Go BBC

I’m whiling away some of the dark Mongolian winter hours marveling at the BBC’s ‘Planet Earth’ series. Have you seen it? Just beyond, huh? A couple days ago I saw the ‘Deserts’ episode, and lo and behold the first segment was on my beloved Gobi Desert and its tiny population of wild Bactrian camels. They’re notoriously shy and hard to track, but the BBC crew was dogged, and assisted by an old Mongolian desert sage, got some astounding footage, including the males in rut, which...well, you just have to see it.

Anyway, during David Attenborough’s incomparable narration, he ends the segment by asking, “Why is the Gobi a desert?” Now, I’m putting you on the honor system. It’s a good question with an interesting answer. Without googling, or checking any other reference, try to answer it for yourself (and all of us) in the comments. Why is the Gobi a desert? Why there? Certain Gobi experts (I’m looking at you, Brother Don) might refrain and give others a whack at it first.

Comments

[Sangye]

My answer is simple : Why NOT there?

I love the PE series, too. I've never seen anything like it. The one that aired on tv had Sigourney Weaver as the narrator, and it was the worse for it. A friend watched the dvd and said she loved the narrator. After much back and forth, we figured out they'd swapped for some reason.

[Konchog]

Well, Sangye-la, you win Ani Congeniality. There is an actual reason. Causes and conditions, remember?

I'm dumbfounded they would switch out Attenborough (a hero amongst us birders for his 'The Life of Birds' series) for Sigourney Weaver. Like switching Hawaiian Kona for instant.

[Cuzzin Are]

Have no guess on the desert thingie but it will plague me until you share the answer with us. (I'm thinking, though, something along the line of its being scoured by glaciers from the surrounding mountains. Or there may not even BE any mountains. What do I know.) And "Life of Birds" is the best evuh.

[Northmoon]

I'm thinking it's a desert due to "lack of rain" but guessing that's too obvious, and of course that begs the question "why no rainfall?"

So I might guess that since it's in the middle of a large continent the rain doesn't fall there because there are no mountains or forests to catch it and it's already fallen over Europe and Russia so there's not much left by the time it gets to Mongolia.

Or it's just so cold and windy that the rain always falls as snow and blows away.

[Konchog]

Northmoon: You were on the right track at first, but then veered down an unfortunate side street. The Gobi's actually scorching hot in summer, a place of real extremes. Stay with that "Why no rainfall?"

[minnie]

yup, no rainfall. there are deserts in cold climes as well. in fact, if i remember my earth science correctly, a tundra is technically a desert as well (don't quote me though, lol)

[Lodro]

Could it be that the Himalayas block the monsoon?

[Northmoon]

I was just being facetious with the last remark.

Further to the no rainfall, does the altitude of the Gobi Desert have anything to do with it? I'm assuming that it is at a very high altitude and possibly any water vapour might tend to stay in the air.

[Konchog]

Lodro hits the nail square on the head!! That's what Auntie Beeb said. The winds blowing moisture off the Indian Ocean crash into the Himalaya, return to the subcontinent as Monsoon, and prevent Central Asia from receiving much rainfall. Now ya know.

Northmoon: they did also say that since the Gobi is so arid and high, whatever snow there is in winter simply evaporates as it gets warmer instead of melting into puddles or streams. They showed the camels eating snow for water. Like, a lot of snow.

[Robert]

India broke away from Gondwanaland and eventually bumped into Asia, pushing up the Himalaya Mountains and the Tibetan plateau. These cut off the warm moist air from the south which formerly brought rain to the land of the Gobi. (Think of the Gulf of Mexico keeping the Midwest wet). Since then, the Gobi has been a desert, unlike is dinosaur filled past.

[June Calender]

Parts certainly get some snow, when I was there three years ago I reached a cul de sac in a canyon, somewhere south of the flaming cliffs, in a national park, and there was an astonishing amount of ICE, yes, ICE, left over from that horrible winter when so many of Mongolia's animals froze. Ice was the last thing I expected to see. That same day there was an unusual, heavy rainfall that turned the desert around our ger tourist camp into a shallow pond for an hour or so. Also hail had fallen and some of us had a short "snow/hail ball fight" -- in the Gobi. I'll never forget it. I wish I remembered off the top of my head the name of the town we flew to.