2. Describe the climate of Jammu and Kashmir in about 80 words
Answers
Explanation:
the climate of Jammu Kashmir is more colder than the climate of Southern the temperature is between 1 to 10 degree there also happened snowfall which is really good for looking Kashmir is also known as the heaven of India
Jammu and Kashmir, union territory of India located in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent in the vicinity of the Karakoram and westernmost Himalayan mountain ranges. The territory is part of the larger region of Kashmir, which has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. Legislation passed in August 2019 set the stage for downgrading Jammu and Kashmir from statehood to union territory status and splitting off a part of it, known as the Ladakh region, into a separate union territory. The change went into effect on October 31 of that year, though several court cases affecting its status remained pending. The information that follows describes the former state of Jammu and Kashmir, including the Ladakh region
Jammu and Kashmir, formerly one of the largest princely states of India, is bounded to the northeast by the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang (China), to the east by the Tibet Autonomous Region (China) and the Chinese-administered portions of Kashmir, to the south by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, to the southwest by Pakistan, and to the northwest by the Pakistani-administered portion of Kashmir. The administrative capitals are Srinagar in summer and Jammu in winter. Area 39,146 square miles (101,387 square km). Pop. (2011) 12,541,302.
Land
The vast majority of the state’s territory is mountainous, and the physiography is divided into seven zones that are closely associated with the structural components of the western Himalayas. From southwest to northeast those zones consist of the plains, the foothills, the Pir Panjal Range, the Vale of Kashmir, the Great Himalayas zone, the upper Indus River valley, and the Karakoram Range. The climate varies from alpine in the northeast to subtropical in the southwest. A strong earthquake centred in neighbouring Pakistani-administered Kashmir killed hundreds in Jammu and Kashmir state in 2005.
The plains
The narrow zone of plains landscape in the Jammu region is characterized by interlocking sandy alluvial fans that have been deposited by streams discharging from the foothills and by a much-dissected pediment (eroded bedrock surface) covered by loams and loess (wind-deposited silt) of Pleistocene age (about 11,700 to 2,600,000 years old). Precipitation is low, amounting to about 15 to 20 inches (380 to 500 mm) per year, and it occurs mainly in the form of heavy but infrequent rain showers during the summer monsoon (June to September). The countryside has been almost entirely denuded of trees, and thorn scrub and coarse grass are the dominant forms of vegetation.
The Great Himalayas zone
Geologically complex and topographically immense, the Great Himalayas contain ranges with numerous peaks reaching elevations of 20,000 feet (6,100 metres) or higher, between which lie deeply entrenched remote valleys. The region was heavily glaciated during the Pleistocene Epoch, and remnant glaciers and snowfields are still present. The zone receives some rain from the southwest monsoon in the summer months—and the lower slopes are forested—but the mountains constitute a climatic divide, representing a transition from the monsoon climate of the Indian subcontinent to the dry continental climate of Central Asia.
The upper Indus River valley
The valley of the upper Indus River is a well-defined feature that follows the geologic strike (structural trend) westward from the Tibetan border to the point in the Pakistani sector of Kashmir where the river rounds the great mountainous mass of Nanga Parbat to run southward in deep gorges that cut across the strike. In its upper reaches the river is flanked by gravel terraces; each tributary builds an alluvial fan out into the main valley. The town of Leh stands on such a fan, 11,500 feet (3,500 metres) above sea level, with a climate characterized by an almost total lack of precipitation, by intense insolation (exposure to sunlight), and by great diurnal and annual ranges of temperature. Life depends on meltwater from the surrounding mountains, and vegetation is alpine (i.e., consists of species above the tree line), growing on thin soils.
The Karakoram Range
The great granite-gneiss massifs of the Karakoram Range—which straddles the Indian and Pakistani sectors of Kashmir—contain some of the world’s highest peaks. Those include K2 (also called Mount Godwin Austen) on the border of the Pakistani sector and one of the Chinese-administered enclaves, with an elevation of 28,251 feet (8,611 metres); at least 30 other peaks exceed 24,000 feet (7,300 metres). The range, which is still heavily glaciated, rises starkly from dry desolate plateaus that are characterized by extremes of temperature and shattered rock debris. The Karakoram, along with other areas in and around the Himalayan region, is often called the “roof of the world.”