亞洲:
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| 北亞 Northern Asia 國家代碼: |
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北亞有兩個定義。其中一個定義，是指俄羅斯亞洲部分，主要是指西伯利亞、以及阿爾泰山脈以北的地區，占亞洲面積的三分之一。過去亦有將蒙古包括入北亞的範圍內。另一個定義，是指東北亞，即大中華地區加上日本和韓國，甚至蒙古。這是一個商業上相對東南亞的地理劃分。一般來說，以前者比較普遍。
亞俄和蒙古利亞 北亞地區包括了亞俄和蒙古利亞兩個地區。 匈奴民族在古代建了匈奴王國。匈奴王國之後分裂成北匈奴和南匈奴。此外，柔然也被認為是由鮮卑民族所建立。這四個國傢先後在蒙古利亞(簡稱蒙古)稱王稱霸。在6-13世紀,先後出現了突厥王國、薛延陀王國、回紇王國(後改稱回鶻王國)和黠戛斯王國等國,稱霸中亞和蒙古。1206年，鐵木真統一蒙古，建立北至吉爾吉斯，西至敘利亞，東至太平洋，南至波斯的蒙古帝國。其後衹保有北亞東部;忽必烈將國名改成元帝國，並稱霸中國。在西伯利亞，則有白帳汗國{斡兒答王朝}和藍帳汗國{昔班王朝}兩個蒙古帝國的封國；白帳在14世紀滅藍帳，改稱金帳。在2千紀中，也先後出現過蒙古王國，西伯利亞王國和土爾扈特王國(俄羅斯的附庸國)，但分別被後金，俄羅斯和清帝國滅。從1771至1911，北亞一直由俄羅斯，中國清王朝所統治。 在1911年，俄羅斯幫蒙古王國獨立，蒙古王國成其附庸國；1915年成中國的自治領；1921年，俄羅斯助此獨立，蒙古王國照樣成其附庸國；1924年，蒙古王國成為蘇维埃共和國(蒙古人民共和國)；1990年，蒙古人民共和國民主化，並在1992改國名為蒙古國至今。 The Phillips Illustrated Atlas of the World 1988 defines it as being most of the former USSR, the part that is to the east of the Ural Mountains. A definition pre-dating the USSR is an 1882 one by Keane and Temple, who defined it as "the two great administrative divisions of West and East Siberia, whose capitals are Omsk and Irkutsk respectively". It was, according to them "one vast political system, comprising nearly one-third of the whole continent, and, with a few trifling exceptions, directly administered by Russia". Demographics In 1875, Chambers reported the population of Northern Asia to be 8 million. Between 1801 and 1914 an estimated 7 million settlers moved from European Russia to Siberia, 85% during the quarter-century before World War I. Most estimates nowadays are that there are around 40 million Russians and Russified Ukrainians east of the Urals. The Buryats number 445,175, which makes them the largest ethnic minority group in Siberia. There are 443,852 Yakuts (Russian Census of 2002) and about 400,000 ethnic Germans living in Siberia. According to the 2002 census there are 500,000 Tatars in Siberia, but 300,000 of them are Volga Tatars who settled in Siberia during periods of colonization. There are an estimated one million Chinese in the Russian Far East. Geography There are no mountain chains in Northern Asia to prevent air currents from the Arctic flowing down over the plains of Siberia and Turkestan. The plateaux and plains of Northern Asia comprise the West Siberian lowlands; the Angara Shield, with the Taimyr Peninsula, the coastal lowlands, the Putorama Range, the Anabar Plateau, the Tunguska Plateau, and the Angara Plateau; and the Lena-Vilyuy Basin. Geomorphology The geomorphology of Asia in general is imperfectly known, although the deposits and mountain ranges are well known. To compensate for new sea floor having been created in the Siberian basin, the whole of the Asian Plate has pivoted about a point in the New Siberian Islands, causing compression in the Verkhoyansk mountains, which were formed along the eastern margin of the Angara Shield by tectonic uplift during the Mesozoic Era. There is a southern boundary to this across the northern margin of the Alpine folds of Iran, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, and Bhutan, which at the east of Brahmaputra turns to run south towards the Bay of Bengal along the line of the Naga hills and the Arakan Yoma, continues around Indonesia, and follows the edge of the continental shelf along the eastern seaboard of China. The Eurasian Plate and the North American Plate meet across the neck of Alaska, following the line of the Aleutian Trench, rather than meeting at the Bering Straits. Northern Asia is built around the Angara Shield, which lies between the Yenisey River and the Lena River. It developed from fragments of Laurasia, whose rocks were mainly pre-Cambrian crystalline rocks, gneisses, and schists, and Gondwana. These rocks can be found in the Angara Shield, the Inner Mongolian-Korean Shield, the Ordes Shield and the South-East Asia Shield. The fragments have been subject to orogenesis around their margins, giving a complex of plateaux and mountain ranges. One can find outcrops of these rocks in unfolded sections of the Shields. Their presence has been confirmed below Mesozoic and later sediments. There are three main periods of mountain building in Northern Asia, although it has occurred many times. The outer fold mountains, that are on the margins of the Shields and that only affected Asia north of the line of the Himalayas, are attributed to the Caledonian and Hercynian orogenies of the late Palaeozoic Era. The Alpine origeny caused extensive folding and faulting of Mesozoic and early Tertiary sediments from the Tethys geosyncline. The Tibetan and Mongolian plateaux, and the structural basins of Tarim, Qaidam, and Junggar, are delimited by major east-west lithospheric faults that were probably the results of stresses caused by the impact of the Indian Plate against Laurasia. Erosion of the mountains caused by this orogeny has created a large amount of sediment, which has been transported southwards to produce the alluvial plains of India, China, and Cambodia, and which has also been deposited in large amounts in the Tarim and Dzungarian basins. Northern Asia was glaciated in the Pleistocene, but this played a less significant part in the geology of the area compared to the part that it played in North America and Europe. The Scandinavian ice sheet extended to the east of the Urals, covering the northern two thirds of the Ob Basin and extending onto the Angara Shield between the Yenesei River and the Lena River. There are legacies of mountain glaciation to be found on the east Siberian mountains, on the mountains of the Kamchatka Peninsula, on the Altai, on Tien Shan, and on other small areas of mountains, ice caps remain on the islands of Severnaya Zemlya and Novaya Zemlya, and several Central Asian mountains still have individual glaciers. Siberia itself has permafrost, ranging in depths from 30m to 600 m and covering an area of 9.6 million km². Several of the mountainous regions are volcanic, with both the Koryat mountains and the Kamchatka Peninsula having active volcanoes. The Anadyr plateau is formed from igneous rocks. The Mongolian plateau has an area of basaltic lavas and volcanic cones. The Angara Shield also underlies the lowlands of the Ob River, but to the south and east in the Central Asian mountains and in the East Siberian mountains there are folded and faulted mountains of Lower Palaeozoic rocks. |
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