High-mountain Asia
High-Mountain Asia (HMA) is a high-elevation[1] geographic region in central-south Asia that includes numerous cordillera and highland systems around the Tibetan Plateau, encompassing regions of East, Southeast, South and Central Asia. The region was orogenically formed by the continental collision of the Indian Plate into (and underneath) the Eurasian Plate.
According to NASA, the region is the "world's largest reservoir of perennial glaciers and snow outside of the Earth's polar ice sheets",[2] and has been nicknamed the "Third Pole". Their meltwaters and runoffs form the headwaters of river systems that support the drinking water and food production of nearly 3 billion people, and hydrological and climate changes in the mountains affect "ecosystem services, agriculture, energy and livelihood"[3] for all the surrounding areas.[4][5] NASA has a High Mountain Asia Team (HiMAT) to study the region.[3]
Recently, in a 2020 study the term High Asia or High Mountain Asia was used metaphorically to categorise Kashmir, Hazara, Nuristan, Laghman, Azad Kashmir, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Gilgit Baltistan, Chitral, Western Tibet, Western Xinjiang, Badakhshan, Gorno Badakhshan, Fergana, Osh and Turkistan Region. These rich resource areas are surrounded by the five major mountainous systems of Tien Shan, Pamirs, Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Western Himalayas and the three main river systems of Amu Darya, Syr Darya and Indus. The work further highlighted the role of United States, China, Russia, UK, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Iran and other players involved in The New Great Game over who will dominate High Asia in the 21st century.[6]
Geography
High-Mountain Asia is centered around Tibetan Plateau (a.k.a. the "Roof of the World"), and extends to the surrounding regions as numerous mountain ranges:
- south — the Himalayas and Arakan Mountains;
- southeast — the Hengduan Mountains, Yun-Gui Plateau and Shan-Tenasserim ranges;
- east — the Qinling Mountains and various ranges that edge the Sichuan Basin;
- north — the Qilian Mountains, Kunlun Mountains, Tian Shan ranges and (arguably) Altai Mountains as well as parts of the Mongolian Plateau;
- northwest — the Pamir-Alay and Pamir Mountains;
- west and southwest — the Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Sulaiman-Kirthar Mountains.[7][5]
These mountain range networks contains all 14 peaks above 8,000 m (26,000 ft) and all of the peaks above 7,200 m (23,600 ft), and expand across the mountainous Chinese provinces of Tibet, Xinjiang, Sichuan and Yunnan (including the flat and depressed Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang, which contains China's largest desert, the Taklamakan),[8] northern Myanmar, the Himalayan nations of Nepal and Bhutan as well as north/northwestern Pakistan and northeastern India, and most of the southeastern Central Asian nations of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Their rain shadows are partly responsible for the cold arid climate in parts of Central Asia and the Mongolian Plateau.
References
- ^ Qiu, Jane (January 27, 2015). "High-Altitude Forests in the Himalayas Harder Hit by Droughts". Scientific American. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
- ^ Arendt, Anthony (December 2, 2016). "NASA Research Announcement: Understanding Changes in High Mountain Asia". NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
- ^ a b "Dr. Viviana Maggioni Receives Two Awards from NASA to Study Hyper-Resolution in Soil Moisture Land Modeling and Data Assimilation". George Mason University. 2016. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
- ^ International Symposium on Glaciology in High-Mountain Asia (PDF), International Glaciological Society, July 2014, retrieved July 25, 2017
- ^ a b Pritchard, Hamish D. (May 22, 2017). "Asia's glaciers are a regionally important buffer against drought". Nature. 545 (7653): 169–174. doi:10.1038/nature22062. PMID 28492255. (Retracted, see doi:10.1038/nature25779, Retraction Watch. If this is an intentional citation to a retracted paper, please replace
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with{{retracted|...|intentional=yes}}
.) - ^ Sharma, Vishal (2020). Civilizational Colonialism and the Ongoing New Great Game in the Sensitive Areas of High Asia: Exploring Pan-High Asianism as the potential way forward for the Western Pahari, Greater Dardic, Trans-Himalayan, Badakhshan and Sogdiana Belts possibly leading to High Asian Approaches to International Law (HAAIL). Academia (Thesis). Cardiff: Cardiff University. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
- ^ "NASA High Mountain Asia Project". University of Washington eScience Institute: NASA High-Mountain Asia Project. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
- ^ Song, Chunqia; Huang, Bo; Ke, Linghong; Ye, Qinghua (October 2016). "Precipitation variability in High Mountain Asia from multiple datasets and implication for water balance analysis in large lake basins". Global and Planetary Change. 145: 20–29. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2016.08.005.
- v
- t
- e
(The 'stans)
- Roof of the World
- Greater Middle East
- Aral Sea
- Tartary
- Transoxiana
- Greater Khorasan
- Ariana
- Arachosia
- Khwarazm
- Sistan
- Kazakhstania
- Eurasian Steppe
- Mongolian–Manchurian grassland
- Iranian Plateau
- Altai Mountains
- Pamir Mountains
- Tian Shan
- Badakhshan
- Wakhan Corridor
- Wakhjir Pass
- Mount Imeon
- Mongolian Plateau
- Western Regions
- Taklamakan Desert
- Karakoram
- Siachen Glacier
- Tibetan Plateau
(Northeast)
- Orient
- Japanese Archipelago
- Korea
- Gobi Desert
- Taklamakan Desert
- Greater Khingan
- Mongolian Plateau
- Inner Asia
- Inner Mongolia
- Outer Mongolia
- China proper
- Manchuria
- North China Plain
- Liaodong Peninsula
- High-mountain Asia
- Tarim Basin
- Qinling Mountains
- Sichuan Basin
- Northern Silk Road
- Hexi Corridor
- Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau
- Lingnan
- Liangguang
- Jiangnan
- Jianghuai
- Guanzhong
- Huizhou
- Wu
- Jiaozhou
- Zhongyuan
- Shaannan
- Ordos Loop
- Hamgyong Mountains
- Central Mountain Range
- Japanese Alps
- Suzuka Mountains
- Leizhou Peninsula
- Gulf of Tonkin
- Yangtze
- Yellow River
- Pearl River Delta
- Yenisey Basin
- Altai Mountains
- Wakhan Corridor
- Wakhjir Pass
- Far East/Pacific Asia
- Ring of Fire
- Asia–Pacific
- Tropical Asia
(Siberia)
(East Indies)
(Indian
Subcontinent)
- Subregions
- Orient
- Greater India
- Indian subcontinent
- Himalayas
- Hindu Kush
- Bactria
- Carnatic region
- Tamilakam
- Western Ghats
- Eastern Ghats
- Ganges Basin
- Ganges Delta
- Guzgan
- Pashtunistan
- Punjab
- Balochistan
- Marathwada
- Kashmir
- Thar Desert
- Indus Valley
- Indus River Delta
- Indus Valley Desert
- Indo-Gangetic Plain
- Eastern Coastal Plains
- Kalinga
- Western Coastal Plains
- Meghalaya subtropical forests
- Lower Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests
- Northwestern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows
- Doab
- Bagar tract
- Great Rann of Kutch
- Little Rann of Kutch
- Deccan Plateau
- Coromandel Coast
- Konkan
- False Divi Point
- Hindi Belt
- Ladakh
- Aksai Chin
- Gilgit-Baltistan
- High-mountain Asia
- Karakoram
- Siachen Glacier
- Bengal
- Gulf of Khambhat
- Gulf of Kutch
- Gulf of Mannar
- Palk Strait
- Trans-Karakoram Tract
- Wakhan Corridor
- Wakhjir Pass
- Lakshadweep
- Paropamisadae
- Andaman and Nicobar Islands
- Maldives
- Alpide belt
- Asia–Pacific
- Tropical Asia
- Tibetan Plateau
(not to be confused
with Middle East)
- Red Sea
- Caspian Sea
- Mediterranean Sea
- Zagros Mountains
- Persian Gulf
- Al-Faw Peninsula
- Gulf of Oman
- Gulf of Aqaba
- Gulf of Aden
- Balochistan
- Arabian Peninsula
- Al-Sharat
- Tigris–Euphrates
- Mesopotamia
- Upper Mesopotamia
- Lower Mesopotamia
- Sawad
- Nineveh Plains
- Akkad (region)
- Babylonia
- Suhum
- Eastern Mediterranean
- Mashriq
- Eber-Nari
- Kurdistan
- Levant (Syria region)
- Palestine region
- Transjordan
- Jordan Rift Valley
- Philistia
- Golan Heights
- Hula Valley
- Galilee
- Canaan
- Gilead
- Syrian Desert
- Judea
- Samaria
- Arabah
- Aram
- Negev
- Phoenicia
- Retjenu
- Anti-Lebanon Mountains
- Bekaa valley
- Levantine Sea
- Sinai Peninsula
- Arabian Desert
- Fertile Crescent
- Iranian Azerbaijan
- Hauran
- Iranian Plateau
- Armenian Highlands
- Caucasus
- Anatolia
- Alpide belt