Kuznetsk Ala-tau
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Kuznetsk Alatau (russian: Кузнецкий Алатау) is a
mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...
in southern
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 ...
,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
. The range rises in the
Altai-Sayan region The Altai-Sayan region is an area of Inner Asia proximate to the Altai Mountains and the Sayan Mountains, near to where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together. This region is one of the world centers of temperate plant diversity. It ...
of the
South Siberian Mountains The South Siberian Mountains ( rus, Южно-Сибирские горы) are one of the largest mountain systems of the Russian Federation. The total area of the system of mountain ranges is more than 1.5 million km². The South Siberian Mountain ...
, northwest of
Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
. The
Siberian Railway Krasnoyarsk Railway (russian: link=no, Красноярская железная дорога) is a subsidiary of the Russian Railways headquartered in Krasnoyarsk and serving the south of Siberia. Main information Its mainline is a link in the ...
skirts the northern limit of the range. Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed in the Kuznetsk Alatau mountain range in 1994.


Geography

The Kuznetsk Alatau consists of several ridges of medium height stretching for about between the
Kuznetsk Depression Kuznetsk Depression (russian: Кузнецкая котловина, ''Kuznetskaya kotlovina'') is located among mountains of South-Central Siberia, including: Kuznetsk Alatau to the Northeast, Salair Ridge to the Southwest, and Mountainous Shor ...
and the
Minusinsk Depression Minusinsk Basin or Khakass-Minusinsk Basin (russian: Минусинская (Хакасско-Минусинская) котловина, ''Minusinskaya (Chakassko-Minusinskaya) kotlovina'') is in Khakassia and Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia locate ...
. The highest peak is high Staraya Krepost, another important peak is high
Verkhny Zub Verkhny Zub (russian: Верхний Зуб; cjs, Амзас-Таскыл;Сибирская Советская энциклопедия. Том первый. А - Ж p. 96 kjh, Тигір тізі) is a peak in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia. It is ...
. The
Abakan Range Abakan Range (russian: Абаканский хребет) is a mountain range in Southwestern Siberia, located mainly in Khakassia, Russia: It is mostly covered by taiga, up to , followed by mountainous tundra. The range also consists sparse are ...
is at the southern limit and to the north the range descends gradually to the
West Siberian Plain The West Siberian Plain (russian: За́падно-Сиби́рская равни́на ''Zapadno-Sibirskaya ravnina'') is a large plain that occupies the western portion of Siberia, between the Ural Mountains in the west and the Yenisei River ...
. To the east lies the basin of the
Yenisei The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук, ...
. The mountains have generally a smooth outline with rather steep western slopes and gentler eastern ones.Korshunov & Gorbunov. ''Asian Russia, A geographic sketch,'' (1995)
/ref>
/ ''
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 ...
:'' in 30 vols. / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov. - 3rd ed. - M. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
The range is composed mainly of
metamorphic rock Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock ( protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, caus ...
s rich in
iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...
,
manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...
,
nepheline Nepheline, also called nephelite (), is a rock-forming mineral in the feldspathoid groupa silica-undersaturated aluminosilicate, Na3 K Al4 Si4 O16, that occurs in intrusive and volcanic rocks with low silica, and in their associated pegmatite ...
s, and
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
.


Flora

The
Siberian fir ''Abies sibirica'', the Siberian fir, is a coniferous evergreen tree native to the taiga east of the Volga River and south of 67°40' North latitude in Siberia through Turkestan, northeast Xinjiang, Mongolia and Heilongjiang. Distribution The ...
overwhelmingly predominates in the forest belt except for its upper part where, at the
tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...
(1300–1900 m), the
siberian pine ''Pinus sibirica'', or Siberian pine, in the family Pinaceae is a species of pine tree that occurs in Siberia from 58°E in the Ural Mountains east to 126°E in the Stanovoy Range in southern Sakha Republic, and from Igarka at 68°N in the lower ...
becomes dominant. The highlands are occupied mostly by vast large-stoned
scree Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically ...
s, and also by patches of subalpine meadows and, on some southern mountain massifs, of bushy, lichen and moss
tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...
s. The basin of the Kondoma River in Gornaya Shoriya is remarkable for the Siberian lime-tree woods which are thought to be the relics of a pre-
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
nemoral vegetation of Siberia. All over the upland, the forest openings are occupied by long forb forest meadows.


See also

* Kuznetsk Alatau Nature Reserve *
Geography of South-Central Siberia South Central Siberia is a geographical region north of the point where Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia come together. Regions of Asia North Asia The Four Corners At approximately , the borders of Russia, China, Mongolia and Kaza ...
*


References


External links

* Mountain ranges of Russia Landforms of Kemerovo Oblast Landforms of Khakassia South Siberian Mountains {{Siberia-geo-stub