northwest of Karkaraly city. Katynkol usually freezes in November and thaws in April.''Nature of Kazakhstan Encyclop ...
is located to the SW of the southern end,
Saumalkol
Saumalkol ( kk, Саумалкөл; russian: Саумалколь) is a salt lake in Karkaraly District, Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan.
The lake is located to the northwest of Karkaraly city. The nearest inhabited place is Saumalkol railway stat ...
to the west, and
Balyktykol
Balyktykol ( kk, Балықтыкөл; russian: Балыктыколь) is a lake in Karkaraly District, Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan, one of many lakes by that name.
The lake is located to the NNE of Karkaraly city. The nearest inhabited places ...
to the east. The shape of Karasor is sinuous, narrower in its central section. The bottom of the lake is mostly silt, with a smell of
hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The unde ...
. The lakeshores are complex, some stretches are clayey or pebbly, low and gently sloping, but in certain areas they are rocky, with cliffs reaching a height of . There are two little islands on the lake, Zhumyrtkaly and Araltabe.
Fourteen small rivers flow into Karasor, including the long
Taldy, which flows into the eastern end of the lake. Other rivers are the
Karkaralinka, Karsakpai, Karasu, Yesenaman, Barak and Kemer. All of them dry up in the summer. On average, the highest water level of the lake is in April and the lowest in November. Karasor usually freezes in November and thaws in late April or early May.
Google Earth
Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...
Flora and fauna
The land in the basin around Karasor includes plowed agricultural fields with
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
and
loam
Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...
soils. The vegetation near the lakeshore zone is characteristic of the Kazakh
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslands, ...
, including
spear grass Spear grass or speargrass is the common name of numerous herbaceous plants worldwide including:
Poaceae (grasses)
*''Aristida'' spp.
*''Heteropogon contortus''
*''Imperata cylindrica''
*''Piptochaetium''
*''Poa'' spp.
*''Stipa'' spp.; typically ''S ...
,
wormwood
Wormwood may refer to:
Biology
* Several plants of the genus ''Artemisia'':
** ''Artemisia abrotanum'', southern wormwood
** '' Artemisia absinthium'', common wormwood, grande wormwood or absinthe wormwood
** ''Artemisia annua'', sweet wormwood o ...
,
Siberian peashrub
''Caragana arborescens'', the Siberian peashrub, Siberian pea-tree, or caragana, is a species of legume native to Siberia and parts of China (Heilongjiang, Xinjiang) and neighboring Mongolia and Kazakhstan. It was taken to the United States by ...
and
fescue
''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on every ...
.
[Jilili Abuduwaili, Gulnura Issanova, Galymzhan Saparov, ''Hydrology and Limnology of Central Asia''. pp. 177-181]News of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan
/ref>
Every year at Karasor there is a large concentration of about 5,000 common shelduck
The common shelduck (''Tadorna tadorna'') is a waterfowl species of the shelduck genus, ''Tadorna''. It is widespread and common in the Euro-Siberian region of the Palearctic, mainly breeding in temperate and wintering in subtropical regions; i ...
s during their moulting
In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is the manner in which an animal routinely casts off a part of its body (often, but not always, an outer ...
season.[Karasor Lake - BirdLife Data Zone](_blank)
/ref>
See also
* List of lakes of Kazakhstan
References
External links
*
Озера и реки Казахстана
(in Russian)
{{Lakes of Kazakhstan
Lakes of Kazakhstan
Endorheic lakes of Asia
Karaganda Region
Kazakh Uplands