Kamchatka Peninsula

RUSSIA’S FAR EAST IS MARKED by the large mountainous peninsula known as Kamchatka. Kamchatka peaks form one of the most volcanically active regions on earth, counting over thirty active cones, and at least a hundred more that are now inactive. Few people live in this remote corner of Asiatic Russia, where ties to central government, or any government at all, have traditionally been weak at best.

The Kamchatka Peninsula, 750 mi (1,200 km) in length, is formed of two parallel ridges of mountains, the northern extension of the Pacific RING OF FIRE, a continuation of a line of volcanoes stretching south across the Kuril Islands to the ranges of HOKKAIDÔ, JAPAN. The western range is older, and forms the central spine of the peninsula. The eastern range was formed more recently and contains most of the active volcanoes, notably in the Kluchevskaya Complex, where twelve cones create a plateau of ash and hardened lava that so resembles the landscape of the moon that it has been used as a testing site for Soviet lunar vehicles. Kluchevskaya Sopka, at 15,584 ft (4,750 m), is the tallest volcano in Eurasia.

This intensely active region—bubbling with mud pools, geysers, sulfur springs and fumaroles—is caused by the collision of the Pacific and Eurasian plates of the earth’s crust, plus the jointure with another active tectonic fault that runs from here to the east, forming Alaska’s ALEUTIAN ISLANDS.

Kamchatka is joined to the mainland of Russia by a narrow isthmus, approximately 60 mi (110 km) wide. To the north lies the Koryak Plateau and the Chukchi Autonomous Republic, the land of Russia’s Arctic nomads, similar to Alaskan natives. Kamchatka itself is populated partially by indigenous Koryak tribes, and by Russians. Its population of roughly 250,000 live mostly in the regional capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, or in small coastal settlements.

The eastern coastline borders the PACIFIC ocean and its subsidiary, the Bering Sea, and is roughly indented with bays and steep inclines resulting from the presence of the eastern mountain chain and individual volcanoes. The western coast is, by contrast, smooth and low in elevation, with numerous swamps, tallgrass meadows, and swift rivers. The largest river, the Kamchatka, is not on this plain but runs south to north between the western and eastern ranges before turning east to empty into the Pacific at the peninsula’s only other city of significance, Ust’ Kamchatsk. Russian expansion to the Pacific was checked in the mid-17th century along the AMUR RIVER by the Chinese, so trappers, merchants and adventurers turned further north and crossed the Sea of Okhotsk to reach Kamchatka in the early years of the 18th century. 

The city of Saints Peter and Paul, Petropavlovsk, was built in 1740, designed to be a springboard for imperialist ambitions in Japan, CHINA, and even INDIA. Instead, the settlements here became a launch-pad for exploration of Alaska and the northwest coast of North America. Russian occupation was brutal, sparking off a series of mass suicides among the Koryaks and Kamchadals, who preferred death to slavery, until administrators were finally sent from the imperial government to establish some sort of law and order.

By the mid-19th century, Russian interests were again looking south to China and the rich Amur Valley, so Kamchatka faded in importance. American and British whalers, however, continued to trade regularly with Russian Far East settlements. Japanese fishing fleets also came in large numbers, attracted to the vast numbers of salmon, red roe, and other fish in Kamchatka’s waters. Trade with Americans and Japanese was encouraged during the 1930s (a formality, since Moscow’s central authority was so far away anyway) but was sharply curtailed after World War II, when the area became one of the most completely sealed-off regions in the entire Soviet Union. One of the primary focuses during this time was the creation of geothermal power stations, several of which are now under sharp scrutiny for environmental violations. Other resources—coal, copper, gold, iron and sulfur—are still mostly unexploited because of great distances from commercial markets, and extreme harshness of the climate. 

Kamchatka has formed its own separate district since 1956 (178,746 square km or 69,711 square mi), but the Koryak area to the north declared itself independent in 1990.

Kalahari Desert

THE NAME KALAHARI is derived from the Tswana word Kgalagadi, meaning “the great thirst.” The Kalahari Desert, an arid region on the interior plateau of southern Africa, covers area in central and southwestern BOTSWANA, parts of west-central SOUTH AFRICA and eastern NAMIBIA, encompassing an area of about 100,000 square mi (260,000 square km).

The Kalahari Desert is part of a larger sand basin that extends into ANGOLA and ZAMBIA in the north, through Botswana into ZIMBABWE in the east, to the Orange River in South Africa, and west to the highlands of Namibia. The Kalahari is mostly flat, with an average elevation of about 3,000 ft (1,000 m) above sea level. The sands of the Kalahari are red, brown, or white by region. Parallel dunes run north to south or northwest to southeast, depending on the winds and cover large areas of the Kalahari. The dunes vary in height from about 20 (6 m) to 200 ft (60 m) are up to 50 mi (80 km) long, and are separated by chasms of varying width.

The Kalahari has a semiarid climate with frequent droughts. The region receives about 8 in (20 cm) of precipitation a year, mainly between the months of October and May. The rainfall pattern is unpredictable, and precipitation can vary by more than 100 percent between years. The rains generally come in the summer months, September to March, as thunderstorms. Daytime temperatures range between 95 to 113 degrees F (35 to 45 degrees C) from October to March, which are the hottest months, and can drop below freezing between June and August. Temperatures ranges in the Kalahari Desert are some of the highest and lowest in southern Africa. The daily temperature ranges are also large.

The only permanent surface water in or around the Kalahari is the Boteti River. A swampy region exists on the northern border of the Kalahari in northern Botswana. Heavy rains occasionally flood the delta, and the Boteti carries the overflow east into Lake Xau and the Makgadikgadi Pan on the northeastern fringe of the desert. During the rainy seasons systems of streams and rivers flow temporarily. Water can be found below ground in the temporary waterways that flow into depressions in the desert, known as pans. Pans vary in size from a few meters to tens of kilometers in diameter and provide temporary sources of surface water. After heavy rain, these become pans or lakes, and water is then also found in mud-bottomed pools along the beds of the rivers. Pans also occur in craterlike depressions where rock rises above the desert sands.

Tough sun-bleached grasses grow in patches on the sand dunes. Other plant life consists of scrub bushes, patches of forest with fine leaf trees. The most amazing plant found in the Kalahari is the watermelon. There are both the bitter and sweet varieties. Wildlife includes the lion, leopard, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, buffalo, zebra, several kinds of antelope and gazelle, baboon, ostrich, spotted and brown hyena, wildebeest, elephant, giraffe, and eland. The hunting of these three last animals is prohibited, and for all game there are strictly enforced hunting seasons. Most animals are migratory, moving seasonally between sources of available water during the rainy season in summer.

Junngar Basin

THE JUNNGAR BASIN (also Dzungar) is one of the two major basins that make up much of northwestern CHINA’s XINJIANG province (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region). The basin, covering some 69,500 square mi (180,000 square km), is located to the north of the TIAN SHAN MOUNTAINS and has a mixed landscape that includes mountains, deserts, steppes, salt lakes and swamps. The region has much the same pattern as the TARIM BASIN, which is located to the south of the Tian Shan. However, because the Junngar is approximately 1,968 ft (600 meters) lower than the Tarim Basin, it is not quite as arid, receiving between 4 to 12 in (10 to 30 cm) of precipitation per year. In addition, there is also much greater snowfall and snow cover during the winter season, which helps increase the growth of natural vegetation.

The basin is triangular in shape, with the towering Tian Shan Mountains to the south, the Altai Mountains along the border with MONGOLIA to the northeast, and the Ala Tau Mountains along the border with RUSSIA and KAZAKHSTAN in the northwest. The Junngarian Gate, a rift valley in the Ala Tau Mountains, provides an outlet from the Junngar Plain to Lake Balkhash and Kazakhstan to the northwest. The gate is famous for its roaring winds that blow for more than 150 days per year. Between the sand desert at the basin’s core and the gravel GOBI is a narrow plain often referred to as the “spring line,” where the soil has some clay and silt, allowing limited agriculture and human settlement. The basin is somewhat geographically cut off from CHINA proper. It is possible to travel over a pass between the Bogdo Ula and the Tian Shan at 3,600 meters high and descend into the Turfan area on the south. Otherwise, the route to China leads through some very desolate valleys parallel to the Altai Mountains in the east to the Mongolian Gobi. Because the slope of the area is to the west, all of the major rivers flow east to west. The upper waters of the Irtysh River, the only river in China that flows to the Arctic Ocean, provides access to Zaisan Nor and Semipalatinsk in Russia. The two main rivers flowing within the basin are the Manas and the Urungu.

These, together with numerous streams descend to the plains before being lost in the reedy marshes and sands of the basin proper. The high mountain ranges surrounding the basin receive as much as 30 in (75 cm) of precipitation a year. The Altai Mountains are notably forested, and the lower slopes covered with willows, poplars, alders, and white birch as you move higher. Above about 6,000 ft (1,800 m), the Siberian larch is dominant, with many of the trees more than 98 ft (30 m) in height. Given this heavy forest cover, the mountain areas bordering the basin are rich in furbearing animals such as fox, wolf, sable, ermine, bear, and wolverine.

In contrast to the Tarim Basin, where there are extensive desert lands between oases, the Junngar has a STEPPE and steppe-DESERT landscape with some natural vegetation in the wide valleys that border the central desert lands. Thus, nomadic pastoralism is practiced here as the dominant way of life. Because annual rainfall is typically less than 10 in (25 cm), the pastoralists must be constantly on the move in search of fresh grass. This is much different than in the Tarim Basin to the south of the Tian Shan, where human activity is oasis oriented and people move in trade-oriented patterns from oasis to oasis.

Despite the limited rainfall and desert conditions, major land reclamation projects have been undertaken to introduce arable farming to the region. About half of the reclaimed land is under cotton production, with the rest in rice, wheat, corn, soybeans, various fruits, and sugar beets. However, more recent economic interest has centered on the discovery of oil at Karamai. Following the discovery of coal and iron deposits on the north side of the Tian Shan, there has been rather rapid industrial development over the past decades. Urumchi, the capital of Xinjian Province, is located on the southern edge of the basin on a high desert plateau. Before 1949, it was a quiet market town of less than 60,000 people. But with the discovery of oil, coal, iron and significant gold deposits, the city has grown to more than 1.75 million. It is also a center for iron and steel, textiles, and fertilizer production. The other interesting area in Junngaria is the Ili Valley. Lying north of the Tian Shan, but cut off from the rest of the basin, the valley flows westward to Lake BALKHASH in Kazakhstan. Because of the westward opening, the area is open to influence by more western climate characteristics, giving the area a special quality that supports arable farming and permanent settlements. The valley’s high production of wheat and other grains has earned it the title of “the granary of Xinjiang.”

Jordan Valley

THE JORDAN VALLEY is part of the Great Rift Valley stretching from East Africa to northern SYRIA. Massive cracking of the Earth’s crust caused by tectonic plate movements under the continents of Africa and Asia formed a trench over 4,000 mi (6,438 km) long. The northern section created by this faulting activity is the Jordan Trench.

In Syria, the Great Rift separates the Lebanon Mountains to the west and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains to the east. At Mount Hermon (9,232 ft or 2,814 m) melting snows and springs are the heads of the Jordan River, which traces the course of the Jordan Valley to its mouth at the DEAD SEA. The distance from Mount Hermon to the Dead Sea is only about 120 air mi (193 km), but the surface distance is 223 mi (360 km) owing to the river’s meandering.

The word jordan means, “that which goes down.” The elevation drops from over 1,000 feet (305 m) above sea level at the foot of Mount Hermon to 1,340 ft (408 m) below sea level at the Dead Sea, which is the lowest surface area of the world. From Mount Hermon the Jordan River first descends to the basin of Lake Huleh, a dramatic drop in elevation of 900 ft (275 m) in a distance of about 10 mi (16 km). Lake Huleh was 3 or more mi (4.8 km) wide, but today it is a marshy area because the lake has been drained for agriculture. 

From Lake Huleh the Jordan River descends nearly 1,000 ft (305 m) through steep, rocky gorges. Just before entering the Sea of Galilee the descent slows and waters a plain near the village of Bet Zayda (Bethsaida). The Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias) is a freshwater body 689 ft (209 m) below sea level. When the Jordan River leaves the Sea of Galilee, it flows for about 24 mi (39 km) through a fertile region that supported a variety of agriculture in ancient times as it does today. It is also is joined by the Yarmuk River soon after it leaves the Sea of Galilee. The Yarmuk arises on the Transjordanian plateau and doubles the volume of the Jordan’s waters. The volume of water varies considerably from the wet season to the dry.

South of ancient Pella the Jordan flows through the Ghor Plain, an ancient seabed composed of chalky limestone marls. As the Jordan descends to the Dead Sea, it is joined on its eastern (Jordanian) side by the Wadis Jurm, Kufrinjeh, Rajeb, and finally by the Jabbok River. In wet weather streams in the wadis come tumbling down from the granite Transjordanian Plateau. On the western (Israeli) side, the Jordan is joined as it flows south by the Wadis Bireh, Jalud, Malih, and Farah. The valley has several lateral faults that create the Jezreel Valley and the Saddle of Benjamin.

As the Jordan River flows south it traverses a number of geological and climatic zones. The descent to the Dead Sea is accompanied by an increase in temperature. The Jordan’s southern end flows through badlands of soft gray saline marls. The whole rift valley floor is called the Ghor (Plains of Moab). Its narrow floodplain (Zor) contains thickets of thorn scrub and tamarish along its banks (“jungle of the Jordan”). The Dead Sea (Salt Sea or Sea of Arabah) is in the center of the Ghor Plain. At 1,340 ft (408 m) below sea level it is the lowest surface area of the world. The Dead Sea Valley (Wadi al-‘Arabah) is an extension of the Jordan Valley. It stretches 111 mi (179 km) from the Dead Sea to the port of Aqabah. It is a very dry area with little agricultural value. The Jordan River Valley figures frequently in the landscape of the Bible. Numerous passages include the separation of Abraham and Lot, the Hebrew children crossing the Jordan to fight the Battle of Jericho, and the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River.

Jordan

JORDAN IS A MIDDLE Eastern country located in southwest Asia. Its official name is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and it covers an area slightly smaller than INDIANA. SAUDI ARABIA borders it on the south, IRAQ on the east, SYRIA on the north, with ISRAEL and the West Bank territories (Palestinian Hills) on the east. Jordan is almost landlocked, with a small coastline on the Gulf of Aqabah, which is an arm of the RED SEA.

JORDAN TRENCH

Jordan has two major land features—the Jordan Trench, and the Jordanian (Transjordan) Plateau. The Jordan Trench is a part of the Great Rift Valley extending from Syria to MOZAMBIQUE. It holds the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, and the DEAD SEA, all of which are below sea level. Shortly after the Jordan River leaves the Sea of Galilee it joins the Yarmuk River. The Yarmuk is Jordan River’s principal tributary south of the Sea of Galilee, and the Kingdom’s border with Syria. From there, the Jordan River meanders south until it empties into the Dead Sea; below sea level, it is the lowest surface area of the world. The lack of an outlet and the high level of evaporation have made the Dead Sea an area of extreme saltiness. It is mined for chemical resources including phosphates and potash.

South of the Dead Sea is the Dead Sea Valley (Wadi al-‘Arabah). It stretches 111 mi (179 km) from the Dead Sea to the port of Aqabah. It is a very dry area with limited agricultural use. The Jordanian Plateau is the second prominent land feature. Most of Jordan lies on a tilted plateau. It rises abruptly at the eastern edge of the JORDAN VALLEY and the Dead Sea. The plateau’s greatest heights are at the edge of the Dead Sea Valley. The heights range from 2,000 to 3,000 ft (610 to 915 m).

The Jordanian Plateau borders the Jordan Valley. Forests cover parts of the northwestern part of the plateau, while brush covers the central and southern sections. As it descends gradually to the south, east and north it becomes the Jordanian Desert Plateau. It ends in the Great Syrian Desert with little to identify the boundaries between Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. Grasses grow along the western edge, but much of it is featureless and arid.

The southern portion of the Jordanian Plateau is part of the Arabian Plateau. It has many deep canyons and mountain elevations rising to approximately 4,900 ft (1,500 m). The area holds the Wadi Rum, which has strange rock formations called jebels, and Petra, capital of the ancient Nabateans. The OTTOMAN EMPIRE built the Damascus-Medina Railroad (Hejaz Railway) in the region, which is still operating as a local line. During World War I, Colonel T.E. Lawrence, British army officer and leader in the Arab revolt, inflicted great damage on the Ottoman army along the rail line. Many scenes in the movie Lawrence of Arabia were shot here.

Jordan’s climate is modified Mediterranean in the west. It has sharp seasonal variations in both temperature and precipitation. Temperatures below freezing often do occur in January in the plateau. The Jordan Valley has summer temperatures that may reach 120 degrees F (49 degrees C). Amman is usually moderate in temperature averaging 78 degrees F (26 degrees C). Most precipitation is rain (although snow and sleet are not uncommon) and falls in the winter season. It averages about 26 in (66 cm) in the northwest corner of the country to less than 5 in (12 cm) in the extreme east. The Jordan River Valley and the desert in the east receive less than 2 in (5 cm) of rain per year.

Jet Stream

A JET STREAM IS A relatively narrow band of strong horizontal winds in the atmosphere. This band is 100 to 200 mi (250 to 500 km) wide and 1 to 2 mi (several km) deep. The winds in this band are stronger than those in horizontal or vertical regions adjacent to this band. The boundaries of the jet stream, therefore, contain significant wind shear. Traditionally, the term jet stream has referred to such bands that occur in the upper troposphere, especially those that consist of westerly winds. There are other atmospheric phenomena that consist of bands of strong winds. The tropical easterly jet consists of easterly winds and is associated with the Asian monsoon. The polar night jet occurs during the winter in the stratosphere. Low-level jets form at the top of the planetary boundary layer—usually at a pressure of 900 to 800 mb. These jets have been associated with thunderstorm activity in many parts of the world.

Military pilots discovered the upper tropospheric westerly jet streams during World War II. Aircraft flying in an easterly direction would sometimes encounter winds so strong that they would seriously impede their mission. There are two types of these westerly jets: the subtropical jet and the polar front jet. The jet streams are located 30,000 to 40,000 ft (9 to 12 km) above the Earth’s surface. They tend to be higher in summer than in winter and the subtropical jet is usually higher than the polar front jet. Meteorologists generally consider these jets to have wind speeds in excess of 60 mi (97 km) per hour. Average winds are about 135 mi (217 km) per hour in winter. The location of the most intense winds varies from day to day.

The subtropical jet stream forms as a result of the physical principle of the conservation of angular momentum. Figure skaters use this same principle to increase their spinning rate by bringing their arms towards the center of their bodies. Air is heated and rises over the part of the globe receiving the strongest solar radiation. At the top of the troposphere, this rising air moves toward the poles. As it moves toward the poles, the distance between it and the Earth’s axis decreases. As this distance decreases, the air accelerates toward the west. The air reaches its maximum westward velocity between 20 and 40 degrees from the equator and then starts sinking. The latitude of maximum winds tends to be more poleward in the summer and more equatorward in the winter. Wintertime jets tend to have faster speeds than summertime jets. The intensity of the jet varies with longitude, but there is a tendency for it to be stronger off the east coast of Asia.

As its name implies, the polar front jet stream forms along the polar front, where warm air from the tropics meets cold air from the poles. The strong temperature contrasts that exist here cause south to north pressure gradient to increase with height. The intensity of the pressure gradient increases up to the troposphere. The Coriolis force then causes winds to go from west to east. This jet stream is also more intense and located more poleward during the winter than during the summer.

Within both types of jet stream there are regions where winds are stronger than those located both upstream and downstream. Such an area is known as a jet maximum or jet streak. Air flows through the jet maximum accelerating in the entrance region and decelerating in the exit region at an average speed of 125 mi (201 km) per hour. The jet maximum has a distinct structure with areas of convergence in the poleward entrance region and equatorward exit region and areas of divergence in the poleward exit region and the equatorward entrance region. Below areas of divergence, especially the one on the poleward side, are especially favorable areas for midlatitude cyclones to develop.

Jet streams affect our daily lives in other ways as well. Since the polar front jet stream is located where the north-south temperature gradient is strongest, places that are south of the current location of the jet stream tend to have warmer than normal temperatures and places to the north, colder than normal temperatures. The location of jet streams is very important to aviators. Aircraft flying with the jet stream can get a tailwind and aircraft flying against it, a headwind. These winds can significantly influence travel time and fuel consumption. The areas bordering jet streams have high wind shear and are prone to develop turbulence.

Jerusalem

THE CAPITAL CITY of the state of ISRAEL, Jerusalem is located in the center of the country. Jerusalem is Israel’s largest city, with an area of 48 square mi (126 square km) and a population of 657,500 (2000), of which 68 percent are Jewish and 32 percent mostly Arab. The city is divided into two components: West Jerusalem, or the New City, and East Jerusalem, or the Old City, annexed in 1967. Jerusalem is sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Wailing Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Dome of the Rock are holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. In 1949, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declared Jerusalem to be the “eternal capital,” and even though Costa Rica and Honduras hold embassies there, the United States and many countries hold their embassies in and around Tel-Aviv, the previous capital.

The site of present-day Jerusalem has been settled by humans since the Stone Age. According to Biblical tradition, King David captured the city from the Jebusites in approximately 1000 B.C.E. and made it the capital of the newly established Kingdom of Israel, until the destruction of the city and the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.e. Jerusalem again became the capital of a short-lived Judean kingdom under the Maccabees in 142 B.C.E. It fell under Roman influence, and in 70 C.E., the Romans under General Titus destroyed the Second Temple during a rebellion. In 135, after the rebellion led by Simon Bar Kokhba, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, renamed the city Aelia Capitolina, and expelled the Jews from Judea.

In 638, the Muslims gained control of Jerusalem. After the First Crusade in 1099, Jerusalem served as the capital of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem established by the Franks. Muslims regained Jerusalem under the Mamelukes in 1291 and by the Turks in 1517. In 1917, British troops took control of Jerusalem and established the British Mandate in Palestine. In 1949, with the end of the British Mandate, Jerusalem was divided into the New City, the capital of the new state of Israel and the Old City, under Jordanian control. Jerusalem was reunified after the Six Day War in 1967. Palestinians hope to see East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. As part of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the fate of East Jerusalem was to be resolved by the Israelis and the Palestinians. However, renewed violence in 2000 has prevented such a settlement.

The city is the country’s cultural center and is home to theaters, concert halls, and museums, notably the Yad Vashem, which chronicles the Holocaust, and the Israeli Museum, which holds the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Hebrew University has campuses in the Old City and the New City. Despite its turbulent history, Jerusalem continues to be a vibrant city.