Khar-Us Lake

Khar-Us Lake (Mongolian: Хар-Ус нуур, romanized: Har-Us nuur; ᠬᠠᠷ᠎ᠠᠤᠰᠤᠨᠠᠭᠤᠷ, "Black-Aqua Lake", is a lake in western Mongolia in the Great Lakes Depression. It is the upper one in a system of the interconnected lakes: Khar-Us, Khar, Dörgön, Airag and Khyargas. The lake is located in Har Us Nuur National Park.

Khar-Us Lake
Khar-Us Lake frozen, Khar Lake fragment is at the western edge of the image, Jargalant-Khaikhan Mounts are south from Lake Khar-Us (NASA astronauts image 2002-12-13).
Khar-Us Lake
Location	Khovd aimag, Mongolia
Coordinates	48°02′N 92°17′E
Type	freshwater
Primary inflows	Khovd River
Primary outflows	Chono Kharaikh gol
Catchment area	74,500 km2 (28,800 sq mi)
Basin countries	Mongolia
Max. length	72.2 km (44.9 mi)
Max. width	36.5 km (22.7 mi)
Surface area	1,578 km2 (609 sq mi)
Average depth	2.2 m (7 ft 3 in)
Max. depth	4.5 m (15 ft)
Water volume	3.432 km3 (2,782,000 acre⋅ft)
Surface elevation	1,156.7 m (3,795 ft)
Frozen	November - April
Islands	Agbash (Ak-Bashi)
Settlements	Dörgön
Ramsar Wetland
Designated	13 April 1999
Part of	Har Us Nuur National Park

Its area value (1,852 km²) includes the island Agbash (or Ak-Bashi, white head) area (274 km²), so the water surface area is 1,578 km² only.^[1]

Some sources are using different Khar-Us Lake Lake statistics values:^[2]

• Water level: 1,160.08 m
• Surface area: 1,496.6 km²
• Average depth: 2.1 m
• Volume: 3.12 km³.

Water balance of Khar-Us Lake^[2]
(Unit of water balance: mm/year)

Surface input		Surface output		Groundwater inflow- outflow	Retention time, years
Precipitation	Inflow	Evaporation	Outflow
56.4	1,979.2	942.7	675.3	-417.6	1.1

Primary inflow is the Khovd River, which creates a large river delta.

So called Genghis Khan's wall runs along the western shore of the Khar-Us Lake. It is possible to find it at the Google Map and Google Earth satellite maps 47°53′29″N 91°59′37″E.

References

1. "Khar-Us Nuur", Great Soviet Encyclopedia
2. "Surface Water of Mongolia", Gombo Davaa, Dambaravjaa Oyunbaatar, Michiaki Sugita