Khar-Us Lake

Khar-Us Lake (Mongolian:Хар-Ус нуур, lit. "black water 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 km^2 (28,800 sq mi)
Basin countries	Mongolia, Russia
Max. length	72.2 km (44.9 mi)
Max. width	36.5 km (22.7 mi)
Surface area	1,578 km^2 (609 sq mi)
Average depth	2.2 m (7 ft 3 in)
Max. depth	4.5 m (15 ft)
Water volume	3.432 km^3 (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