The Barsuki Desert is a desert zone in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhstan. It has two parts, the Greater Barsuki (; ) in the west and the Lesser Barsuki (; ) in the east. They are elongated strips of sand desert parallel to each other and separated by a roughly wide stretch of non-desert terrain.Барсуки Большие и Малые; Great Soviet Encyclopedia in 30 vols. — Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov. - 3rd ed. - M. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978. (in Russian)
The sands of the deserts are the result of the weathering of Paleogene rocks; only the northern section of the Greater Barsuki was formed from more recent alluvial deposits.
Geography The Barsuki are roughly aligned in a SSW - NNE direction. They are located at the southern end of the Turgay Depression, stretching from the northern coast of the Aral Sea in the Kyzylorda Region to the southeastern sector of the Aktobe Region. The Shalkar Basin extends to the west.Google Earth
The desert is sandy and receives very little rainfall. Its sands are subject to eolic action, forming mounds, ridges and dunes.Full text of "Natural regions of the U.S.S.R"
Greater Barsuki The Greater Barsuki, also known as "Major Barsuki",The Aral Sea has a length of , an average width of and an area of . It stretches from the area southeast of Begimbet in the south to a little to the northeast of Shalkar town.
Lesser Barsuki The Lesser Barsuki, also known as "Minor Barsuki", lies to the east of its greater neighbor and stretches for from Butakov Bay in the North Aral Sea by Akespe, to a little to the northwest of Karashokat in the Kyzylorda Region. Its width is between and . The average height is to , with the highest elevation of located roughly in the middle.
Flora The vegetation of the flat areas consists mainly of xerophytic shrubs, including wormwood, saltwort and ephemeral plants. In the slopes of hills and ridges there are thickets of dzhuzgun, sand acacia, astragalus, kandym and chingil.
See also Geography of Kazakhstan
References
External links
Deserts of the North Aral Sea.