Morphodynamic development of the Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake Depression,Central Mongolia:Implications for the relationships of Faulting,Volcanic Activity,and Lake Depression Formation

Data on the origin and morphology of lake depressions caused by volcanism are scarce in Mongolia.Previous studies focused on climate change patterns based on Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake sediment.We present a result of existing reconstructions of lake depression development and changes in the hydrology system during the Khorgo volcanic activation and the Holocene environmental change.A depression of the Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake is formed by a lava flow barrier from the Khorgo volcano.However,the Khorgo volcanic eruption and the lake depression that could shape a large lake have arisen instead from a fault.The morphometric analysis and field measurements indicate that the derivation of the Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake depression and Khorgo volcano may have evolved from movement on a sinistral strike-slip fault,which is about 70 km long.The southern mountains and rivers were displaced from northwest to southeast along the Terkh Fault.The offset along Terkh Fault is 4.02-5.28 km in the depression of the Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake.After movement,a wide valley of the Terkh River developed in the present landscape.The active Khorgo Volcano formed along the Khorgo Fault.The Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake is formed by blocked water from the PaleoTerkh River after lava damming from the Khorgo Volcano.The initial paleo-lake area was about 195.7km^(2),which was three times larger than the modern lake.The current water volume of the Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake is 0.351 km^(3) while the volume of the paleo-lake was 2.248 km^(3).Based on this volume indicator the paleo-lake was 6.4 times larger than the current lake.Overflowing water from the lake depression formed the Suman River by a drying canyon through the lava plateau,but the canyon is along the Terkh Fault.Changes in the water volume of Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake and erosion of Suman River canyon are inversely related to each other.We present the morphometric relationships between the lava plateau of Khorgo Volcano and development of Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake depression.

An integrated methodology for soil moisture analysis using multispectral data in Mongolia

Soil moisture(SM)content is one of the most important environmental variables in relation to land surface climatology,hydrology,and ecology.Long-term SM data-sets on a regional scale provide reasonable information about climate change and global warming specific regions.The aim of this research work is to develop an integrated methodology for SM of kastanozems soils using multispectral satellite data.The study area is Tuv(48°40′30″N and 106°15′55″E)province in the forest steppe zones in Mongolia.In addition to this,land surface temperature(LST)and normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI)from Landsat satellite images were integrated for the assessment.Furthermore,we used a digital elevation model(DEM)from ASTER satellite image with 30-m resolution.Aspect and slope maps were derived from this DEM.The soil moisture index(SMI)was obtained using spectral information from Landsat satellite data.We used regression analysis to develop the model.The model shows how SMI from satellite depends on LST,NDVI,DEM,Slope,and Aspect in the agricultural area.The results of the model were correlated with the ground SM data in Tuv province.The results indicate that there is a good agreement between output SM and SM of ground truth for agricultural area.Further research is focused on moisture mapping for different natural zones in Mongolia.The innovative part of this research is to estimate SM using drivers which are vegetation,land surface temperature,elevation,aspect,and slope in the forested steppe area.This integrative methodology can be applied for different regions with forest and desert steppe zones.