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Kazakhstania, also known as the Kazakhstan Block, is a small continental region in the interior of Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
. It consists of that area north and east of the Aral Sea
Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is a landlocked endorheic basin in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south....
, south of the Siberian craton
Craton

A craton is an old and stable part of the continental crust that has survived the merging and splitting of continents and supercontinents for at least 500 million years....
 and west of the Altai Mountains and Lake Balkhash
Lake Balkhash

Lake Balkhash is a lake in southeastern Kazakhstan, the second largest in Central Asia after the Aral Sea. It is a Endorheic that is part of the endorheic basin that includes the Caspian Sea and Aral seas....
. Politically, it comprises most of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the List of countries by area as well as the world's largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km? ....
 and has a total area of around 1.3 million kmē. The Junggar basin in Xinjiang
Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of China of the People's Republic of China. It is a large, sparsely populated area, spanning over 1.6 million sq....
, China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
 is also part of Kazahstania, though sometimes referred to as the Junggar Block.

It is believed that present-day Kazakhstania is chiefly a collage of early Paleozoic
Paleozoic

The Paleozoic or Palaeozoic Era is the earliest of three geology Era of the Phanerozoic Eon . The Paleozoic spanned from roughly , and is subdivided into six period ; from oldest to youngest they are: the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian period, Carboniferous, and Permian...
 volcanic island arcs and some small continental terrane
Terrane

A terrane in geology is a fragment of crustal material formed on, or broken off from, one tectonic plate and Accretion ? "Suture " ? to crust lying on another plate....
s.






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Kazakhstania, also known as the Kazakhstan Block, is a small continental region in the interior of Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
. It consists of that area north and east of the Aral Sea
Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is a landlocked endorheic basin in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south....
, south of the Siberian craton
Craton

A craton is an old and stable part of the continental crust that has survived the merging and splitting of continents and supercontinents for at least 500 million years....
 and west of the Altai Mountains and Lake Balkhash
Lake Balkhash

Lake Balkhash is a lake in southeastern Kazakhstan, the second largest in Central Asia after the Aral Sea. It is a Endorheic that is part of the endorheic basin that includes the Caspian Sea and Aral seas....
. Politically, it comprises most of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the List of countries by area as well as the world's largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km? ....
 and has a total area of around 1.3 million kmē. The Junggar basin in Xinjiang
Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of China of the People's Republic of China. It is a large, sparsely populated area, spanning over 1.6 million sq....
, China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
 is also part of Kazahstania, though sometimes referred to as the Junggar Block.

It is believed that present-day Kazakhstania is chiefly a collage of early Paleozoic
Paleozoic

The Paleozoic or Palaeozoic Era is the earliest of three geology Era of the Phanerozoic Eon . The Paleozoic spanned from roughly , and is subdivided into six period ; from oldest to youngest they are: the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian period, Carboniferous, and Permian...
 volcanic island arcs and some small continental terrane
Terrane

A terrane in geology is a fragment of crustal material formed on, or broken off from, one tectonic plate and Accretion ? "Suture " ? to crust lying on another plate....
s. These were joined together during the Ordovician
Ordovician

The Ordovician is a geologic period, the second of six of the Paleozoic era , and covers the time between 488.3?1.7 to 443.7?1.5 million years ago ....
 to form what was at the time an isolated continent of its own. During the Carboniferous
Carboniferous

The Carboniferous is a geologic period that extends from the end of the Devonian period, about 359.2 ? 2.5 annum , to the beginning of the Permian period, about 299.0 ? 0.8 Ma ...
 and Permian
Permian

The PermianThe term "Permian" was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir Roderick Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil; Murchison asserted in 1841 that he named his "Permian system" after the ancient kingdom...
, Siberia
Siberia (continent)

Siberia is the craton located in the heart of the region of Siberia. Siberia or "Angaraland" is today the Central Siberian Plateau. It is an extremely ancient craton that formed an independent continent before the Permian...
 collided with Kazakhstania to form the Altai Mountains, later Baltica
Baltica

Baltica redirects here. For the Russian beer, see Baltika BreweriesBaltica is a name applied by geologists to a late-Proterozoic, early-Palaeozoic continent that now includes the East European craton of northwestern Eurasia....
 collided in the Ural orogeny, creating the basis for most of present-day Eurasia
Eurasia

Eurasia is a large landmass covering about 53,990,000 km? or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface . Often considered a single continent, Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia, concepts which date back to classical antiquity and the borders for which are somewhat arbitrary....
.

Kazakhstania is mainly flat: only in the east near Karaganda
Karaganda

Karaganda, also spelled Karagandy , is the capital of Karagandy Province in Kazakhstan. It is located at . It is the fourth most populous city in Kazakhstan, behind Almaty, Astana and Shymkent, with a population of 446,200 ....
 are there mountains and these only rise to 1,565 metres (5,130 feet) in the Tarbagatay Range. Although most of Kazakhstania is arid and practically no water flows from the region to the oceans, there is extensive grazing of cattle
Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
, sheep
Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
 and camels
Bactrian camel

The Bactrian Camel is a large even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of north eastern Asia. It is one of the two surviving species of camel....
 on the grasslands which cover most of the region today. Kazakhstania was too dry for extensive glaciation during the Quaternary
Quaternary

The Quaternary Period is the Geologic Time Scale period after the Neogene Period, spanning 1.805 +/- 0.005 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary includes two geologic epochs: the Pleistocene and the Holocene epoch ....
. Kazakhstania contains as much as a quarter of the world's proven uranium
Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-gray metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table that has the chemical symbol U and atomic number 92....
 reserves and is also one of the world's major source of lead
Lead

Lead is a main-group Chemical element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metal ....
, zinc
Zinc

Zinc is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a first-row transition metal of the group 12 element of the periodic table....
, and antimony
Antimony

Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb and atomic number 51. A metalloid, antimony has four allotropy forms. The stable form of antimony is a blue-white metalloid....
 ores. On the southern boundary in the Turan Depression
Turan Depression

The Turan Depression, Turan Lowland or Turanian Basin is a vast lowland desert Depression region stretching from southern Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan....
 are large deposits of natural gas
Natural gas

Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills....
 formed as a result of its collision with the Indian plate.

See also

  • List of Platforms, Shields and Cratons


External links