The Ob Plateau (, ''Priobskoye Plato''), is one of the great
plateau
In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. ...
s of
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
. Administratively it falls within
Altai Krai
Altai Krai (, ) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai). It borders, clockwise from the west, Kazakhstan ( East Kazakhstan Region, Abai Region and Pavlodar Region), Novosibirsk and Kemerovo, and the Altai Republic. The krai's administrative ce ...
and
Novosibirsk Oblast
Novosibirsk Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast) located in southwestern Siberia. Its administrative center, administrative and economic center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of N ...
,
Siberian Federal District
Siberian Federal District ( rus, Сибирский федеральный округ, p=sʲɪˈbʲirskʲɪj fʲɪdʲɪˈralʲnɨj ˈokrʊk) is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. Its population was 17,178,298 according to the 20 ...
, Russia. The plateau is named after the
Ob River
The Ob (; ) is a major river in Russia. It is in western Siberia, and with its tributary the Irtysh forms the world's seventh-longest river system, at . The Ob forms at the confluence of the Biya and Katun which have their origins in the Alta ...
and is part of its basin.
Google Earth
Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...
[Geographical position, geological structure and surface topography of the south of Western Siberia (in Russian)](_blank)
/ref>
Most of the territory of the plateau has been agriculturally developed, yielding grain crops as well as industrial crops. The Kulunda Main Canal, built at the time of the USSR
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, runs in a roughly southwest/northeast direction across the plateau.Kulunda Canal — Altaiskaya Pravda
/ref>
Geography
The Ob Plateau is located in Altai Krai and Novosibirsk Oblast at the southern edge of the West Siberian Plain
The West Siberian Plain () is a large plain that occupies the western portion of Siberia, between the Ural Mountains in the west and the Yenisei, Yenisei River in the east, and the Altai Mountains on the southeast. Much of the plain is poorly d ...
. It extends roughly to the north of the foothills of the Altai Mountains
The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...
along the left bank of the north-flowing Ob River. To the west it descends gradually to the Kulunda Plain.
The average height of the Ob Plateau surface is between and , reaching a maximum height of at an unnamed summit. The plateau is dissected diagonally by wide ravines of glacial origin slanting towards the Ob river. They are about in width and between to deep, stretching parallel to each other in a roughly northeast to southwest direction. Chernozem
Chernozem ( ),; also called black soil, regur soil or black cotton soil, is a black-colored soil containing a high percentage of humus (4% to 16%) and high percentages of phosphorus and ammonia compounds. Chernozem is very fertile soil and can ...
soils predominate in the open steppe spaces of the plateau.
Hydrography
Some of the main rivers of the plateau are the Aley, Barnaulka
The Barnaulka () is a river in Altai Krai, Russia. The river is long and has a catchment area of .
The basin of the river is located in the Rebrikhinsky, Shipunovsky and Pavlovsky districts. The city of Barnaul is named after the river. The ...
, Kulunda, Burla, Karasuk, Bagan
Bagan ( ; ; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Pagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that w ...
and Kasmala among others. Within the glacial trenches there are a number of salt lake
A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per liter). I ...
s, such as Gorkoye (Chernokurynskoye), Gorkoye (Novichikhinsky District), Gorkoye (Tyumentsevsky District), Bakhmatovskoye and Gorkoye-Peresheyechnoye.
Flora
There are forests made up mostly of birch
A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...
in the ravines, as well as remnants of coniferous taiga
Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. In North A ...
in higher areas. Wetlands
A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...
and lakes are common in the river valleys cutting across the plateau.[Приобское плато](_blank)
''Great Soviet Encyclopedia
The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') 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 ''Great Russian Enc ...
'' in 30 vols. — Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov
Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov (born Alexander Michael Prochoroff, ; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was an Australian-born Russian physicist and researcher on lasers and masers, in the former Soviet Union. He shared the Nobel Prize in Ph ...
. - 3rd ed. - M. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978. (in Russian)
See also
* Geography of Russia § Topography and drainage
References
External links
*{{commonscat inline
Федеральное государственное автономное образовательное учреждение