View source for Ryn Desert

{{no footnotes|date=February 2008}}
[[File:Ryn Desert.jpg|right|thumb|300 px|Ryn Desert]]
The '''Ryn Desert''' or '''Ryn-Peski Desert''' ({{lang-kk|Нарын-Құм}} ''Naryn-Qum''), is a desert in western [[Kazakhstan]] and south-western [[Russia]]{{citation needed|date=March 2015}}, north of the [[Caspian Sea]] and southeast of the [[Volga Upland]]. The borders of the desert are very loosely defined. Some maps show the desert almost entirely within the [[Caspian Depression]], stretching almost to the coast of the Caspian Sea, while others show it north of the depression. It lies west of the [[Ural River]] between [[46th parallel north|46° N]] and [[49th parallel north|49° N]] latitude, and [[47th meridian east|47° E]] to [[52nd meridian east|52° E]] longitude. Temperatures can reach extreme highs of {{convert|45|to|48|°C}} during summer and in winter it can drop to a low of {{convert|-28|to|-36|°C}}.

Many small towns are scattered throughout the Ryn Desert, and population density is between 1 and 15 people per square mile. The Ryn lies in a semi-arid climate zone, and receives very little rainfall.

High winds sweep across the desert, and in 2001 a dust storm in the [[Baltic Sea]] was determined as originating in the Ryn Desert{{citation needed|date=March 2015}}. A study of long-range dust transportation to the Baltic Sea region—by analyzing dust pollution in [[Scandinavia]], showed that aerosol concentrations there were influenced more by the Ryn Desert region than the [[Sahara Desert]] in [[Africa]].

==References==
*International Journal of Environment and Pollution 2004 - Vol. 22, No.1/2  pp.&nbsp;72 – 86. ISSN 0957-4352
*DK World Atlas, Millennium Edition, pgs. xxv, xxix, 258 ISBN 978-0789446046
http://www.historytoday.com/john-etty/russia%E2%80%99s-climate-and-geography

{{coord|47.3333|N|48.8333|E|source:kolossus-dewiki|display=title}}

{{Deserts}}

[[Category:Deserts of Central Asia]]
[[Category:Deserts of Kazakhstan]]


{{Kazakhstan-geo-stub}}
{{Kalmykia-geo-stub}}