The Russian Plain is bounded in the east by a well-defined natural boundary - the Ural Mountains. These mountains have long been considered to be beyond the border of two parts of the world - Europe and Asia. Despite its low height, the Urals are quite well isolated as a mountainous country, which is greatly facilitated by the presence of low plains to the west and east of it - Russian and West Siberian.

"Ural" is a word of Turkic origin, which means "belt" in translation. Indeed, the Ural Mountains resemble a narrow belt or ribbon stretching across the plains of Northern Eurasia from the shores of the Kara Sea to the steppes of Kazakhstan. The total length of this belt from north to south is about 2000 km (from 68 ° 30 "to 51 ° N), and the width is 40-60 km and only in places more than 100 km. In the northwest through the Pai-Khoi ridge and the island of Vaigach Ural passes into the mountains of Novaya Zemlya, therefore, some researchers consider it as part of the Ural-Novaya Zemlya natural country.In the south, the continuation of the Urals are Mugodzhary.

Many Russian and Soviet researchers took part in the study of the Urals. The first of them were P. I. Rychkov and I. I. Lepekhin (second half of the 18th century). In the middle of the XIX century. E. K. Hoffman worked in the Northern and Middle Urals for many years. A great contribution to the knowledge of the landscapes of the Urals was made by Soviet scientists V. A. Varsanofyeva (geologist and geomorphologist) and I. M. Krasheninnikov (geobotanist).

The Urals is the oldest mining region in our country. In its depths there are huge reserves of a wide variety of minerals. Iron, copper, nickel, chromites, aluminum raw materials, platinum, gold, potassium salts, precious stones, asbestos - it is difficult to list everything that the Ural Mountains are rich in. The reason for such wealth is in the peculiar geological history of the Urals, which also determines the relief and many other elements of the landscape of this mountainous country.

Geological structure

The Ural is one of the ancient folded mountains. In its place in the Paleozoic, a geosyncline was located; the seas rarely then left its territory. They changed their boundaries and depth, leaving behind powerful layers of sediments. The Urals experienced several mountain building processes. The Caledonian folding, which manifested itself in the Lower Paleozoic (including the Salair folding in the Cambrian), although it covered a significant territory, was not the main one for the Ural Mountains. The main folding was Hercynian. It began in the Middle Carboniferous in the east of the Urals, and in the Permian it spread to the western slopes.

The most intense was the Hercynian folding in the east of the ridge. It manifested itself here in the formation of strongly compressed, often overturned and recumbent folds, complicated by large thrusts, leading to the appearance of scaly structures. Folding in the east of the Urals was accompanied by deep splits and intrusions of powerful granite intrusions. Some of the intrusions in the Southern and Northern Urals reach enormous sizes - up to 100-120 km long and 50-60 km wide.

Folding was much less vigorous on the western slope. Therefore, simple folds prevail there; overthrusts are rarely observed, there are no intrusions.

Geological structure of the Urals. I - Cenozoic group: 1 - Quaternary system; 2 - Paleogene; II. Mesozoic group: 3 - Cretaceous system; 4 - Triassic system; III. Paleozoic group: 5 - Permian system; 6 - coal system; 7 - Devonian system; 8 - Silurian system; 9 - Ordovician system; 10 - Cambrian system; IV. Precambrian: 11 - Upper Proterozoic (Riphean); 12 - lower and undivided by Proterozoic; 13 - archaea; V. Intrusions of all ages: 14 - granitoids; 15 - medium and basic; 16 - ultrabasic.

Tectonic pressure, which resulted in folding, was directed from east to west. The rigid foundation of the Russian platform prevented the spread of folding in this direction. The folds are most compressed in the area of ​​the Ufimsky plateau, where they are very complex even on the western slope.

After the Hercynian orogeny, folded mountains arose on the site of the Ural geosyncline, and the later tectonic movements here were in the nature of block uplifts and subsidence, which were accompanied in places, in a limited area, by intense folding and faults. In the Triassic-Jurassic, most of the territory of the Urals remained dry land, erosional processing of the mountainous relief took place, and coal-bearing strata accumulated on its surface, mainly along the eastern slope of the ridge. In the Neogene-Quaternary time, differentiated tectonic movements were observed in the Urals.

In tectonic terms, the entire Urals is a large meganticlinorium, consisting of a complex system of anticlinoria and synclinoria separated by deep faults. In the cores of anticlinoria, the most ancient rocks emerge - crystalline schists, quartzites and granites of the Proterozoic and Cambrian. In synclinoria, thick strata of Paleozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks are observed. From west to east in the Urals, a change in structural-tectonic zones is clearly traced, and with them a change in rocks that differ from one another in lithology, age and origin. These structural-tectonic zones are as follows: 1) zone of marginal and periclinal troughs; 2) zone of marginal anticlinoria; 3) zone of shale synclinories; 4) zone of the Central Ural anticliporium; 5) zone of Greenstone synclinorpy; 6) zone of the East Ural anticlinorium; 7) zone of the East Ural synclinorium1. The last two zones north of 59° N. sh. submerge, overlapping with Meso-Cenozoic deposits common in the West Siberian Plain.

The meridional zonality in the Urals is also subject to the distribution of minerals. Deposits of oil, coal (Vorkuta), potash salt (Solikamsk), rock salt, gypsum, bauxite (eastern slope) are associated with the Paleozoic sedimentary deposits of the western slope. Platinum deposits and pyrite ores gravitate towards intrusions of basic and ultrabasic rocks. The most famous locations of iron ores - mountains Magnitnaya, Blagodat, High - are associated with intrusions of granites and syenites. In granite intrusions, deposits of native gold and precious stones are concentrated, among which the Ural emerald has received world fame.

Orography and geomorphology

The Ural is a whole system of mountain ranges, stretched parallel to one another in the meridional direction. As a rule, there are two or three such parallel ranges, but in some places, with the expansion of the mountain system, their number increases to four or more. So, for example, the Southern Urals is orographically very complex between 55 and 54 ° N. sh., where there are at least six ridges. Between the ridges lie vast depressions occupied by river valleys.

The orography of the Urals is closely related to its tectonic structure. Most often, ridges and ridges are confined to anticlinal zones, and depressions are confined to synclinal ones. Inverted relief is less common, associated with the presence of rocks more resistant to destruction in synclinal zones than in adjacent anticlinal zones. Such a character has, for example, the Zilair plateau, or the South Ural plateau, within the Zilair synclinorium.

Lower areas are replaced in the Urals by elevated ones - a kind of mountain nodes, in which the mountains reach not only their maximum heights, but also their greatest width. It is remarkable that such knots coincide with the places where the strike of the Ural mountain system changes. The main ones are Subpolar, Middle Ural and South Ural. In the Subpolar node, which lies at 65 ° N, the Urals deviate from the southwestern direction to the south. Here rises the highest peak of the Ural Mountains - Mount Narodnaya (1894 m). The Middle Urals junction is located at about 60°N. sh., where the strike of the Urals changes from south to south-southeast. Among the peaks of this knot, Mount Konzhakovsky Kamen (1569 m) stands out. The South Ural node is located between 55 and 54 ° N. sh. Here the direction of the ridges of the Urals becomes south-western instead of south-western, and Iremel (1582 m) and Yamantau (1640 m) attract attention from the peaks.

A common feature of the relief of the Urals is the asymmetry of its western and eastern slopes. The western slope is gentle and passes into the Russian Plain more gradually than the eastern one, which steeply descends towards the West Siberian Plain. The asymmetry of the Urals is due to tectonics, the history of its geological development.

Another orographic feature of the Urals is associated with asymmetry - the displacement of the main watershed ridge separating the rivers of the Russian Plain from the rivers of Western Siberia to the east, closer to the West Siberian Plain. This ridge in different parts of the Urals has different names: Uraltau in the Southern Urals, Belt Stone in the Northern Urals. At the same time, it is not the highest almost everywhere; the largest peaks, as a rule, lie to the west of it. Such a hydrographic asymmetry of the Urals is the result of increased "aggressiveness" of the rivers of the western slope, caused by a sharper and faster uplift of the Cis-Urals in the Neogene compared to the Trans-Urals.

Even with a cursory glance at the hydrographic pattern of the Urals, the presence of sharp, elbow turns in most rivers on the western slope is striking. In the upper reaches of the river flow in the meridional direction, following the longitudinal intermountain depressions. Then they turn sharply to the west, sawing often high ridges, after which they again flow in the meridional direction or retain the old latitudinal direction. Such sharp turns are well expressed in Pechora, Shchugor, Ilych, Belaya, Aya, Sakmara and many others. It has been established that the rivers saw through the ridges in places where the axes of the folds are lowered. In addition, many of them, apparently, are older than mountain ranges, and their incision proceeded simultaneously with the uplift of the mountains.

A small absolute height determines the predominance of low-mountain and mid-mountain geomorphological landscapes in the Urals. The peaks of many ranges are flat, while some mountains are domed with more or less soft outlines of the slopes. In the Northern and Polar Urals, near the upper border of the forest and above it, where frosty weathering is vigorously manifested, stone seas (kurums) are widespread. For the same places, upland terraces are very characteristic, resulting from solifluction processes and frost weathering.

Alpine landforms are extremely rare in the Ural Mountains. They are known only in the most elevated parts of the Polar and Subpolar Urals. The bulk of modern glaciers of the Urals are connected with the same mountain ranges.

"Lednichki" is not an accidental expression in relation to the glaciers of the Urals. Compared to the glaciers of the Alps and the Caucasus, the Urals look like dwarfs. All of them belong to the cirque and cirque-valley type and are located below the climatic snow boundary. The total number of glaciers in the Urals is 122, and the entire area of ​​glaciation is only slightly more than 25 km2. Most of them are in the polar watershed part of the Urals between 67-68 ° N. sh. Caro-valley glaciers up to 1.5-2.2 km long have been found here. The second glacial region is located in the Subpolar Urals between 64 and 65°N. sh.

The main part of the glaciers is concentrated on the more humid western slope of the Urals. It is noteworthy that all Ural glaciers lie in cirques of eastern, southeastern, and northeastern exposures. This is explained by the fact that they are inspired, that is, they were formed as a result of the deposition of snowstorm snow in the wind shadow of mountain slopes.

The ancient Quaternary glaciation did not differ in great intensity in the Urals either. Reliable traces of it can be traced to the south no further than 61 ° N. sh. Such glacial landforms as kars, cirques and hanging valleys are quite well expressed here. At the same time, the absence of ram foreheads and well-preserved glacier-accumulative forms, such as drumlins, eskers, and terminal moraine ridges, draws attention. The latter suggests that the ice sheet in the Urals was thin and not active everywhere; significant areas, apparently, were occupied by slow-moving firn and ice.

A remarkable feature of the Ural relief is the ancient leveling surfaces. They were first studied in detail by V. A. Varsanofyeva in 1932 in the Northern Urals and later by others in the Middle and Southern Urals. Various researchers in different places of the Urals count from one to seven leveled surfaces. These ancient leveling surfaces serve as convincing proof of the uneven uplift of the Urals in time. The highest of them corresponds to the most ancient cycle of peneplanation, falling on the lower Mesozoic, the youngest, lower surface is of Tertiary age.

IP Gerasimov denies the existence of leveling surfaces of different ages in the Urals. In his opinion, there is only one leveling surface here, formed during the Jurassic-Paleogene and then subjected to deformation as a result of the latest tectonic movements and erosional erosion.

It is difficult to agree that for such a long time as the Jurassic-Paleogene, there was only one undisturbed denudation cycle. But I. P. Gerasimov is undoubtedly right, emphasizing the great role of neotectonic movements in the formation of the modern relief of the Urals. After the Cimmerian folding, which did not affect the deep Paleozoic structures, the Urals during the Cretaceous and Paleogene existed in the form of a strongly peneplanated country, on the outskirts of which there were also shallow seas. The modern mountain appearance of the Urals acquired only as a result of tectonic movements that took place in the Neogene and Quaternary period. Where they reached a large scale, now the highest mountains rise, and where tectonic activity was weak, ancient peneplains lie little changed.

Karst landforms are widespread in the Urals. They are characteristic of the western slope and Cis-Urals, where Paleozoic limestones, gypsums and salts karst. The intensity of karst manifestation here can be judged by the following example: for the Perm region, 15 thousand karst sinkholes have been described in detail surveyed 1000 km2. The largest in the Urals is the Sumgan Cave (Southern Urals), 8 km long, the Kungur Ice Cave with numerous grottoes and underground lakes is very famous. Other large caves are Divya in the area of ​​​​Polyudova Ridge and Kapova on the right bank of the Belaya River.

Climate

The huge length of the Urals from north to south is manifested in the zonal change of its climate types from tundra in the north to steppe in the south. The contrasts between north and south are most pronounced in summer. The average air temperature in July in the north of the Urals is 6-8°, and in the south about 22°. In winter, these differences smooth out, and the average January temperature is equally low both in the north (-20°) and in the south (-15, -16°).

The small height of the mountain belt with its insignificant width cannot cause the formation of its own special climate in the Urals. Here, in a slightly modified form, the climate of the neighboring plains is repeated. But the types of climate in the Urals seem to be shifting to the south. For example, the mountain-tundra climate continues to dominate here at a latitude where the taiga climate is already common in adjacent lowland areas; the mountain-taiga climate is distributed at the latitude of the forest-steppe climate of the plains, etc.

The Urals are stretched across the direction of the prevailing westerly winds. In this regard, its western slope encounters cyclones more often and is better moistened than its eastern one; on average, it receives precipitation 100-150 mm more than the eastern one. So, the annual amount of precipitation in Ki-zel (260 m above sea level) is 688 mm, Ufa (173 m) is 585 mm; on the eastern slope in Sverdlovsk (281 m) it is 438 mm, in Chelyabinsk (228 m) - 361 mm. Very clearly, the differences in the amount of precipitation between the western and eastern slopes can be traced in winter. If on the western slope the Ural taiga is buried in snowdrifts, then on the eastern slope there is little snow all winter. Thus, the average maximum thickness of the snow cover along the line Ust-Shchugor - Saranpaul (to the north of 64 ° N) is as follows: in the Ural part of the Pechora lowland - about 90 cm, at the western foot of the Urals - 120-130 cm, in the watershed part of the western slope Ural - more than 150 cm, on the eastern slope - about 60 cm.

Most precipitation - up to 1000, and according to some sources - up to 1400 mm per year - falls on the western slope of the Subpolar, Polar and northern parts of the Southern Urals. In the extreme north and south of the Ural Mountains, their number decreases, which is associated, as in the Russian Plain, with the weakening of cyclonic activity.

The rugged mountainous relief causes an exceptional variety of local climates. Mountains of unequal height, slopes of different exposure, intermountain valleys and basins - all of them have their own special climate. In winter and during the transitional seasons of the year, cold air rolls down the slopes of the mountains into depressions, where it stagnates, resulting in the phenomenon of temperature inversion, which is very common in the mountains. In the Ivanovsky mine (856 m abs. alt.), in winter the temperature is higher or the same as in Zlatoust, located 400 m below the Ivanovsky mine.

Climatic features in a number of cases determine a pronounced inversion of vegetation. In the Middle Urals, broad-leaved species (holly maple, elm, linden) are found mainly in the middle part of the mountain slopes and avoid the frost-prone lower parts of the mountain slopes and hollows.

Rivers and lakes

The Urals has a developed river network belonging to the basins of the Caspian, Kara and Barents Seas.

The magnitude of the river runoff in the Urals is much greater than in the adjacent Russian and West Siberian plains. Opa increases when moving from the southeast to the northwest of the Urals and from the foothills to the tops of the mountains. The river runoff reaches its maximum in the most humid, western part of the Polar and Subpolar Urals. Here, the average annual runoff module in some places exceeds 40 l / s per 1 km 2 of the area. A significant part of the Mountain Urals, located between 60 and 68 ° N. sh., has a drain module of more than 25 l / s. The runoff module sharply decreases in the southeastern Trans-Urals, where it is only 1-3 l/sec.

In accordance with the distribution of runoff, the river network on the western slope of the Urals is better developed and more abundant than on the eastern slope. The rivers of the Pechora basin and the northern tributaries of the Kama are the most water-bearing, the Ural River is the least water-bearing. According to the calculations of A. O. Kemmerich, the volume of the average annual runoff from the territory of the Urals is 153.8 km 3 (9.3 l / s from 1 km 2 of area), of which 95.5 km 3 (62%) falls on the Pechora basin and Kama.

An important feature of most of the rivers of the Urals is the relatively low variability of the annual runoff. The ratio of the annual water discharges of the most abundant year to the water discharges of the least water year usually ranges from 1.5 to 3. The exception is the forest-steppe and steppe rivers of the Southern Urals, where this ratio increases significantly.

Many rivers of the Urals suffer from industrial waste pollution, so the issues of protection and purification of river waters are especially relevant here.

There are relatively few lakes in the Urals and their areas are small. The largest lake Argazi (basin of the river Miass) has an area of ​​101 km2. According to the genesis, the lakes are grouped into tectonic, glacial, karst, suffusion ones. Glacial lakes are confined to the mountain belt of the Subpolar and Polar Urals, lakes of suffusion-subsidence origin are common in the forest-steppe and steppe Trans-Urals. Some tectonic lakes, subsequently developed by glaciers, have significant depths (such is the deepest lake in the Urals, Big Shchuchye - 136 m).

Several thousand reservoir ponds are known in the Urals, including 200 industrial ponds.

Soils and vegetation

The soils and vegetation of the Urals exhibit a special, mountain-latitudinal zonality (from the tundra in the north to the steppes in the south), which differs from the zonality on the plains in that the soil-vegetation zones are shifted far to the south. In the foothills, the barrier role of the Urals is noticeably affected. Thus, as a result of the barrier factor in the Southern Urals (foothills, lower parts of the mountain slopes), instead of the usual steppe and southern forest-steppe landscapes, forest and northern forest-steppe landscapes were formed (F. A. Maksyutov).

The extreme north of the Urals from the foot to the peaks is covered with mountain tundra. However, very soon (to the north of 67°N) they pass into a high-altitude landscape belt, being replaced at the foothills by mountain taiga forests.

Forests are the most common type of vegetation in the Urals. They stretch like a solid green wall along the ridge from the Arctic Circle to 52 ° N. sh., interrupted at high peaks by mountain tundra, and in the south - at the foot - by steppes.

These forests are diverse in composition: coniferous, broad-leaved and small-leaved. The Ural coniferous forests have a completely Siberian appearance: in addition to Siberian spruce (Picea obovata) and pine (Pinus silvestris), they also contain Siberian fir (Abies sibirica), Sukachev's larch (Larix sucaczewii) and Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica). The Urals does not present a serious obstacle for the distribution of Siberian conifers; they all cross the ridge, and the western border of their range runs along the Russian Plain.

Coniferous forests are most common in the northern part of the Urals, north of 58 ° N. sh. True, they are also found further south, but their role here is sharply reduced, as the areas of small-leaved and broad-leaved forests increase. The least demanding coniferous species in terms of climate and soils is Sukachev's larch. It goes farther than other rocks to the north, reaching 68 ° N. sh., and together with the pine further than others, it spreads to the south, only a little short of the latitudinal segment of the Ural River.

Despite the fact that the range of larch is so extensive, it does not occupy large areas and almost does not form pure stands. The main role in the coniferous forests of the Urals belongs to spruce and fir plantations. A third of the forest region of the Urals is occupied by pine, plantations of which, with an admixture of Sukachev's larch, gravitate towards the eastern slope of the mountainous country.

1 - arctic tundra; 2 - tundra gley; 3 - gley-podzolic (surface-gleyed) and illuvial-humus podzolic; 4 - podzolic and podzols; 5 - sod-podzolic; 6 - podzolic-marsh; 7 - peat-bog (upland bogs); 8 - humus-peat-marsh (lowland and transitional bogs); 9 - sod-carbonate; 10 - gray forest and - leached and podzolized chernozems; 12 - typical chernozems (fat medium thick); 13 - ordinary chernozems; 14 - ordinary chernozems solonetzic; 15 - southern chernozems; 16 - southern solonetsous chernozems, 17 - meadow chernozems (mostly solonetsous); 18 - dark chestnut; 19 - solonetzes 20 - alluvial (floodplain), 21 - mountain tundra; 22 - mountain meadow; 23 - mountain-taiga podzolic and acid non-podzolized; 24 - mountain-forest, gray; 25 - mountain chernozems.

Broad-leaved forests play a significant role only on the western slope of the Southern Urals. They occupy approximately 4-5% of the area of ​​the forest Urals - oak, linden, maple, elm (Ulmus scabra). All of them, with the exception of linden, do not go further east than the Urals. But the coincidence of the eastern border of their distribution with the Urals is an accidental phenomenon. The advance of these rocks into Siberia is hindered not by the severely destroyed Ural Mountains, but by the Siberian continental climate.

Small-leaved forests are scattered throughout the Urals, mostly in its southern part. Their origin is twofold - primary and secondary. Birch is one of the most common species in the Urals.

Mountain podzolic soils of varying degrees of swampiness are developed under the forests. In the south of the region of coniferous forests, where they acquire a southern taiga appearance, typical mountain podzolic soils give way to mountain soddy podzolic soils.

The main zonal divisions of the vegetation cover on the plains adjacent to the Urals and their mountain counterparts (according to P. L. Gorchakovsky). Zones: I - tundra; II - forest-tundra; III - taiga with subzones: a - preforest-tundra sparse forests; b - northern taiga; c - middle taiga; d - southern taiga; e - preforest-steppe pine and birch forests; IV - broad-leaved forest with subzones: a - mixed broad-leaved-coniferous forests; b - deciduous forests; V - forest-steppe; VI - steppe. Borders: 1 - zones; 2 - subzones; 3 - Ural mountain country.

Further south, under the mixed, broad-leaved and small-leaved forests of the Southern Urals, gray forest soils are widespread.

The farther south, the higher and higher the forest belt of the Urals rises into the mountains. Its upper limit in the south of the Polar Urals lies at an altitude of 200 - 300 m, in the Northern Urals - at an altitude of 450 - 600 m, in the Middle Urals it rises to 600 - 800 m, and in the Southern Urals - up to 1100 - 1200 m.

Between the mountain-forest belt and treeless mountain tundra stretches a narrow transitional belt, which P. L. Gorchakovsky calls the subbalt. In this belt, thickets of shrubs and twisted low-growing forests alternate with clearings of wet meadows on dark mountain meadow soils. The winding birch (Betula tortuosa), cedar, fir and spruce entering here form a dwarf form in places.

Altitudinal zonality of vegetation in the Ural mountains (according to P. L. Gorchakovsky).

A - the southern part of the Polar Urals; B - northern and central parts of the Southern Urals. 1 - belt of cold bald deserts; 2 - mountain-tundra belt; 3 - subalpine belt: a - birch thickets in combination with park fir-spruce forests and meadow glades; b - subalpine larch woodlands; c - subalpine park fir-spruce forests in combination with meadow glades; d - subalpine oak forests in combination with meadow glades; 4 - mountain-forest belt: a - mountain larch forests of preforest-tundra type; b - mountain spruce forests of preforest-tundra type; c - mountain fir-spruce southern taiga forests; d - mountain pine and birch steppe forests derived from them; e - mountain broad-leaved (oak, purple, maple) forests; 5 - belt of mountain forest-steppe.

South of 57° N. sh. first, on the foothill plains, and then on the slopes of the mountains, the forest belt is replaced by forest-steppe and steppe on chernozem soils. The extreme south of the Urals, like its extreme north, is treeless. Mountain chernozem steppes, interrupted in places by mountain forest-steppe, cover the entire range here, including its peneplanated axial part. In addition to mountain-podzolic soils in the axial part of the Northern and partly the Middle Urals, peculiar mountain-forest acidic non-podzolized soils are widespread. They are characterized by an acid reaction, unsaturation with bases, a relatively high content of humus and its gradual decrease with depth.

Animal world

The fauna of the Urals is composed of three main complexes: tundra, forest and steppe. Following vegetation, northern animals in their distribution along the Ural mountain belt move far to the south. Suffice it to say that until recently the reindeer lived in the Southern Urals, and the brown bear still sometimes comes to the Orenburg region from the mountainous Bashkiria.

Typical tundra animals inhabiting the Polar Urals include reindeer, arctic fox, hoofed lemming (Dycrostonyx torquatus), Middendorf's vole (Microtus middendorfi), partridges (white - Lagopus lagopus, tundra - L. mutus); in summer there are a lot of waterfowl (ducks, geese).

The forest complex of animals is best preserved in the Northern Urals, where it is represented by taiga species: brown bear, sable, wolverine, otter (Lutra lutra), lynx, squirrel, chipmunk, red-backed vole (Clethrionomys rutilus); from birds - hazel grouse and capercaillie.

The distribution of steppe animals is limited to the Southern Urals. As on the plains, there are many rodents in the steppes of the Urals: ground squirrels (small - Citelluspigmaeus and reddish - C. major), large jerboa (Allactaga jaculus), marmot, steppe pika (Ochotona pusilla), common hamster (Cricetuscricetus), common vole (Microtus arvalis) and others. Of the predators, the wolf, corsac fox, and steppe polecat are common. Birds are diverse in the steppe: steppe eagle (Aquila nipa-lensis), steppe harrier (Circus macrourus), kite (Milvus korschun), bustard, little bustard, saker falcon (Falco cherruy), gray partridge (Рrdix perdix), demoiselle crane ( Anthropoides virgo), horned lark (Otocorus alpestris), black lark (Melanocorypha yeltoniensis).

Of the 76 species of mammals known in the Urals, 35 species are commercial.

From the history of the development of landscapes in the Urals

In the Paleogene, on the site of the Ural Mountains, a low hilly plain rose, resembling the modern Kazakh hills. From the east and south it was surrounded by shallow seas. The climate was then hot, evergreen tropical forests and dry woodlands with palms and laurels grew in the Urals.

By the end of the Paleogene, the evergreen Poltava flora was supplanted by the Turgai deciduous flora of temperate latitudes. Already at the very beginning of the Neogene, forests of oak, beech, hornbeam, chestnut, alder, and birch dominated in the Urals. Great changes during this period take place in the relief: as a result of vertical uplifts, the Urals from a small hillock turns into a middle-mountainous country. Along with this, altitudinal differentiation of vegetation occurs: the tops of the mountains are captured by the mountain taiga, the vegetation of the loaches is gradually formed, which is facilitated by the restoration in the Neogene of the continental connection of the Urals with Siberia, the birthplace of the mountain tundra.

At the very end of the Neogene, the Akchagyl Sea approached the southwestern slopes of the Urals. The climate at that time was cold, the ice age was approaching; coniferous taiga became the dominant type of vegetation.

In the era of the Dnieper glaciation, the northern half of the Urals hid under the ice cover, and the south at that time was occupied by cold birch-pine-larch forest-steppe, sometimes spruce forests, and near the valley of the Ural River and along the slopes of the General Syrt, the remains of broad-leaved forests remained.

After the death of the glacier, the forests moved to the north of the Urals, and the role of dark coniferous species increased in their composition. In the south, broad-leaved forests became more common, while the birch-pine-larch forest-steppe gradually degraded. Birch and larch groves found in the Southern Urals are direct descendants of those birch and larch forests that were characteristic of the cold Pleistocene forest-steppe.

In the mountains it is impossible to distinguish landscape zones similar to the plains, so mountainous countries are divided not into zones, but into mountainous landscape areas. Their selection is made on the basis of geological, geomorphological and bioclimatic features, as well as the structure of altitudinal zonality.

Landscape areas of the Urals

Tundra and forest-tundra region of the Polar Urals

The tundra and forest-tundra region of the Polar Urals extends from the northern margin of the Ural belt to 64 ° 30 "N. Lat. Together with the Pai-Khoi ridge, the Polar Urals form an arc with its convex side facing east. The axial part of the Polar Urals runs at 66 ° E. - 7° east of the Northern and Middle Urals.

The Pai-Khoi ridge, which is a small hillock (up to 467 m), is separated from the Polar Urals by a strip of lowland tundra. Actually, the Polar Urals begins with a low mountain Konstantinov Kamen (492 m) on the shore of the Baydaratskaya Bay. To the south, the height of the mountains increases sharply (up to 1200-1350m), and Mount Pai-Er north of the Arctic Circle has a height of 1499 m. The maximum heights are concentrated in the southern part of the region at about 65 ° N. sh., where Mount Narodnaya rises (1894 m). Here, the Polar Urals expands greatly - up to 125 km, while breaking up into at least five or six parallel elongated ridges, the most significant of which are Research in the west and Narodo-Itinsky in the east. In the south of the Polar Urals, the Sablya mountain range (1425 m) advanced far to the west towards the Pechora Lowland.

In the formation of the relief of the Polar Urals, the role of frosty weathering is exceptionally great, accompanied by the formation of stone placers - kurums and structural (polygonal) soils. Permafrost and frequent fluctuations in the temperature of the upper soil layers in summer contribute to the development of solifluction processes.

The predominant type of relief here is a flattened plateau-like surface with traces of ice cover, dissected along the margins by deep trough-like valleys. Peaked alpine forms are found only on the highest mountain peaks. Alpine relief is better represented only in the very south of the Polar Urals, in the region of 65 ° N. sh. Here, in the region of the Narodnaya and Sablya mountains, modern glaciers are found, the peaks of the mountains end in sharp, jagged ridges, and their slopes are corroded by steep-walled cirques and cirques.

The climate of the Polar Urals is cold and humid. Summer is cloudy, rainy, the average July temperature at the foot is 8-14°. Winter is long and cold (average January temperature is below -20°C), with blizzards sweeping huge snowdrifts in depressions. Permafrost is a common occurrence here. The annual amount of precipitation increases in a southerly direction from 500 to 800 mm.

The soil and vegetation cover of the Polar Urals is monotonous. In its northern part, the plain tundra merges with the mountainous one. In the foothills, moss, lichen and shrub tundra spread, in the central part of the mountainous region - stony placers, almost devoid of vegetation. Forests are found in the south, but their role in the landscape is insignificant. The first low-growing larch sparse forests are found along the river valleys of the eastern slope at about 68°N. sh. The fact that they appear for the first time on the eastern slope is not accidental: there is less snow here, the climate is generally continental, and therefore more favorable for the forest compared to the western slope. Near the Arctic Circle, spruce forests join the larch forests, at 66 ° N. sh. cedar begins to come across, south of 65 ° N. sh. - pine and fir. On Mount Saber, spruce-fir forests rise to 400-450 m above sea level, higher they are replaced by larch woodlands and meadows, which at an altitude of 500-550 m turn into mountain tundra.

It has been noted that near the Arctic Circle, spruce and larch forests grow better on the ridge itself than in the foothills and on the plains covered with forest-tundra woodlands. The reason for this is the better drainage of the mountains and temperature inversion.

The Polar Urals is still poorly developed economically. But even this remote mountainous region is being gradually transformed by the Soviet people. It is crossed from west to east by a railway line connecting Ust-Vorkuta with Salekhard.

Taiga region of the Northern Urals

This region of the Urals extends from 64° 30" N to 59° 30" N. sh. It starts immediately to the south of the Saber mountain range and ends with the Konzhakovsky Kamen peak (1569 m). Throughout this section, the Urals stretches strictly along the meridian 59 ° E. d.

The central, axial part of the Northern Urals has an average height of about 700 and consists mainly of two longitudinal ridges, of which the eastern, watershed, is known as Poyasovy Kamen. On the western ridge south of 64 ° N. sh. the two-headed mountain Telpos-Iz (Stone of the winds) rises - the highest peak of the region (1617 m). Alpine landforms are not widespread in the Northern Urals, most of the peaks are domed.

Three or four ancient leveling surfaces are distinctly expressed in the Northern Urals. Another, no less characteristic feature of the relief is the wide distribution of upland terraces, developed mainly above the upper forest line or near it. The number and size of terraces, their width, length and height of the ledge are not the same not only on different mountain peaks, but also on different slopes of the same mountain.

From the west, the axial part of the Northern Urals is bordered by a wide strip of foothills formed by low, flat-topped ridges of Paleozoic rocks. Such ridges, stretched parallel to the main ridge, received the name Parm (High Parma, Ydzhidparma, etc.).

The strip of foothills on the eastern slope of the Northern Urals is less wide than on the western one. It is represented here by low (300-600 m) ridges of strongly crumpled Devonian rocks cut by intrusions. The transverse valleys of the Northern Sosva, Lozva and their tributaries divide these ranges into short isolated massifs.

The climate of the Northern Urals is cold and humid, but it is less severe than the climate of the Polar Urals. The average temperature in the foothills rises to 14 - 16°C. There is a lot of precipitation - up to 800 mm or more (on the western slope), which significantly exceeds the evaporation rate. Therefore, there are many swamps in the Northern Urals.

The Northern Urals differ sharply from the Polar Urals in the nature of vegetation and soils: tundra and bare rocks dominate in the Polar Urals, forests with a narrow green border cling to the foothills, and even then only in the south of the region, and in the Northern Urals the mountains are completely covered with dense coniferous taiga; treeless tundra is found only on isolated ridges and peaks rising above 700-800 m above sea level.

The taiga of the Northern Urals is dark coniferous. The championship belongs to the Siberian spruce; fir dominates on more fertile and drained soils, and cedar dominates on marshy and stony soils. As in the Russian Plain, the taiga of the Northern Urals is dominated by green moss spruce forests, and among them are blueberry spruce forests, which, as you know, are characteristic of the landscape of a typical (middle) taiga. Only near the Polar Urals (to the north of 64°N), at the foot of the mountains, does the typical taiga give way to the northern taiga, with more sparse and swampy forests.

The area of ​​pine forests in the Northern Urals is small. Green moss forests acquire landscape significance only on the eastern slope south of 62°N. sh. Their development is facilitated here by a drier continental climate and the presence of stony gravelly soils.

Sukachev's larch, common in the Polar Urals, is rarely observed in the Northern Urals, and, moreover, almost exclusively as an admixture with other conifers. It is somewhat more common at the upper border of the forest and in the subalpine belt, which is especially characterized by birch crooked forests, and in the north of the region - thickets of shrubby alder.

The coniferous taiga vegetation of the Northern Urals determines the features of its soil cover. This is an area of ​​distribution of mountain podzolic soils. In the north, in the foothills, gley-podzolic soils are common, in the south, in a typical taiga zone, podzolic soils. Along with typical podzols, weakly podzolic (hidden podzolic) soils are often found. The reason for their appearance is the presence of aluminum in the absorbing soil complex and the weak energy of microbiological processes. In the south of the region in the axial part of the Urals, at an altitude of 400 to 800 m, mountain-forest acidic non-podzolized soils are developed, which form on the eluvium and deluvium of greenstone rocks, amphibolites and granites. In different places on Devonian limestones, "northern carbonate soils" are described, boiling up at a depth of 20-30 cm.

The most characteristic representatives of the taiga fauna are concentrated in the Northern Urals. Only here is found sable adhering to cedar forests. The wolverine, the red-gray vole (Clethrionomys rufocanus) almost do not go south of the Northern Urals, and among the birds - the nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes), waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus), spruce crossbill (Loxia curvirostra), hawk owl (Surnia ulula). Until now, the reindeer is known here, which is no longer found in the Middle and Southern Urals.

In the upper reaches of the Pechora, along the western slopes of the Urals and the adjacent Pechora lowland, there is one of the largest in our country, the Pechoro-Ilych State Reserve. It protects the landscapes of the mountain taiga of the Urals, passing in the west into the middle taiga of the Russian Plain.

In the vast expanses of the Northern Urals, virgin mountain-taiga landscapes still prevail. Human intervention becomes noticeable only in the south of this region, where such industrial centers as Ivdel, Krasnovishersk, Severouralsk, Karpinsk are located.

The region of the southern taiga and mixed forests of the Middle Urals

This region is bounded by the latitudes of Konzhakovsky Kamen in the north (59c30" N) and Yurma Mountain (55C25" N) in the south. The Middle Urals are well isolated orographically; The Ural Mountains are lowered here, and the strictly meridional strike of the mountain belt is replaced by a south-southeast one. Together with the Southern Urals, the Middle Urals forms a giant arc, with its convex side turned to the east, the arc goes around the Ufimsky plateau - the eastern ledge of the Russian platform.

The latest tectonic movements had little effect on the Middle Urals. Therefore, it appears before us in the form of a low peneplain with isolated, softly defined peaks and ridges, composed of the densest crystalline rocks. The railway line Perm - Sverdlovsk crosses the Urals at an altitude of 410 m. The elevation of the highest peaks is 700-800 m, rarely more.

Due to the severe destruction, the Middle Urals essentially lost its watershed significance. The Chusovaya and Ufa rivers start on its eastern slopes and saw through its axial part. River valleys in the Middle Urals are relatively wide and developed. Only in some places picturesque steeps and cliffs hang right above the riverbed.

The zone of western and eastern foothills in the Middle Urals is even wider than in the Northern. The western foothills abound in karst forms resulting from the dissolution of Paleozoic limestone and gypsum. The Ufa plateau, dissected by the deep valleys of the Aya and Yuryuzan rivers, is especially famous for them. The landscape feature of the eastern foothills is formed by lakes of tectonic and partially karst origin. Two groups stand out among them: Sverdlovskaya (lakes Ayatskoye, Tavotuy, Isetskoye) and Kaslinskaya (lakes Itkul, Irtyash, Uvildy, Argazi). The lakes, having picturesque shores, attract a lot of tourists.

Climatically, the Middle Urals are more favorable for humans than the North. Summers are warmer and longer here, and at the same time, precipitation is less. The average July temperature in the foothills is 16-18°, the annual precipitation is 500-600 mm, in the mountains in some places more than 600 mm. These climatic changes have an immediate impact on soils and vegetation. The foothills of the Middle Urals in the north are covered with southern taiga, and to the south - with forest-steppe. The steppe nature of the Middle Urals is much stronger along the eastern slope. If on the western slope there are only individual forest-steppe islands surrounded on all sides by the southern taiga (Kungursky and Krasnoufimsky), then in the Trans-Urals the forest-steppe goes in a continuous strip up to 57 ° 30 "N. latitude.

However, the Middle Urals itself is an area not of a forest-steppe, but of a forest landscape. Forests here completely cover the mountains; in contrast to the Northern Urals, only very few mountain peaks rise above the upper border of the forest. The main background is provided by spruce-pelt-fir southern taiga forests, interrupted by pine forests on the eastern slope of the ridge. In the south-west of the region there are mixed coniferous-broad-leaved forests, which include a lot of linden. Throughout the Middle Urals, especially in its southern half, birch forests are widespread, many of which arose on the site of a cut down spruce-fir taiga.

Under the southern taiga forests of the Middle Urals, as well as on the plains, soddy-podzolic soils are developed. At the foothills in the south of the region, they are replaced by gray forest soils, in some places by leached chernozems, and in the upper part of the forest belt by mountain forest and acid non-podzolized soils, which we have already met in the south of the Northern Urals.

The animal world is changing significantly in the Middle Urals. Due to the warmer climate and the diverse composition of forests, it is enriched with southern species. Along with the taiga animals living in the Northern Urals, there are common hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), steppe and black polecat (Putorius putorius), common hamster (Cricetus cricetus), badger (Meles meles) is more common; nightingale (Luscinia luscinia), nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus), oriole (Oriolus oriolus), greenfinch (Chloris chloris) join the birds of the Northern Urals; the fauna of reptiles becomes much more diverse: legless spindle lizard (Angnis fragilis), viviparous lizard, common snake, copperhead (Coronella austriaca) appear.

Clearly expressed foothills make it possible to distinguish three landscape provinces in the region of the southern taiga and mixed forests of the Middle Urals.

The province of the Middle Cis-Urals occupies an elevated (up to 500-600 m) plain - a plateau, densely indented by river valleys. The core of the province is the Ufa Plateau. Its landscape feature lies in the wide development of karst (failure funnels, lakes, caves), associated with the dissolution of the Upper Paleozoic limestones and gypsum. Despite the increased moisture, there are few swamps, which is explained by good drainage. The vegetation cover is dominated by southern taiga spruce-fir and mixed (dark-coniferous-broad-leaved) forests, in some places disturbed by islands of the northern forest-steppe.

The central province of the Middle Urals corresponds to the axial, most elevated part of the Ural Mountains, which is characterized here by a relatively low altitude and almost continuous forest cover (dark coniferous and small-leaved forests).

The province of the Middle Trans-Urals is an elevated plain - peneplain, gently descending to the east, towards the West Siberian Plain. Its surface is disturbed by remnant hills and ridges composed of granites and gneisses, as well as by numerous lake basins. In contrast to the Cis-Urals, pine and pine-larch forests dominate here, and in the north, significant areas are covered with swamps. In connection with the general increase in dryness and continentality of the climate here, further north than in the Cis-Urals, the forest-steppe, which has a Siberian appearance (with birch pegs), is advancing.

The Middle Urals is the most densely populated landscape region of the Ural Mountains. Here is the bulk of the old industrial cities of the Urals, including Sverdlovsk, Nizhny Tagil, etc. Therefore, the virgin forest landscapes in many places of the Middle Urals have not been preserved.

Forest-steppe and steppe region of the Southern Urals with a wide development of forest high-altitude belts

The Southern Urals occupies the territory from Mount Yurma in the north to the latitudinal section of the Ural River in the south. It differs from the Middle Urals in significant heights, reaching 1582 m (Mount Iremel) and 1640 m (Mount Yamantau). As in other parts of the Urals, the Uraltau watershed ridge, composed of crystalline schists, is shifted to the east and is not the highest in the Southern Urals. The predominant type of relief is mid-mountain. Some bald peaks rise above the upper border of the forest. They are flat, but with steep rocky slopes, complicated by upland terraces. Recently, on the Zigalga Ridge, on the Iremel and some other high peaks of the Southern Urals, traces of ancient glaciation (trough valleys, remains of kars and moraines) have been discovered.

To the south of the latitudinal section of the Belaya River, a general drop in altitude is observed. The South Ural peneplain is clearly expressed here - a highly elevated plain with a folded base, dissected by deep canyon-like valleys of the Sakmara, Guberli and other tributaries of the Urals. Erosive dismemberment in places gave the peneplain a wild, picturesque appearance. Such are the Guberlinsky mountains on the right bank of the Urals, below the city of Orsk, composed of igneous gabbro-peridotite rocks. In other areas, different lithology caused the alternation of large meridional ridges (absolute heights of 450-500 m and more) and wide depressions.

In the east, the axial part of the Southern Urals passes into the Trans-Ural peneplain - a lower and smoother plain compared to the South Ural peneplain. In its alignment, in addition to the processes of general denudation, the abrasion and accumulative activity of the Paleogene Sea was important. The foothill parts are characterized by ridge hills with ridged-hilly plains. In the north of the Trans-Ural peneplain, many lakes with picturesque rocky shores are scattered.

The climate of the Southern Urals is drier and more continental than the Middle and Northern Urals. Summer is warm, with droughts and dry winds in the Urals. The average July temperature in the foothills rises to 20-22°. Winter continues to be cold, with significant snow cover. In cold winters, rivers freeze to the bottom and ice forms, mass death of moles and some birds is observed. Precipitation is 400-500 mm per year, in the mountains in the north up to 600 mm or more.

Soils and vegetation in the Southern Urals show a distinct altitudinal zonality. The low foothills in the extreme south and southeast of the region are covered with cereal steppes on ordinary and southern chernozems. Thickets of steppe shrubs are very typical for the Cis-Ural steppes: chiliga (Caragana frutex), blackthorn (Prunus stepposa), and in the Trans-Ural steppes, along granite outcrops, there are pine forests with birch and even larch.

In addition to the steppes, the forest-steppe zone is widespread in the Southern Urals. It occupies the entire South Ural peneplain, the small hills of the Trans-Urals, and in the north of the region it descends to the low foothills.

The forest-steppe is not the same on the western and eastern slopes of the ridge. The west is characterized by broad-leaved forests with linden, oak, Norway maple, smooth elm (Ulmus laevis) and elm. In the east and in the center of the ridge, light birch groves, pine forests and larch plantations predominate; Pribelsky district is occupied by pine forests and small-leaved forest. Due to the dissected relief and the variegated lithological composition of the rocks, forests and forb steppe are intricately combined here, and the highest areas with outcrops of dense bedrock are usually covered with forests.

The birch and pine-deciduous forests of the zone are sparse (especially on the eastern slopes of the Uraltau), strongly lightened, so many steppe plants penetrate under their canopy and there is almost no sharp line between the steppe and forest flora in the Southern Urals. Soils developed under light forests and mixed grass steppe - from gray forest to leached and typical chernozems - are characterized by a high content of humus. It is interesting to note that the highest humus content, reaching 15–20%, is observed not in typical chernozems, but in mountain podzolized ones, which is possibly associated with the meadow stage of development of these soils in the past.

Spruce-fir taiga on mountain-podzolic soils forms the third soil-vegetation zone. It is distributed only in the northern, most elevated part of the Southern Urals, occurring at an altitude of 600 to 1000-1100 m.

At the highest peaks there is a zone of mountain meadows and mountain tundra. The peaks of the Iremel and Yamantau mountains are covered with spotted tundra. High in the mountains, breaking away from the upper border of the taiga, there are groves of low-growing spruce forests and birch crooked forests.

The fauna of the Southern Urals is a motley mixture of taiga-forest and steppe species. In the forests of the Bashkir Urals, brown bear, elk, marten, squirrel, capercaillie, hazel grouse are common, and next to them in the open steppe live ground squirrel (Citellus citellus,), jerboa, bustard, little bustard. In the Southern Urals, the ranges of not only northern and southern, but also western and eastern species of animals overlap one another. So, along with the garden dormouse (Elyomys quercinus) - a typical inhabitant of the broad-leaved forests of the west - in the Southern Urals you can find such eastern species as the small (steppe) pika or Eversmann's hamster (Allocrlcetulus eversmanni).

The mountain forest landscapes of the Southern Urals are very picturesque with patches of meadow glades, less often - rocky steppes on the territory of the Bashkir State Reserve. One of the sections of the reserve is located on the Uraltau ridge, the second - on the South Kraka mountain range, the third section, the lowest, is Pribelsky.

There are four landscape provinces in the Southern Urals.

Province of the Southern Cis-Urals covers the elevated ridges of the General Syrt and the low foothills of the Southern Urals. The rugged relief and continental climate contribute to a sharp manifestation of the vertical differentiation of landscapes: the ridges and foothills are covered with broad-leaved forests (oak, linden, elm, Norway maple) growing on gray forest soils, and relief depressions, especially wide floodplain terraces of rivers, are covered with steppe vegetation on chernozem soils. soils. The southern part of the province is a syrt steppe with dense thickets of dereznyaks on the slopes.

To Mid-mountain province of the Southern Urals belongs to the central mountainous part of the region. On the highest peaks of the province (Yamantau, Iremel, the Zigalga Range, etc.), the bald and pre-bald belts are clearly expressed with extensive stone placers and upland terraces on the slopes. The forest zone is formed by spruce-fir and pine-larch forests, in the southwest - coniferous-broad-leaved forests. In the north-east of the province, on the border with the Trans-Urals, the low Ilmensky Range rises - a mineralogical paradise, according to A.E. Fersman. Here is one of the oldest state reserves in the country - Ilmensky named after V. I. Lenin.

Low-mountain province of the Southern Urals includes the southern part of the Ural Mountains from the latitudinal section of the Belaya River in the north to the Ural River in the south. Basically, this is the South Ural peneplain - a plateau with small absolute marks - about 500-800 m above sea level. Its relatively flat surface, often covered with ancient weathering crust, is dissected by deep river valleys in the Sakmara basin. Forest-steppe landscapes predominate, and steppe landscapes in the south. In the north, large areas are covered with pine-larch forests; everywhere, and especially in the east of the province, birch groves are common.

Province of the Southern Trans-Urals forms an elevated, undulating plain corresponding to the Trans-Ural peneplain, with a wide distribution of sedimentary rocks, sometimes interrupted by granite outcrops. In the eastern, slightly dissected part of the province, there are many basins - steppe depressions, in some places (in the north) - shallow lakes. The Southern Trans-Urals is distinguished by the driest, continental climate in the Urals. The annual amount of precipitation in the south is less than 300 mm, with an average July temperature of about 22°. The landscape of treeless steppes prevails on ordinary and southern chernozems; occasionally, along granite outcrops, pine forests are found. In the north of the province, a birch-spear forest-steppe is developed. Significant areas in the Southern Trans-Urals are plowed under wheat crops.

The Southern Urals is rich in iron, copper, nickel, pyrite ores, ornamental stones and other minerals. During the years of Soviet power, the old industrial cities here grew unrecognizably and changed and new centers of socialist industry appeared - Magnitogorsk, Mednogorsk, Novotroitsk, Sibay, etc. In terms of the degree of disturbance of natural landscapes, the Southern Urals in many places approaches the Middle Urals.

The intensive economic development of the Urals was accompanied by the appearance and growth of areas of anthropogenic landscapes. Field agricultural landscapes are typical for the lower altitudinal belts of the Middle and Southern Urals. Even more widespread, including the forest belt and the Polar Urals, are meadow-pasture complexes. Almost everywhere you can find artificial forest plantations, as well as birch and aspen forests that have arisen on the site of reduced spruce forests, fir forests, pine forests and oak forests. On the Kama, the Urals and other rivers, large reservoirs have been created, along small rivers and hollows - ponds. In places of open-pit mining of brown coal, iron ores and other minerals, there are significant areas of quarry-dump landscapes, in areas of underground mining, sinkholes of pseudokarst are common.

The unique beauty of the Ural Mountains attracts tourists from all over the country. Particularly picturesque are the valleys of the Vishera, Chusovaya, Belaya and many other large and small rivers with their noisy, talkative water and bizarre cliffs - "stones". Vishera's "stones" steeped in legends remain in memory for a long time: Vetlan, Poljud, Pomenny. Unusual, sometimes fantastic underground landscapes of the Kungur ice cave-reserve leave no one indifferent. Climbing the peaks of the Urals, such as Iremel or Yamantau, is always of great interest. The view that opens from there on the wavy forested Ural distances lying below will reward for all the hardships of the mountain climb. In the Southern Urals, in the immediate vicinity of the city of Orsk, the Guberlinsky Mountains, a low-mountainous hillock, the “Pearl of the Southern Urals”, attract attention with their unique landscapes, and not without reason, it is customary to call Lake Turgoyak, located at the western foothills of the Ilmensky Mountains. The lake (an area of ​​about 26 km 2), which is distinguished by highly indented rocky shores, is used for recreation.

From the book Physical Geography of the USSR, F.N. Milkov, N.A. Gvozdetsky. M. Thought. 1976.

Journey to the Cis-Urals and to the western slope of the Ural Mountains was made by schoolchildren of the geographical club "Raimantau" in the first ten days of August. As part of the grant project of the Russian Geographical Society "From Ik to Yaik", the children visited the geographical sights of the capital of Bashkortostan - Ufa, the solitary mountains Malaya and Bolshaya Serpentine, Shalashovskaya and Kiselevskaya caves.

A large-scale research expedition of Bashkir schoolchildren "From Ik to Yaik" is carried out with the grant support of the Russian Geographical Society. During the year, the children will have to cross the Republic of Bashkortostan from west to east, from the Ik River to the Ural River (the old name is Yaik).

Project objectives:

• study of changes in the landscapes of Bashkortostan;
• expeditionary research along four routes;
• practical study of geography in field conditions;
• accumulation of geographical knowledge about the native land;
• carrying out ecological observations and drawing the attention of the population to the problems of environmental protection;
• organization of active and educational recreation for schoolchildren;
• promotion among young people of a healthy lifestyle and travel around their native land.

The end point of the Pre-Ural route was the city of Asha, located in the Chelyabinsk region, on the border with Bashkortostan. On the way to it, making a transfer to the train in Ufa, young travelers decided to get acquainted with the geography of the largest city of Bashkiria. Their first object was the Museum of Geology and Minerals, in the showcases of which more than three thousand samples of rocks and minerals are collected. By visiting the museum, you can get an idea of ​​the richest mineral wealth of Bashkortostan, due to the difference in geological structure: the western part of the republic has a platform structure, and the eastern part is folded. In the west there are large deposits of oil, gas, coal, rock salt, and in the east - iron ore, zinc, copper and gold. The children most of all liked the most colorful section - "Colored Stones and Minerals", which represents the richest collection of South Ural jaspers. In the museum you can take a picture next to the map of Bashkiria, made of ornamental and semi-precious stones from various deposits of the republic.

After visiting the museum, the expedition members went to the Dudkinskaya ferry across the Ufa River. Previously, there was a busy place here - the Siberian Highway began, and now a boat transports only summer residents through the crossing. Nearby, in the high forested coastal slope of Ufimka, there is the Dudkinskaya adit.

On the way to it, the expedition members examined a section of the Permian rocks that make up the Ufa Peninsula - a hilly area between the Belaya and Ufa rivers. The Dudka gypsum mine was developed from the 1920s to the fifties. It is a complex 2500-meter labyrinth of drifts with a vault height of up to 4 meters. In places in the roof you can see natural karst cavities, and not far from the adit, the guys found several karst sinkholes.

Karst processes caused by the dissolution of gypsum with water are one of the main problems of Ufa. Over the past hundred years, more than three hundred karst failures have been recorded on the Ufa Peninsula. In Ufa, cracks often form in houses due to ground movements. The walls of some buildings are pulled together with metal belts, and several high-rise buildings had to be dismantled.

After admiring the coast of the Ufa River and climbing a narrow serpentine, the expedition members went to the city center. Their next goal is to search for the house where the famous polar navigator lived Valerian Ivanovich Albanov, who was born on May 26, 1882 in Ufa, and in 1904 graduated from the St. Petersburg Distant Navigation School. In 1912, he was invited as a navigator to the expedition of Georgy Brusilov on the schooner "Saint Anna", the purpose of which was to pass the Northern Sea Route.

Off the western coast of Yamal, the ship was jammed with ice and began its two-year drift in a north-westerly direction. On April 10, 1914, due to the threat of starvation, part of the crew - 11 people led by the navigator Albanov - left the schooner.

Four months later, only two participants in the transition - Albanov and sailor Konrad managed to break through the hummocky ice and wide open waters to the Franz Josef Land archipelago, the rest died. The fate of the crew that remained on the St. Anna is still unknown. The materials of Brusilov's expedition delivered by Albanov became an important contribution to the geography of the Arctic Ocean, and the navigator's book "To the South, to Franz Josef Land" aroused great interest among readers in Russia and abroad. Valerian Albanov and the schooner "Saint Anna" served as prototypes for navigator Ivan Klimov and the ship "Saint Maria" in Veniamin Kaverin's novel "Two Captains".

And now, the expedition members are on Aksakov Street, near the walls of a one-story house that does not have a number. Having entered a small grocery store on the right side of the building, they found out that this is the same house number 6, in which, as confirmed by Ufa local historians, the famous polar navigator spent his childhood. Unfortunately, there is no plaque about Valerian Albanov on the house, the house does not have the status of a historical and architectural monument and, therefore, can be demolished, like many old houses in the center of Ufa.

The next point of the expedition was the Malaya and Bolshaya Zmeinaya mountains, located next to the Sim River, on the border with the Chelyabinsk region. These lone mountains owe their origin to the ancient Perm Sea, which washed the western slopes of the then young Urals, and are fossil reefs (coral islands) that arose about 300 million years ago.

The most famous Permian reefs are the Sterlitamak shikhans. But there are others in Bashkortostan that are less famous and unexplored. These include the Snake Mountains, located just 70 kilometers east of Ufa. From the Serpentine Mountains, a panorama of the advanced Ural Ranges opens, in front of which, within the city of Asha, another reef mass rises - Lime Mountain, a natural monument of the Chelyabinsk region.

On Mount Malaya Zmeinaya there is a quarry for the extraction of building stone. The expedition members applied to the administration of the enterprise with a request for permission to visit the quarry in order to search for samples of fossil fauna on its territory (explosive work is underway in the quarry). They received permission to explore and an accompanying mountain foreman. Within a few hours, the guys discovered ancient fossils: brachiopods, ammonoids, sea lilies, sponges and corallites. The collected samples of fossil organisms of the early Permian sea basin will become exhibits of the school geographical cabinet-museum. The expedition members also visited Mount Bolshaya Zmeinaya, 280 meters high, the slope of which descends steeply to the Sim River. The mountain, covered with linden forest, remains untouched by human activity. Perhaps it should be preserved as a natural monument?

Sedimentary rocks predominate on the western slopes of the Southern Urals - limestones, dolomites and marls. They are easily soluble in water, and therefore hundreds of caves are located here. The expedition members visited the Kiselevskaya and Shalashovskaya caves, located near the city of Asha. The narrow mountain valley of the Sim River opening outside the city with steep cliffs, from which avalanches descend on the railway passing here in winter, and rockfalls in summer, is figuratively called the "Gate of the Urals".

To get to the Kiselyovskaya cave, you need to climb the steep path up the Kiselevskaya ravine. The entrance to the cave is an inclined well, which you need to descend carefully, but it is better to use rope insurance. The length of the cave is 1260 meters, its largest grotto, the Banquet Hall, reaches a length of more than 100 meters, a width of up to 40, and a ceiling height of 10 meters. The floor in the cave is covered with blocks of limestone, there are many clay areas. In the cave, the guys observed a variety of sinter formations: stalactites, stalagmites, scallops, snow-white calcite streaks, cave pearls.

The entrance to the Shalashovskaya cave is located at the end of a blind karst ravine at the bottom of a large sinkhole, the inlet of which is 10 meters wide and 1.5 meters high. Entering it, the guys crawled through a low passage and ended up in the main gallery, along which a small stream runs, forming small erosion pots filled with water under two-meter ledges. In the main gallery there are small grottoes, the walls and vaults of which are covered with bluish-white sintered calcite formations. The total length of the passages of the Shalashovskaya cave is 225 meters.

After spending the night in the forest near the Shalashovskaya cave, the members of the expedition "From Ik to Yaik" went by train home from Chelyabinsk Asha, located on the eastern border of Bashkortostan, to Tuymazy, located at the western borders of the republic.

The material was prepared by the head of the expedition, geography teacher I.M. Danilko

Ural mountains- the mountain range that crosses Russia from north to south is the border between two parts of the world and the two largest parts (macro-regions) of our country - European and Asian.

Geographical position of the Ural Mountains

The Ural Mountains stretch from north to south, mainly along the 60th meridian. In the north they bend towards the northeast, towards the Yamal Peninsula, in the south they turn towards the southwest. One of their features is that the mountainous territory expands as you move from north to south (this can be clearly seen on the map on the right). In the very south, in the region of the Orenburg region, the Ural Mountains connect with nearby elevations, such as General Syrt.

Strange as it may seem, the exact geological boundary of the Ural Mountains (hence the exact geographic boundary between Europe and Asia) still cannot be accurately determined.

The Ural Mountains are conditionally divided into five regions: Polar Urals, Subpolar Urals, Northern Urals, Middle Urals and Southern Urals.

To one degree or another, part of the Ural Mountains is captured by the following regions (from north to south): Arkhangelsk Region, Komi Republic, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Perm Territory, Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Republic of Bashkortostan, Orenburg Region , as well as part of Kazakhstan.

Professor D.N. Anuchin in the 19th century wrote about the variety of landscapes of the Urals:

“From the Konstantinovsky stone in the north to the Mugodzhar mountains in the south, the Urals show a different character in different latitudes. Wild, with rocky peaks in the north, it becomes forest, with more rounded outlines in the middle part, it becomes rocky again in the Kyshtym Urals, and especially near Zlatoust and beyond, where the high Iremel rises. And these charming lakes of the Trans-Urals, bordered from the west by a beautiful line of mountains. These rocky shores of Chusovaya with its dangerous "fighters", these rocks of Tagil with their mysterious "scribes", these beauties of the southern, Bashkir Urals, how much material they provide for a photographer, painter, geologist, geographer!

Origin of the Ural Mountains

The Ural Mountains have a long and complex history. It begins back in the Proterozoic era - such an ancient and little-studied stage in the history of our planet that scientists do not even divide it into periods and epochs. Approximately 3.5 billion years ago, on the site of future mountains, a rupture of the earth's crust occurred, which soon reached a depth of more than ten kilometers. Over the course of almost two billion years, this fault widened, so that about 430 million years ago an ocean up to a thousand kilometers wide was formed. However, soon after this, the convergence of lithospheric plates began; the ocean disappeared relatively quickly, and mountains formed in its place. It happened about 300 million years ago - this corresponds to the era of the so-called Hercynian folding.

New large uplifts in the Urals resumed only 30 million years ago, during which the Polar, Subpolar, Northern and Southern parts of the mountains were raised by almost a kilometer, and the Middle Urals by about 300-400 meters.

At present, the Ural Mountains have stabilized - no major movements of the earth's crust are observed here. Nevertheless, to this day they remind people of their active history: from time to time earthquakes happen here, and very large ones (the strongest had an amplitude of 7 points and was recorded not so long ago - in 1914).

Features of the structure and relief of the Urals

From a geological point of view, the Ural Mountains are very complex. They are formed by breeds of various types and ages. In many ways, the features of the internal structure of the Urals are associated with its history, for example, traces of deep faults and even sections of the oceanic crust are still preserved.

The Ural Mountains are medium and low in height, the highest point is Mount Narodnaya in the Subpolar Urals, reaching 1895 meters. In profile, the Ural Mountains resemble a depression: the highest ridges are located in the north and south, and the middle part does not exceed 400-500 meters, so that when crossing the Middle Urals, you can not even notice the mountains.

View of the Main Ural Range in the Perm Territory. Author of the photo - Yulia Vandysheva

It can be said that the Ural Mountains were “unlucky” in terms of height: they were formed in the same period as Altai, but subsequently experienced much less strong uplifts. The result - the highest point of Altai, Mount Belukha, reaches four and a half kilometers, and the Ural Mountains are more than two times lower. However, such an "elevated" position of Altai turned into a danger of earthquakes - the Urals in this respect is much safer for life.

Despite relatively low altitudes, the Ural Range serves as an obstacle to air masses moving mainly from the west. More precipitation falls on the western slope than on the eastern slope. In the mountains themselves, in the nature of the vegetation, altitudinal zonation is pronounced.

Typical vegetation of the mountain tundra belt in the Ural Mountains. The picture was taken on the slope of Mount Humboldt (Main Ural Range, Northern Urals) at an altitude of 1310 meters. Author of the photo - Natalia Shmaenkova

The long, continuous struggle of volcanic forces against the forces of wind and water (in geography, the former are called endogenous, and the latter exogenous) has created a huge number of unique natural attractions in the Urals: rocks, caves and many others.

The Urals is also known for its vast reserves of minerals of all types. This is, first of all, iron, copper, nickel, manganese and many other types of ores, building materials. The Kachkanar iron deposit is one of the largest in the country. Although the metal content in the ore is low, it contains rare, but very valuable metals - manganese, vanadium.

In the north, in the Pechora coal basin, hard coal is mined. There are noble metals in our region - gold, silver, platinum. Undoubtedly, Ural precious and semi-precious stones are widely known: emeralds mined near Yekaterinburg, diamonds, gems of the Murzinskaya strip, and, of course, Ural malachite.

Unfortunately, many valuable old deposits have already been depleted. "Magnetic mountains", containing large reserves of iron ore, have been turned into quarries, and malachite reserves have been preserved only in museums and in the form of separate inclusions at the site of old mines - it is hardly possible to find even a three-hundred-kilogram monolith now. Nevertheless, these minerals largely ensured the economic power and glory of the Urals for centuries.

Film about the Ural Mountains:

The Urals is a geographical region in Russia located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. The territory of the Urals - the Ural Mountains which can be divided into: Polar Urals, Subpolar Urals, Northern Urals, Middle Urals, Southern Urals.

The territory of the Urals, general characteristics

Most of the territory of the Urals is occupied by the Ural Mountains, which are the border between the European and Asian parts of Russia. Ural - The Russian Plain is bounded in the east by a well-defined natural boundary - the Ural Mountains. The Ural Mountains have long been considered to be beyond the border of two parts of the world - Europe and Asia. Despite its low height, the Urals are quite well isolated as a mountainous country, which is greatly facilitated by the presence of low plains to the west and east of it - Russian and West Siberian.

« Ural"- a word of Turkic origin, which means "belt" in translation. Indeed, the Ural Mountains resemble a narrow belt or ribbon stretching across the plains of Northern Eurasia from the shores of the Kara Sea to the steppes of Kazakhstan. The total length of this belt from north to south is about 2000 km (from 68 ° 30 "to 51 ° N), and the width is 40-60 km and only in places more than 100 km. In the northwest through the Pai-Khoi ridge and the island of Vaigach Ural passes into the mountains of Novaya Zemlya, therefore, some researchers consider it as part of the Ural-Novaya Zemlya natural country.In the south, the continuation of the Urals are Mugodzhary.
Many Russian and Soviet researchers took part in the study of the Urals. The first of them were P. I. Rychkov and I. I. Lepekhin (second half of the 18th century). In the middle of the XIX century. E. K. Hoffman worked in the Northern and Middle Urals for many years. A great contribution to the knowledge of the landscapes of the Urals was made by Soviet scientists V. A. Varsanofyeva (geologist and geomorphologist) and I. M. Krasheninnikov (geobotanist).

The Urals is the oldest mining region in our country. In its depths there are huge reserves of a wide variety of minerals. Iron, copper, nickel, chromites, aluminum raw materials, platinum, gold, potassium salts, precious stones, asbestos - it is difficult to list everything that the Ural Mountains are rich in. The reason for such wealth is in the peculiar geological history of the Urals, which also determines the relief and many other elements of the landscape of this mountainous country.

The Urals is a geographical region in Russia located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. From north to south, according to the nature of the relief and landscape, and other climatic features, the territory of the Urals can be divided into:, and.

Geological structure

The Ural is one of the ancient folded mountains. In its place in the Paleozoic there was a geosyncline; the seas rarely then left its territory. They changed their boundaries and depth, leaving behind powerful layers of sediments. The Urals experienced several mountain building processes. The Caledonian folding, which manifested itself in the Lower Paleozoic (including the Salair folding in the Cambrian), although it covered a significant territory, was not the main one for the Ural Mountains. The main folding was Hercynian. It began in the Middle Carboniferous in the east of the Urals, and in the Permian it spread to the western slopes.
The most intense was the Hercynian folding in the east of the ridge. It manifested itself here in the formation of strongly compressed, often overturned and recumbent folds, complicated by large thrusts, leading to the appearance of scaly structures. Folding in the east of the Urals was accompanied by deep splits and intrusions of powerful granite intrusions. Some of the intrusions in the Southern and Northern Urals reach enormous sizes - up to 100-120 km long and 50-60 km wide.
Folding was much less vigorous on the western slope. Therefore, simple folds prevail there; overthrusts are rarely observed, there are no intrusions.
Tectonic pressure, which resulted in folding, was directed from east to west. The rigid foundation of the Russian platform prevented the spread of folding in this direction. The folds are most compressed in the area of ​​the Ufimsky plateau, where they are very complex even on the western slope.
After the Hercynian orogeny, folded mountains arose on the site of the Ural geosyncline, and the later tectonic movements here were in the nature of block uplifts and subsidence, which were accompanied in places, in a limited area, by intense folding and faults. In the Triassic-Jurassic, most of the territory of the Urals remained dry land, erosional processing of the mountainous relief took place, and coal-bearing strata accumulated on its surface, mainly along the eastern slope of the ridge. In the Neogene-Quaternary time, differentiated tectonic movements were observed in the Urals.
In tectonic terms, the entire Urals is a large meganticlinorium, consisting of a complex system of anticlinoria and synclinoria separated by deep faults. In the cores of anticlinoria, the most ancient rocks emerge - crystalline schists, quartzites and granites of the Proterozoic and Cambrian. In synclinoria, thick strata of Paleozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks are observed. From west to east in the Urals, a change in structural-tectonic zones is clearly traced, and with them a change in rocks that differ from one another in lithology, age and origin.

These structural-tectonic zones are as follows:
1) zone of marginal and periclinal troughs;
2) zone of marginal anticlinoria;
3) zone of shale synclinories;
4) zone of the Central Ural anticliporium;
5) zone of Greenstone synclinorpy;
6) zone of the East Ural anticlinorium;
7) zone of the East Ural synclinorium.
The last two zones north of 59° N. sh. submerge, overlapping with Meso-Cenozoic deposits common in the West Siberian Plain.
The meridional zonality in the Urals is also subject to the distribution of minerals. Deposits of oil, coal (Vorkuta), potash salt (Solikamsk), rock salt, gypsum, bauxite (eastern slope) are associated with the Paleozoic sedimentary deposits of the western slope. Platinum deposits and pyrite ores gravitate towards intrusions of basic and ultrabasic rocks. The most famous locations of iron ores - mountains Magnitnaya, Blagodat, High - are associated with intrusions of granites and syenites. In granite intrusions, deposits of native gold and precious stones are concentrated, among which the Ural emerald has received world fame.

Orography and geomorphology

Ural Mountains - Ural- this is a whole system of mountain ranges, elongated parallel to one another in the meridional direction. As a rule, there are two or three such parallel ranges, but in some places, with the expansion of the mountain system, their number increases to four or more. So, for example, the Southern Urals is orographically very complex between 55 and 54 ° N. sh., where there are at least six ridges. Between the ridges lie vast depressions occupied by river valleys.
The orography of the Urals is closely related to its tectonic structure. Most often, ridges and ridges are confined to anticlinal zones, and depressions are confined to synclinal ones. Inverted relief is less common, associated with the presence of rocks more resistant to destruction in synclinal zones than in adjacent anticlinal zones. Such a character has, for example, the Zilair plateau, or the South Ural plateau, within the Zilair synclinorium.
Lower areas are replaced in the Urals by elevated ones - a kind of mountain nodes, in which the mountains reach not only their maximum heights, but also their greatest width. It is remarkable that such knots coincide with the places where the strike of the Ural mountain system changes. The main ones are Subpolar, Middle Ural and South Ural. In the Subpolar node, which lies at 65 ° N, the Urals deviate from the southwestern direction to the south. Here rises the highest peak of the Ural Mountains - Mount Narodnaya (1894 m). The Middle Urals junction is located at about 60°N. sh., where the strike of the Urals changes from south to south-southeast. Among the peaks of this knot, Mount Konzhakovsky Kamen (1569 m) stands out. The South Ural node is located between 55 and 54 ° N. sh. Here the direction of the ridges of the Urals becomes south-western instead of south-western, and Iremel (1582 m) and Yamantau (1640 m) attract attention from the peaks.
A common feature of the relief of the Urals is the asymmetry of its western and eastern slopes. The western slope is gentle and passes into the Russian Plain more gradually than the eastern one, which steeply descends towards the West Siberian Plain. The asymmetry of the Urals is due to tectonics, the history of its geological development.
Another orographic feature of the Urals is associated with asymmetry - the displacement of the main watershed ridge separating the rivers of the Russian Plain from the rivers of Western Siberia to the east, closer to the West Siberian Plain. This ridge in different parts of the Urals has different names: Uraltau on the , Belt Stone on the . At the same time, it is not the highest almost everywhere; the largest peaks, as a rule, lie to the west of it. Such a hydrographic asymmetry of the Urals is the result of increased "aggressiveness" of the rivers of the western slope, caused by a sharper and faster uplift of the Cis-Urals in the Neogene compared to the Trans-Urals.
Even with a cursory glance at the hydrographic pattern of the Urals, the presence of sharp, elbow turns in most rivers on the western slope is striking. In the upper reaches of the river flow in the meridional direction, following the longitudinal intermountain depressions. Then they turn sharply to the west, sawing often high ridges, after which they again flow in the meridional direction or retain the old latitudinal direction. Such sharp turns are well expressed in Pechora, Shchugor, Ilych, Belaya, Aya, Sakmara and many others. It has been established that the rivers saw through the ridges in places where the axes of the folds are lowered. In addition, many of them, apparently, are older than mountain ranges, and their incision proceeded simultaneously with the uplift of the mountains.
A small absolute height determines the predominance of low-mountain and mid-mountain geomorphological landscapes in the Urals. The peaks of many ranges are flat, while some mountains are domed with more or less soft outlines of the slopes. In the Northern and Polar Urals, near the upper border of the forest and above it, where frosty weathering is vigorously manifested, stone seas (kurums) are widespread. For the same places, upland terraces are very characteristic, resulting from solifluction processes and frost weathering.
Alpine landforms are extremely rare in the Ural Mountains. They are known only in the most elevated parts of the Polar and Subpolar Urals. The bulk of modern glaciers of the Urals are connected with the same mountain ranges.
"Lednichki" is not an accidental expression in relation to the glaciers of the Urals. Compared to the glaciers of the Alps and the Caucasus, the Urals look like dwarfs. All of them belong to the cirque and cirque-valley type and are located below the climatic snow boundary. The total number of glaciers in the Urals is 122, and the entire area of ​​glaciation is only slightly more than 25 km2. Most of them are in the polar watershed part of the Urals between 67-68 ° N. sh. Caro-valley glaciers up to 1.5-2.2 km long have been found here. The second glacial region is located in the Subpolar Urals between 64 and 65°N. sh.
The main part of the glaciers is concentrated on the more humid western slope of the Urals. It is noteworthy that all Ural glaciers lie in cirques of eastern, southeastern, and northeastern exposures. This is explained by the fact that they are inspired, that is, they were formed as a result of the deposition of snowstorm snow in the wind shadow of mountain slopes.
The ancient Quaternary glaciation did not differ in great intensity in the Urals either. Reliable traces of it can be traced to the south no further than 61 ° N. sh. Such glacial landforms as kars, cirques and hanging valleys are quite well expressed here. At the same time, the absence of ram foreheads and well-preserved glacier-accumulative forms, such as drumlins, eskers, and terminal moraine ridges, draws attention. The latter suggests that the ice sheet in the Urals was thin and not active everywhere; significant areas, apparently, were occupied by slow-moving firn and ice.
A remarkable feature of the Ural relief is the ancient leveling surfaces. They were first studied in detail by V. A. Varsanofyeva in 1932 in the Northern Urals and later by others in the Middle and Southern Urals. Various researchers in different places of the Urals count from one to seven leveled surfaces. These ancient leveling surfaces serve as convincing proof of the uneven uplift of the Urals in time. The highest of them corresponds to the most ancient cycle of peneplanation, falling on the lower Mesozoic, the youngest, lower surface is of Tertiary age.
IP Gerasimov denies the existence of leveling surfaces of different ages in the Urals. In his opinion, there is only one leveling surface here, formed during the Jurassic-Paleogene and then subjected to deformation as a result of the latest tectonic movements and erosional erosion.
It is difficult to agree that for such a long time as the Jurassic-Paleogene, there was only one undisturbed denudation cycle. But I. P. Gerasimov is undoubtedly right, emphasizing the great role of neotectonic movements in the formation of the modern relief of the Urals. After the Cimmerian folding, which did not affect the deep Paleozoic structures, the Urals during the Cretaceous and Paleogene existed in the form of a strongly peneplanated country, on the outskirts of which there were also shallow seas. The modern mountain appearance of the Urals acquired only as a result of tectonic movements that took place in the Neogene and Quaternary period. Where they reached a large scale, now the highest mountains rise, and where tectonic activity was weak, ancient peneplains lie little changed.
Karst landforms are widespread in the Urals. They are characteristic of the western slope and Cis-Urals, where Paleozoic limestones, gypsums and salts karst. The intensity of manifestation of karst here can be judged by the following example: for the Perm region, 15 thousand karst sinkholes have been described in detail surveyed 1000 km2. The largest in the Urals is the Sumgan cave () 8 km long, the Kungur ice cave with numerous grottoes and underground lakes is very famous. Other large caves are Divya in the area of ​​​​Polyudova Ridge and Kapova on the right bank of the Belaya River.

Climate

The huge length of the Urals from north to south is manifested in the zonal change of its climate types from tundra in the north to steppe in the south. The contrasts between north and south are most pronounced in summer. The average air temperature in July in the north of the Urals is 6-8°, and in the south about 22°. In winter, these differences smooth out, and the average January temperature is equally low both in the north (-20°) and in the south (-15, -16°).
The small height of the mountain belt with its insignificant width cannot cause the formation of its own special climate in the Urals. Here, in a slightly modified form, the climate of the neighboring plains is repeated. But the types of climate in the Urals seem to be shifting to the south. For example, the mountain-tundra climate continues to dominate here at a latitude where the taiga climate is already common in adjacent lowland areas; the mountain-taiga climate is distributed at the latitude of the forest-steppe climate of the plains, etc.
The Urals are stretched across the direction of the prevailing westerly winds. In this regard, its western slope encounters cyclones more often and is better moistened than its eastern one; on average, it receives precipitation 100-150 mm more than the eastern one. So, the annual amount of precipitation in Kizel (260 m above sea level) is 688 mm, in Ufa (173 m) - 585 mm; on the eastern slope in Sverdlovsk (281 m) it is 438 mm, in Chelyabinsk (228 m) - 361 mm. Very clearly, the differences in the amount of precipitation between the western and eastern slopes can be traced in winter. If on the western slope the Ural taiga is buried in snowdrifts, then on the eastern slope there is little snow all winter. Thus, the average maximum thickness of the snow cover along the line Ust-Shchugor - Saranpaul (to the north of 64 ° N) is as follows: in the Ural part of the Pechora lowland - about 90 cm, at the western foot of the Urals - 120-130 cm, in the watershed part of the western slope Ural - more than 150 cm, on the eastern slope - about 60 cm.
Most precipitation - up to 1000, and according to some sources - up to 1400 mm per year - falls on the western slope of the Subpolar, Polar and northern parts of the Southern Urals. In the extreme north and south of the Ural Mountains, their number decreases, which is associated, as in the Russian Plain, with the weakening of cyclonic activity.
The rugged mountainous relief causes an exceptional variety of local climates. Mountains of unequal height, slopes of different exposure, intermountain valleys and basins - all of them have their own special climate. In winter and during the transitional seasons of the year, cold air rolls down the slopes of the mountains into depressions, where it stagnates, resulting in the phenomenon of temperature inversion, which is very common in the mountains. In the Ivanovsky mine (856 m abs. alt.), in winter the temperature is higher or the same as in Zlatoust, located 400 m below the Ivanovsky mine.
Climatic features in a number of cases determine a pronounced inversion of vegetation. In the Middle Urals, broad-leaved species (holly maple, elm, linden) are found mainly in the middle part of the mountain slopes and avoid the frost-prone lower parts of the mountain slopes and hollows.

Rivers and lakes

The Urals has a developed river network belonging to the basins of the Caspian, Kara and Barents Seas.
The magnitude of the river runoff in the Urals is much greater than in the adjacent Russian and West Siberian plains. Opa increases when moving from the southeast to the northwest of the Urals and from the foothills to the tops of the mountains. The river runoff reaches its maximum in the most humid, western part of the Polar and Subpolar Urals. Here, the average annual runoff module in some places exceeds 40 l/sec per 1 km2 of area. A significant part of the Mountain Urals, located between 60 and 68 ° N. sh., has a drain module of more than 25 l / s. The runoff module sharply decreases in the southeastern Trans-Urals, where it is only 1-3 l/sec.
In accordance with the distribution of runoff, the river network on the western slope of the Urals is better developed and more abundant than on the eastern slope. The most water-bearing rivers of the Pechora basin and the northern tributaries of the Kama, the least water-bearing river is the Ural River. According to the calculations of A. O. Kemmerich, the volume of the average annual runoff from the territory of the Urals is 153.8 km3 (9.3 l / s from 1 km2 of area), of which 95.5 km3 (62%) falls on the Pechora and Kama basins.
An important feature of most of the rivers of the Urals is the relatively low variability of the annual runoff. The ratio of the annual water discharges of the most abundant year to the water discharges of the least water year usually ranges from 1.5 to 3. The exception is the forest-steppe and steppe rivers of the Southern Urals, where this ratio increases significantly.
Many rivers of the Urals suffer from industrial waste pollution, so the issues of protection and purification of river waters are especially relevant here.
There are relatively few lakes in the Urals and their areas are small. The largest lake Argazi (basin of the river Miass) has an area of ​​101 km2. According to the genesis, the lakes are grouped into tectonic, glacial, karst, suffusion ones. Glacial lakes are confined to the mountain belt of the Subpolar and Polar Urals, lakes of suffusion-subsidence origin are common in the forest-steppe and steppe Trans-Urals. Some tectonic lakes, subsequently developed by glaciers, have significant depths (such is the deepest lake in the Urals, Big Shchuchye - 136 m).
Several thousand reservoir ponds are known in the Urals, including 200 industrial ponds.

Soils and vegetation

The soils and vegetation of the Urals exhibit a special, mountain-latitudinal zonality (from the tundra in the north to the steppes in the south), which differs from the zonality on the plains in that the soil-vegetation zones are shifted far to the south. In the foothills, the barrier role of the Urals is noticeably affected. Thus, as a result of the barrier factor in the Southern Urals (foothills, lower parts of the mountain slopes), instead of the usual steppe and southern forest-steppe landscapes, forest and northern forest-steppe landscapes were formed (F. A. Maksyutov).
The extreme north of the Urals from the foot to the peaks is covered with mountain tundra. However, very soon (to the north of 67°N) they pass into a high-altitude landscape belt, being replaced at the foothills by mountain taiga forests.
Forests are the most common type of vegetation in the Urals. They stretch like a solid green wall along the ridge from the Arctic Circle to 52 ° N. sh., interrupted at high peaks by mountain tundra, and in the south - at the foot - by steppes.
These forests are diverse in composition: coniferous, broad-leaved and small-leaved. The Ural coniferous forests have a completely Siberian appearance: in addition to Siberian spruce (Picea obovata) and pine (Pinus silvestris), they also contain Siberian fir (Abies sibirica), Sukachev's larch (Larix sucaczewii) and Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica). The Urals does not present a serious obstacle for the distribution of Siberian conifers; they all cross the ridge, and the western border of their range runs along the Russian Plain.
Coniferous forests are most common in the northern part of the Urals, north of 58 ° N. sh. True, they are also found further south, but their role here is sharply reduced, as the areas of small-leaved and broad-leaved forests increase. The least demanding coniferous species in terms of climate and soils is Sukachev's larch. It goes farther than other rocks to the north, reaching 68 ° N. sh., and together with the pine further than others, it spreads to the south, only a little short of the latitudinal segment of the Ural River.
Despite the fact that the range of larch is so extensive, it does not occupy large areas and almost does not form pure stands. The main role in the coniferous forests of the Urals belongs to spruce and fir plantations. A third of the forest region of the Urals is occupied by pine, plantations of which, with an admixture of Sukachev's larch, gravitate towards the eastern slope of the mountainous country.
Broad-leaved forests play a significant role only on the western slope of the Southern Urals. They occupy approximately 4-5% of the area of ​​the forest Urals - oak, linden, maple, elm (Ulmus scabra). All of them, with the exception of linden, do not go further east than the Urals. But the coincidence of the eastern border of their distribution with the Urals is an accidental phenomenon. The advance of these rocks into Siberia is hindered not by the severely destroyed Ural Mountains, but by the Siberian continental climate.
Small-leaved forests are scattered throughout the Urals, mostly in its southern part. Their origin is twofold - primary and secondary. Birch is one of the most common species in the Urals.
Mountain podzolic soils of varying degrees of swampiness are developed under the forests. In the south of the region of coniferous forests, where they acquire a southern taiga appearance, typical mountain podzolic soils give way to mountain soddy podzolic soils.
Further south, under the mixed, broad-leaved and small-leaved forests of the Southern Urals, gray forest soils are widespread.
The farther south, the higher and higher the forest belt of the Urals rises into the mountains. Its upper limit in the south of the Polar Urals lies at an altitude of 200 - 300 m, in the Northern Urals - at an altitude of 450 - 600 m, in the Middle Urals it rises to 600 - 800 m, and in the Southern Urals - up to 1100 - 1200 m.
Between the mountain-forest belt and treeless mountain tundra stretches a narrow transitional belt, which P. L. Gorchakovsky calls the subbalt. In this belt, thickets of shrubs and twisted low-growing forests alternate with clearings of wet meadows on dark mountain meadow soils. The winding birch (Betula tortuosa), cedar, fir and spruce entering here form a dwarf form in places.
South of 57° N. sh. first, on the foothill plains, and then on the slopes of the mountains, the forest belt is replaced by forest-steppe and steppe on chernozem soils. The extreme south of the Urals, like its extreme north, is treeless. Mountain chernozem steppes, interrupted in places by mountain forest-steppe, cover the entire range here, including its peneplanated axial part. In addition to mountain-podzolic soils in the axial part of the Northern and partly the Middle Urals, peculiar mountain-forest acidic non-podzolized soils are widespread. They are characterized by an acid reaction, unsaturation with bases, a relatively high content of humus and its gradual decrease with depth.

Animal world

The fauna of the Urals is composed of three main complexes: tundra, forest and steppe. Following vegetation, northern animals in their distribution along the Ural mountain belt move far to the south. Suffice it to say that until recently the reindeer lived in the Southern Urals, and the brown bear still sometimes comes to the Orenburg region from the mountainous Bashkiria.
Typical tundra animals inhabiting the Polar Urals include reindeer, arctic fox, hoofed lemming (Dycrostonyx torquatus), Middendorf's vole (Microtus middendorfi), partridges (white - Lagopus lagopus, tundra - L. mutus); in summer there are a lot of waterfowl (ducks, geese).
The forest complex of animals is best preserved in the Northern Urals, where it is represented by taiga species: brown bear, sable, wolverine, otter (Lutra lutra), lynx, squirrel, chipmunk, red-backed vole (Clethrionomys rutilus); from birds - hazel grouse and capercaillie.
The distribution of steppe animals is limited to the Southern Urals. As on the plains, there are many rodents in the steppes of the Urals: ground squirrels (small - Citelluspigmaeus and reddish - C. major), large jerboa (Allactaga jaculus), marmot, steppe pika (Ochotona pusilla), common hamster (Cricetuscricetus), common vole (Microtus arvalis) and others. Of the predators, the wolf, corsac fox, and steppe polecat are common. Birds are diverse in the steppe: steppe eagle (Aquila nipa-lensis), steppe harrier (Circus macrourus), kite (Milvus korschun), bustard, little bustard, saker falcon (Falco cherruy), gray partridge (Рrdix perdix), demoiselle crane ( Anthropoides virgo), horned lark (Otocorus alpestris), black lark (Melanocorypha yeltoniensis).
Of the 76 species of mammals known in the Urals, 35 species are commercial.

The Ural Mountains, also called the "Stone Belt of the Urals", are represented by a mountain system surrounded by two plains (East European and West Siberian). These ranges function as a natural barrier between Asian and European territory, and are among the oldest mountains in the world. Their composition is represented by several parts - polar, southern, subpolar, northern and middle.

Ural Mountains: where are they located

A feature of the geographical position of this system is the length from the northern to the southern direction. Hills adorn the mainland of Eurasia, mainly covering two countries - Russia and Kazakhstan. Part of the array is spread in the Arkhangelsk, Sverdlovsk, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk regions, the Perm Territory, Bashkortostan. The coordinates of the natural object - the mountains run parallel to the 60th meridian.

The length of this mountain range is more than 2500 km, and the absolute height of the main peak is 1895 m. The average height of the Ural mountains is 1300-1400 m.

The highest peaks of the array include:

The highest point is located on the border separating the Republic of Komi and the territory of Yugra (Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug).

The Ural Mountains reach the shores belonging to the Arctic Ocean, then hide under water for some distance, continue on Vaigach and the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Thus, the massif extended northward for another 800 km. The maximum width of the "Stone Belt" is about 200 km. In some places it narrows to 50 km or more.

Origin story

Geologists say that the Ural Mountains have a complex way of origin, as evidenced by the variety of rocks in their structure. Mountain ranges are associated with the era of the Hercynian folding (late Paleozoic), and their age reaches 600,000,000 years.

The system was formed as a result of the collision of two huge plates. The beginning of these events was preceded by a gap in the earth's crust, after the expansion of which an ocean was formed, which disappeared over time.

Researchers believe that the distant ancestors of the modern system have undergone significant changes over the course of many millions of years. Today, a stable situation prevails in the Ural Mountains, and there are no significant movements from the earth's crust. The last strong earthquake (with a power of about 7 points) occurred in 1914.

Nature and wealth of the "Stone Belt"

Staying in the Ural Mountains, you can admire impressive views, visit various caves, swim in lake water, experience adrenaline emotions, going down along the flow of raging rivers. It is convenient to travel here in any way - by private cars, buses or on foot.

The fauna of the "Stone Belt" is diverse. In places where spruce grows, it is represented by squirrels that feed on the seeds of coniferous trees. After the arrival of winter, red animals feed on self-prepared supplies (mushrooms, pine nuts). Martens are found in abundance in the mountain forests. These predators settle nearby with squirrels and periodically hunt for them.

The ridges of the Ural Mountains are rich in furs. Unlike the dark Siberian counterparts, the sables of the Urals have a reddish color. The hunting of these animals is prohibited by law, which allows them to freely breed in the mountain forests. In the Ural Mountains there is enough space for wolves, elks, and bears to live. The mixed forest zone is a favorite place for roe deer. Foxes and hares live on the plains.

The Ural Mountains hide a variety of minerals in the bowels. Hills are fraught with asbestos, platinum, gold deposits. There are also deposits of gems, gold and malachite.

Climate characteristic

Most of the Ural mountain system covers the temperate zone. If in the summer season you move along the perimeter of the mountains from the north to the south, you can record that the temperature indicators begin to increase. In summer, the temperature fluctuates at +10-12 degrees in the north and +20 in the south. In the winter season, temperature indicators acquire less contrast. With the onset of January, northern thermometers show about -20 ° C, in the south - from -16 to -18 degrees.

The climate of the Urals is closely related to the air currents arriving from the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the precipitation (up to 800 mm during the year) permeates the western slopes. In the eastern part, such indicators decrease to 400-500 mm. In winter, this zone of the mountain system is under the influence of an anticyclone coming from Siberia. In the south, in autumn and winter, one should count on cloudy and cold weather.

Fluctuations typical of the local climate are largely due to the mountainous terrain. With increasing altitude, the weather becomes more severe, and temperature indicators vary significantly in different parts of the slopes.

Description of local attractions

The Ural Mountains can be proud of many sights:

1. Deer Streams Park.
2. Reserve "Rezhevskoy".
3. Kungur cave.
4. An ice fountain located in the Zyuratkul park.
5. "Bazhov places".

Deer Streams Park located in the city of Nizhniye Sergi. Fans of ancient history will be interested in the local Pisanitsa rock, dotted with drawings by ancient artists. Other prominent places in this park are the caves and the Big Pit. Here you can walk along special paths, visit observation platforms, and cross to the right place by cable car.

Reserve "Rezhevskoy" attracts all connoisseurs of gems. This protected area contains deposits of precious and semi-precious stones. It is forbidden to walk here on your own - you can stay on the territory of the reserve only under the supervision of employees.

The territory of the reserve is crossed by the river Rezh. On its right bank is the Shaitan-stone. Many Urals consider it magical, helping in solving various problems. That is why people who want to fulfill their dreams are constantly coming to the stone.

Length Kungur ice cave- about 6 kilometers, of which tourists can visit only a quarter. In it you can see numerous lakes, grottoes, stalactites and stalagmites. To enhance the visual effects, there is a special backlight. The cave owes its name to the constant sub-zero temperature. To enjoy the local beauties, you need to have winter things with you.

It originated from the Zyuratkul National Park, located near the city of Satka, Chelyabinsk Region, thanks to the appearance of a geological well. It is worth looking at only in winter. During the frosty season, this underground fountain freezes and takes the form of a 14-meter icicle.

Park "Bazhovskie Places" associated with the famous and beloved by many book "Malachite Box". In this place, full-fledged conditions for vacationers are created. You can go on an exciting walk on foot, by bike, on horseback, while admiring the picturesque landscapes.

Anyone can cool off here in the lake waters or climb the Markov stone hill. In the summer season, numerous extreme sports enthusiasts come to Bazhovskie Places in order to descend along the mountain rivers. In winter, you can experience just as much adrenaline in the park while walking on a snowmobile.

Recreation centers in the Urals

All the necessary conditions have been created for visitors to the Ural Mountains. Recreation centers are located in places remote from noisy civilization, in quiet corners of pristine nature, often on the shores of local lakes. Depending on personal preferences, here you can stay in complexes with a modern design or in antique buildings. In any case, travelers are waiting for comfort and polite, caring staff.

The bases provide rental of cross-country and alpine skis, kayaks, tubing, snowmobile trips with an experienced driver are available. On the territory of the guest zone there are traditionally located barbecue areas, a Russian bath with billiards, children's play houses and playgrounds. In such places, you can definitely forget about the bustle of the city, and fully relax on your own or with the whole family, taking unforgettable photos for memory.