Karasor (Kazakh: Қарасор; Russian: Карасор),[1][2] is a salt lake in Karkaraly District, Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan.[3][4]

Karasor
Қарасор
Sentinel-2 image of the lake in October 2021
Karasor
Location	Kazakh Uplands
Coordinates	49°53′N 75°23′E
Type	endorheic
Primary inflows	Taldy, Karasu, Yesenaman, Barak and Kemer
Primary outflows	none
Catchment area	8,750 square kilometers (3,380 sq mi)
Basin countries	Kazakhstan
Max. length	43 kilometers (27 mi)
Max. width	7.3 kilometers (4.5 mi)
Surface area	154 square kilometers (59 sq mi)
Average depth	2.5 meters (8 ft 2 in)
Max. depth	5 meters (16 ft)
Water volume	160,000,000 cubic meters (5.7×109 cu ft)
Residence time	UTC+6
Shore length1	103 kilometers (64 mi)
Surface elevation	622 meters (2,041 ft)
Islands	2
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

The lake is located 45 kilometers (28 mi) to the north of Karkaraly city. The nearest inhabited pace is Koyandy village, close to the eastern lakeshore.[5]

Geography

Karasor is an endorheic lake in the central Kazakh Uplands. It stretches from east to west to the north of the Karkaraly Range and to the south of the Ayr Mountains. It is the largest of the lakes at the bottom of a vast depression. Smaller lake Katynkol is located to the SW of the southern end, Saumalkol to the west, and Balyktykol 20 kilometers (12 mi) to the east. The shape of Karasor is sinuous, narrower in its central section. The bottom of the lake is mostly silt, with a smell of hydrogen sulfide. The lakeshores are generally clayey or pebbly, low and gently sloping, but in certain spots they are rocky, with cliffs reaching a height of 25 meters (82 ft). There are two little islands on the lake, Zhumyrtkaly and Araltabe.[1]

Fourteen small rivers flow into Karasor, including the Karkaralinka, Karsakpai, Taldy, Karasu, Yesenaman, Barak and Kemer. All of them dry up in the summer. The lake freezes in November and thaws in late April or early May.[5] During periods of drought the shallow eastern part of the lake may dry up, turning into a salt pan.[1]

Fauna

Every year at Karasor there is a large concentration of about 5,000 common shelducks during their moulting season.[6]

See also

• List of lakes of Kazakhstan

References

External links

• Media related to Karasor Lake at Wikimedia Commons
• Озера и реки Казахстана (in Russian)

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На других языках

[ru] Карасор (озеро, Карагандинская область)