2014 Prowincja Kotajk, Garni, Wąwóz Garni (28)

The geology of Armenia was shaped by geological upheaval pushed up the Earth's crust to form the Armenian Plateau 25 million years ago. This created the complex

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sc ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

. The

Lesser Caucasus The Lesser Caucasus, also called Caucasus Minor, is the second of the two main mountain ranges of Caucasus mountains, of length about . The western portion of the Lesser Caucasus overlaps and converges with east Turkey and northwest Iran. It runs ...

range extends through northern Armenia, runs southeast between

Lake Sevan Lake Sevan ( hy, Սևանա լիճ, Sevana lich) is the largest body of water in both Armenia and the Caucasus region. It is one of the largest freshwater high-altitude (alpine) lakes in Eurasia. The lake is situated in Gegharkunik Province, ...

and Azerbaijan, then passes roughly along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Thus situated, the mountains make travel from north to south difficult.

Earthquakes

Geological turmoil continues in the form of devastating earthquakes. In a December 1988 earthquake, the second largest city in the republic,

Gyumri Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

(then called Leninakan), was heavily damaged by a massive quake that killed more than 25,000 people.

Terrain

About half of Armenia's area of approximately has an elevation of at least , and only 3% of the country lies below . The lowest points are in the valleys of the Araks River and the Debet River in the far north, which have elevations of , respectively. Elevations in the Lesser Caucasus vary between . To the southwest of the range is the Armenian Plateau, which slopes southwestward toward the Araks River on the Turkish border. The plateau is masked by intermediate mountain ranges and extinct volcanoes. The largest of these,

Mount Aragats Mount Aragats ( hy, Արագած, ) is an isolated four-peaked volcano massif in Armenia. Its northern summit, at above sea level, is the highest point of the Lesser Caucasus and Armenia. It is also one of the highest points in the Armenian ...

, high, is also the highest point in Armenia. Most of the population lives in the western and northwestern parts of the country, where the two major cities,

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

and

(previously called Aleksandropol during the Soviet period), are located. The valleys of the Debet River and Akstafa River as they pass through mountain areas form the chief routes into Armenia from the north.

is by far the largest lake at across at its widest point and long. It lies above sea level on the plateau. Armenia's terrain is most rugged in the extreme southeast, which is drained by the Bargushat River and most moderate in the Araks River valley to the extreme southwest. Most of Armenia is drained by the

Araks , az, Araz, fa, ارس, tr, Aras The Aras (also known as the Araks, Arax, Araxes, or Araz) is a river in the Caucasus. It rises in eastern Turkey and flows along the borders between Turkey and Armenia, between Turkey and the Nakhchivan excl ...

or its tributary, the

Hrazdan Hrazdan ( hy, Հրազդան), is a town and urban municipal community in Armenia serving as the administrative centre of Kotayk Province, located northeast of the capital Yerevan. As of the 2011 census, the population of the town is 41,875. I ...

, which flow from Lake Sevan. The Araks forms most of Armenia's border with

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

and

, while the Zangezur Mountains form the border between Armenia's southern province of Syunik and Azerbaijan's adjacent Nakhchivan autonomous region.

Volcanic mountains

Volcanic mountains in Armenia include

Mount Ara Mount Ara ( hy, Արա լեռ, ''Ara leř'') is a polygenetic stratovolcanic cone in Armenia's Kotayk Province. The town of Zoravan and a nearby church, Gharghavank, are located along the mountain's lower slopes. The town of Yeghvard is below the ...

, Azhdahak, Ghegam Ridge, Mount of Armenia.

Porak Porak or Axarbaxar ("gutted belly" in Azerbaijani) is a stratovolcano located in the Vardenis volcanic ridge. It lies about southeast of Lake Sevan and the volcanic field spans the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan with lava flows running i ...

. Arpi Gorge and

Garni Gorge The Garni Gorge is situated 23 km east of Yerevan, Armenia, just below the village of the same name. On a promontory above the gorge the first-century AD Temple of Garni may be seen. Along the sides of the gorge are cliff walls of well-preserv ...

contain columnar igneous rocks (

Columnar jointing Columnar jointing is a geological structure where sets of intersecting closely spaced fractures, referred to as joints, result in the formation of a regular array of polygonal prisms, or columns. Columnar jointing occurs in many types of igneo ...

Mining

Mines in Armenia include Kajaran Mine and Teghut Mine. Both are

open pit mine Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

s for

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

and molybdenum.

Fossils

References