The Chersky Range (, ) is a chain of
mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...
s in northeastern
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
between the
Yana River
The Yana ( rus, Я́на, p=ˈjanə; sah, Дьааҥы, ''Caañı'') is a river in Sakha in Russia, located between the Lena to the west and the Indigirka to the east.
Course
It is long, and its drainage basin covers . Including its longes ...
and the
Indigirka River
The Indigirka ( rus, Индиги́рка, r=; sah, Индигиир, translit=Indigiir) is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana to the west and the Kolyma to the east. It is long. The area of its basin is .
History
The i ...
. Administratively the area of the range belongs to the
Sakha Republic, although a small section in the east is within
Magadan Oblast. The highest peak in the range is tall
Peak Pobeda, part of the
Ulakhan-Chistay Range
The Ulakhan-Chistay Range (russian: Улахан-Чистай; sah, Улахан Чыыстай сис) is a range of mountains in far North-eastern Russia. Administratively the range is part of the Sakha Republic of the Russian Federation.''Ula ...
. The range also includes important places of traditional
Yakut culture
The Yakuts, or the Sakha ( sah, саха, ; , ), are a Turkic ethnic group who mainly live in the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Federation, with some extending to the Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin regions, and the Taymyr and Evenk Distric ...
, such as
Ynnakh Mountain ''(Mat'-Gora)'' and
kigilyakh
Kigilyakh or kisiliyakh ( rus, кигиляхи; sah, киһилээх, meaning "stone person") are tall, pillar-like natural rock formations looking like tall monoliths standing more or less isolated. Usually they are composed of granite or ...
rock formations.
The
Moma Natural Park
Moma Natural Park or Moma Nature Park (russian: Момский природный парк, ''Momsky Pryrodny Park''; sah, Аан Айылгы, ''Aan Aiylgy'') is a protected area of the Momsko-Chersk Region of Yakutia in the upper part of the Mo ...
is a
protected area located in the southern zone of the range.
History
At some time between 1633 and 1642 Poznik Ivanov ascended a tributary of the lower Lena, crossed the Verkhoyansk Range to the upper Yana and then crossed the Chersky Range to the
Indigirka. The range was sighted in 1926 by
Sergei Obruchev (
Vladimir Obruchev
Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev (russian: Влади́мир Афана́сьевич О́бручев; , Klepenino near Rzhev, Tver Oblast, Russian Empire – June 19, 1956, Moscow, USSR) was a Russian and Soviet geologist who specialize ...
's son) and named by the
Russian Geographical Society after the Polish explorer and geographer
Ivan Chersky (or Jan Czerski).
Geography
The geographic boundaries of the mountain system are the
Yana—Oymyakon Highlands in the southwest, the
Upper Kolyma Highlands
The Upper Kolyma Highlands ( rus, Верхнеколымское нагорье) is a highland area in Magadan Oblast, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia. The biggest town in the highlands is Susuman.
There are large deposits of gold, tin and ...
in the southeast and the
Momo-Selennyakh Depression in the northeast.
Subranges
The system of the Chersky Range comprises a number of subranges running generally from northwest to southeast, including the following:
Between the Yana and Indigirka rivers:
*
Burkat Range, highest point
*
Khadaranya Range, highest point
*
Ymiysky Range, highest point
*
Kisilyakh Range
The Kisilyakh Range ( rus, Кисиляхский хребет; sah, Киһилээх) is a mountain range in the Sakha Republic, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia. The nearest city is Batagay, and the nearest airport Batagay Airport.
The mo ...
, highest point , by river
Adycha
*
Tas-Khayakhtakh, highest point
*
Kurundya Range, highest point
*
Dogdo Range, highest point
*
Chemalgin Range, highest point
*
Yana-Oymyakon Highlands
The Yana-Oymyakon Highlands ( rus, Яно-Оймяконское нагорье; sah, Дьааҥы хаптал хайалара), also known as Oymyakon Highlands ( rus, Оймяконское нагорье),Soviet General Topographic Maps P-5 ...
**
Elgi Plateau (Эльгинское плоскогорье), highest point
**
Oymyakon Plateau
The Oymyakon Plateau ( rus, Оймяконское плоскогорье, sah, Өймөкөөн үрдэлэ) is a mountain plateau in the Sakha Republic, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia.
The plateau is in the area of the famous Oymyako ...
, highest point
**
Yana Plateau
The Yana Plateau ( rus, Янское плоскогорье, sah, Дьааҥы хаптал хайалара) is a mountain plateau in the Sakha Republic, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia. Google Earth
The plateau lies in an uninhabited ar ...
, highest point
**
Tirekhtyakh Range
The Tirekhtyakh Range ( rus, Тирехтяхский хребет; sah, Тирэхтээх) is a mountain range in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Far Eastern Federal District, Russia. The nearest city is Batagay to the north of the range.
The ...
and
Nelgesin Range
The Nelgesin Range ( rus, Нельгесинский хребет) is a mountain range in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Far Eastern Federal District, Russia. The nearest city is Batagay to the north of the range.
The nearest airport is Batagay ...
, between the Adycha and
Sartang rivers
In the upper Kolyma river basin:
*
Ulakhan-Chistay
The Ulakhan-Chistay Range (russian: Улахан-Чистай; sah, Улахан Чыыстай сис) is a range of mountains in far North-eastern Russia. Administratively the range is part of the Sakha Republic of the Russian Federation.''Ul ...
, highest point , near the southern end
*
Okhandya Range, highest point , the highest point of
Magadan Oblast.
*
Cherge Range, highest point
*
Angachak Range, highest point
*
Arga-Tas, highest point
Between the
Chibagalakh and
Adycha rivers
*
Chibagalakh Range, highest point
*
Borong Range, highest point (between the
Charky
The Charky (russian: Чаркы; sah, Чаркы), also known as Muolakaan (Муолакаан), is a river in the Republic of Sakha in Russia. It is a right hand tributary of the Adycha, of the Yana basin. It is long, with a drainage basin of ...
and the Adycha)
*
Porozhny Range, highest point
*
Silyap Range
The Silyap Range ( rus, Силяпский хребет; sah, Силэп) is a mountain range in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Far Eastern Federal District, Russia. The nearest city is Ust-Nera.
Geography
The Silyap Range rises in the central ar ...
, highest point
Mount Chyon (Гора Чён)
Between the Indigirka and the
Nera rivers:
*
Tas-Kystabyt
The Tas-Kystabyt ( rus, Тас-Кыстабыт, sah, Таас Кыстаабыт) is a mountain range in the Sakha Republic and Magadan Oblast, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia. It is also known as "хребе́т Са́рычева" —Sa ...
, highest point
*
Khalkansky Range, highest point , a southern prolongation of Tas-Kystabyt
Northeastern outliers
In some works, a few roughly parallel ranges located off the main system to the northeast, such as the
Kyun-Tas Range (highest point ), the
Selennyakh Range
The Selennyakh Range (russian: Селенняхский хребет, ''Selennyakhsky Khrebet''; sah, Силээннээх) is a range of mountains in far North-eastern Russia. Administratively the range is part of the Sakha Republic of the Russ ...
(highest point highest point
Saltag-Tas
Saltag-Tas (russian: link=no, Салтага-Тас) is a mountain in the Ust-Yansky District, Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russia. At it is the highest mountain in the Selennyakh Range, part of the wider Chersky Range (Momsko-Chersk Region), East ...
(), and the adjacent
Moma Range
The Moma Range (russian: Момский хребет, ''Momsky Khrebet''; sah, Муома сиһэ) is a range of mountains in far North-eastern Russia. Administratively the range is part of the Sakha Republic of the Russian Federation.''Momsky ...
(highest point ) with the Moma-Selennyakh Depression running along their western side, are included in the Chersky mountain system.
Other ranges of the system include the
Irgichin Range,
Inyalin Range,
Volchan Range,
Silen Range,
Onel Range,
Polyarny Range Polyarny (masculine), Polyarnaya (feminine), or Polyarnoye (neuter) may refer to:
* Polyarny (inhabited locality) (''Polyarnaya'', ''Polyarnoye''), several inhabited localities in Russia
*Polyarny District (1927–1960), a former district of Murmans ...
,
Nendelgin Range, among others.
Hydrography
The Chersky System includes three main river basins:
*Yana River - covering the western and northwestern parts of the mountain system. It includes rivers
Oldzho and
Adycha with its tributaries
Tuostakh and
Charky
The Charky (russian: Чаркы; sah, Чаркы), also known as Muolakaan (Муолакаан), is a river in the Republic of Sakha in Russia. It is a right hand tributary of the Adycha, of the Yana basin. It is long, with a drainage basin of ...
.
*Indigirka River, covering the northeastern, central and southwestern parts of the system, with rivers
Selennyakh,
Moma and
Nera among others.
*Kolyma River, covering the eastern, southeastern and southern parts of the system, with rivers
Zyryanka
Zyryanka (russian: Зыря́нка; sah, Зырянка) is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Verkhnekolymsky District in the Sakha Republic, Russia, on the left bank of the Kolyma River. As of the ...
,
Rassokha,
Omulyovka,
Yasachnaya,
Taskan
The Taskan ( rus, Таскан) is a river in the Susuman and Yagodninsky districts of Magadan Oblast, Russia. It is a left hand tributary of the Kolyma. Its length is , with a drainage basin of . The Taskan was first mapped in the 19th centur ...
,
Debin and
Byoryolyokh, among others.
Some of the higher ranges with alpine relief have glaciers. There are roughly 350 glaciers in the system with a total area of .
[Черского хребет (в Якутской АССР и Магаданской обл.)](_blank)
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...
There are also small lakes in the swampy valleys of some rivers, as well as lakes of
glacial
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betwe ...
origin, such as
Emanda
Lake Emanda ( or Эманджа, sah, Эмандьа, ''Emanca'') is a freshwater lake in Tomponsky District, Sakha Republic, Russia. The lake is located in a desolate area where there is no permanent population and few visitors. There are burbot ...
and
Tabanda
Tectonics
The range lies on the boundary between the
Eurasian
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Ja ...
and
North American
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...
tectonic plate
Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...
s.
The precise nature of the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in the area of the Chersky Range is still not fully understood and is the subject of ongoing research. By the 1980s, the Chersky Range was considered mostly a zone of continental
rift
In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics.
Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-grabe ...
ing where the crust was spreading apart. However, the current view is that the Chersky Range is mostly an active
suture zone
In structural geology, a suture is a joining together along a major fault zone, of separate terranes, tectonic units that have different plate tectonic, metamorphic and paleogeographic histories. The suture is often represented on the surface by ...
, a continental
convergent plate boundary
A convergent boundary (also known as a destructive boundary) is an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide. One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction. The subduction zone can be defined by a ...
, where compression is occurring as the two plates press against each other.
''The Physical Geography of Northern Eurasia'', ed. Maria Shahgedanova, published by Oxford University Press 2003
/ref> There is thought to be a point in the Chersky Range where the extensional forces coming from the north change to the compressional forces noted throughout most of the range. The Chersky Range is also thought to include a geologic triple junction
A triple junction is the point where the boundaries of three tectonic plates meet. At the triple junction each of the three boundaries will be one of three types – a ridge (R), trench (T) or transform fault (F) – and triple junctions can ...
where the Ulakhan Fault intersects the suture zone. Whatever the exact nature of the regional tectonics, the Chersky Range is a seismically active zone. It connects in the north with the landward extension of the Laptev Sea Rift, itself a continental extension of the Mid-Arctic Gakkel Ridge
The Gakkel Ridge (formerly known as the Nansen Cordillera and Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge) is a mid-oceanic ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate. It is located in the Eurasian Basin of the ...
.
Climate
The Chersky mountains, along with the neighboring Verkhoyansk Range
The Verkhoyansk Range (russian: Верхоянский хребет, ''Verkhojanskiy Khrebet''; sah, Үөһээ Дьааҥы сис хайата, ''Üöhee Chaangy sis khaĭata'') is a mountain range in the Sakha Republic, Russia near the settle ...
, have a moderating effect on the climate of Siberia. The ridges obstruct west-moving air flows, decreasing the amount of snowfall in the plains to the west.
See also
* Balagan-Tas
Balagan-Tas ( sah, Балаҕан Таас, russian: Балаган-Тас) is a cinder cone volcano in Russia. It was discovered by V.A. Zimin in 1939 and is one of the main features of the Moma Natural Park. Description
This volcano is located i ...
* Kigilyakh
Kigilyakh or kisiliyakh ( rus, кигиляхи; sah, киһилээх, meaning "stone person") are tall, pillar-like natural rock formations looking like tall monoliths standing more or less isolated. Usually they are composed of granite or ...
* Nera Plateau
The Nera Plateau ( rus, Нерское плоскогорье, sah, Ньара хаптал хайалаах сирэ) is a mountain plateau in the southeastern Sakha Republic ( Oymyakon District) and the northwestern end of Magadan Oblast ( S ...
References
External links
*{{commons category-inline
Oymyakon Ring Structure in the North-Eastern Siberia
Plate tectonics
Tourist attractions in the Sakha Republic
East Siberian Mountains