Ural Mountains

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This article is about the land formation. For other uses, see Ural
(disambiguation).
The Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains is located in Russia The Ural MountainsThe Ural Mountains
Highest point
Peak Mount Narodnaya
Elevation 1,895 m (6,217 ft)
Coordinates 60N 60ECoordinates 60N 60E?
Dimensions
Length 2,500 km (1,600 mi)
Width 150 km (93 mi)
Geography
Countries Russia and Kazakhstan
Geology
Age of rock Carboniferous
The Ural Mountains (Russian ????????? ????, tr. Uralskiye gory; IPA [?'ral?sk??j?
'gor?]; Bashkir ???? ???????, Ural tauzari), or simply the Urals, are a mountain
range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the
coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan.[1] The
mountain range forms part of the conventional boundary between the continents of
Europe and Asia. Vaygach Island and the islands of Novaya Zemlya form a further
continuation of the chain to the north into the Arctic Ocean.

The mountains lie within the Ural geographical region and significantly overlap
with the Ural Federal District and with the Ural economic region. They have rich
resources, including metal ores, coal, precious and semi-precious stones. Since the
18th century the mountains have contributed significantly to the mineral sector of
the Russian economy.

Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 History
3 Geography and topography
3.1 Polar Ural
3.2 Nether-polar Ural
3.3 Northern Ural
3.4 Middle Ural
3.5 Southern Ural
4 Geology
5 Rivers and lakes
6 Climate
7 Flora
8 Fauna
9 Ecology
10 Cultural significance
11 See also
12 References
13 External links
Etymology[edit]
As attested by Sigismund von Herberstein, in the 16th century Russians called the
range by a variety of names derived from the Russian words for rock (stone) and
belt. The modern Russian name for the Urals (????, Ural), first appearing in the
16th17th century when the Russian conquest of Siberia was in its heroic phase, was
initially applied to its southern parts and gained currency as the name of the
entire range during the 18th century. It might have been a borrowing from either
Turkic stone belt[2] (Bashkir, where the same name is used for the range), or Ob-
Ugric.[3] From the 13th century, in Bashkortostan there has been a legend about a
hero named Ural. He sacrificed his life for the sake of his people and they poured
a stone pile over his grave, which later turned into the Ural Mountains.[4][5][6]
Possibilities include Bashkir ?? elevation; upland or Mansi ?? ??? mountain peak,
top of the mountain,[7] Ostyak urr (chain of mountains).[8] V.N. Tatischev believes
that this oronym is set to belt and associates it with the Turkic verb oralu- gird.
[7] I.G. Dobrodomov suggests a transition from Aral to Ural explained on the basis
of ancient Bulgar-Chuvash dialects. Geographer E.V. Hawks believes that the name
goes back to the Bashkir folklore Ural-Batyr.[7] Ethnographer E.N. Shumilov
suggested a Mongolian origin, Khural Uul, that is, meeting of the mountains.[9] The
Evenk geographical term era mountain has also been theorized.[7] Finno-Ugrist
scholars consider Ural deriving from the Mansi word 'urr' meaning a mountain.
Turkologists, on the other hand, have achieved majority support for their assertion
that 'ural' in Tatar means a belt, and recall that an earlier name for the range
was 'stone belt'.[10]

History[edit]
Main article History of Ural
UralMountains1.png
As Middle-Eastern merchants traded with the Bashkirs and other people living on the
western slopes of the Ural as far north as Great Perm, since at least the 10th
century medieval mideastern geographers had been aware of the existence of the
mountain range in its entirety, stretching as far as to the Arctic Ocean in the
north. The first Russian mention of the mountains to the east of the East European
Plain is provided by the Primary Chronicle, when it describes the Novgorodian
expedition to the upper reaches of the Pechora in 1096. During the next few
centuries Novgorodians engaged in fur trading with the local population and
collected tribute from Yugra and Great Perm, slowly expanding southwards. The
rivers Chusovaya and Belaya were first mentioned in the chronicles of 1396 and
1468, respectively. In 1430 the town of Solikamsk (Kama Salt) was founded on the
Kama at the foothills of the Ural, where salt was produced in open pans. Ivan III
of Moscow captured Perm, Pechora and Yugra from the declining Novgorod Republic in
1472. With the excursions of 1483 and 14991500 across the Ural Moscow managed to
subjugate Yugra completely.

a fragment of von Herberstein's map

Nevertheless, around that time early 16th century Polish geographer Maciej of
Miechw in his influential Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis (1517) argued that there
were no mountains in Eastern Europe at all, challenging the point of view of some
authors of Classical antiquity, popular during the Renaissance. Only after
Sigismund von Herberstein in his Notes on Muscovite Affairs (1549) had reported,
following Russian sources, that there are mountains behind the Pechora and
identified them with the Ripheans and Hyperboreans of ancient authors, did the
existence of the Ural, or at least of its northern part, become firmly established
in the Western geography. The Middle and Southern Ural were still largely
unavailable and unknown to the Russian or Western European geographers.

Verkhoturye in 1910
In the 1550s, after the Tsardom of Russia had defeated the Khanate of Kazan and
proceeded to gradually annex the lands of the Bashkirs, the Russians finally
reached the southern part of the mountain chain. In 1574 they founded Ufa. The
upper reaches of the Kama and Chusovaya in the Middle Ural, still unexplored, as
well as parts of Transuralia still held by the hostile Siberian Khanate, were
granted to the Stroganovs by several decrees of the tsar in 15581574. The
Stroganovs' land provided the staging ground for Yermak's incursion into Siberia.
Yermak crossed the Ural from the Chusovaya to the Tagil around 1581. In 1597
Babinov's road was built across the Ural from Solikamsk to the valley of the Tura,
where the town of Verkhoturye (Upper Tura) was founded in 1598. Customs was
established in Verkhoturye shortly thereafter and the road was made the only legal
connection between European Russia and Siberia for a long time. In 1648 the town of
Kungur was founded at the western foothills of the Middle Ural. During the 17th
century the first deposits of iron and copper ores, mica, gemstones and other
minerals were discovered in the Ural.

Iron and copper smelting works emerged. They multiplied particularly quickly during
the reign of Peter I of Russia. In 17201722 he commissioned Vasily Tatishchev to
oversee and develop the mining and smelting works in the Ural. Tatishchev proposed
a new copper smelting factory in Yegoshikha, which would eventually become the core
of the city of Perm and a new iron smelting factory on the Iset, which would become
the largest in the world at the time of construction and give birth to the city of
Yekaterinburg. Both factories were actually founded by Tatishchev's successor,
Georg Wilhelm de Gennin, in 1723. Tatishchev returned to the Ural on the order of
Empress Anna to succeed de Gennin in 17341737. Transportation of the output of the
smelting works to the markets of European Russia necessitated the construction of
the Siberian Route from Yekaterinburg across the Ural to Kungur and Yegoshikha
(Perm) and further to Moscow, which was completed in 1763 and rendered Babinov's
road obsolete. In 1745 gold was discovered in the Ural at Beryozovskoye and later
at other deposits. It has been mined since 1747.

The first ample geographic survey of the Ural Mountains was completed in the early
18th century by the Russian historian and geographer Vasily Tatishchev under the
orders of Peter I. Earlier, in the 17th century, rich ore deposits were discovered
in the mountains and their systematic extraction began in the early 18th century,
eventually turning the region into the largest mineral base of Russia.[1][4]

One of the first scientific descriptions of the mountains was published in 177071.
Over the next century, the region was studied by scientists from a number of
countries, including Russia (geologist Alexander Karpinsky, botanist Porfiry Krylov
and zoologist Leonid Sabaneyev), England (geologist Sir Roderick Murchison), France
(paleontologist Edouard de Verneuil), and Germany (naturalist Alexander von
Humboldt, geologist Alexander Keyserling).[1][11] In 1845, Murchison, who had
according to Encyclopdia Britannica compiled the first geologic map of the Ural in
1841,[1] published The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains with de
Verneuil and Keyserling.[11][12]

The first railway across the Ural had been built by 1878 and linked Perm to
Yekaterinburg via Chusovoy, Kushva and Nizhny Tagil. In 1890 a railway linked Ufa
and Chelyabinsk via Zlatoust. In 1896 this section became a part of the Trans-
Siberian Railway. In 1909 yet another railway connecting Perm and Yekaterinburg
passed through Kungur by the way of the Siberian Route. It has eventually replaced
the Ufa Chelyabinsk section as the main trunk of the Trans-Siberian railway.

The highest peak of the Ural, Mount Narodnaya, (elevation 1,895 m (6,217 ft)) was
identified in 1927.[citation needed]

During the Soviet industrialization in the 1930s the city of Magnitogorsk was
founded in the South-Eastern Ural as a center of iron smelting and steelmaking.
During the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 19411942, the mountains became a
key element in Nazi planning for the territories which they expected to conquer in
the USSR. Faced with the threat of having a significant part of the Soviet
territories occupied by the enemy, the government evacuated many of the industrial
enterprises of European Russia and Ukraine to the eastern foothills of the Ural,
considered a safe place out of reach of the German bombers and troops. Three giant
tank factories were established at the Uralmash in Sverdlovsk (as Yekaterinburg
used to be known), Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, and Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant in
Chelyabinsk. After the war, in 19471948, Chum Labytnangi railway, built with the
forced labor of Gulag inmates, crossed the Polar Ural.
Mayak, 150 km southeast of Yekaterinburg, was a center of the Soviet nuclear
industry[1][13][14][15] and site of the Kyshtym disaster.[14][16]

Geography and topography[edit]

The Ural Mountains extend about 2,500 km (1,600 mi) from the Kara Sea to the Kazakh
Steppe along the northern border of Kazakhstan. Vaygach Island and the island of
Novaya Zemlya form a further continuation of the chain on the north. Geographically
this range marks the northern part of the border between the continents of Europe
and Asia. Its highest peak is Mount Narodnaya, approximately 1,895 m (6,217 ft) in
elevation.[1]

Yugyd Va National Park

By topography and other natural features, the Urals are divided, from north to
south, into the Polar (or Arctic), Nether-Polar (or Sub-Arctic), Northern, Central
and Southern parts. The Polar Urals extend for about 385 kilometers (239 mi) from
Mount Konstantinov Kamen in the north to the Khulga River in the south; they have
an area of about 25,000 km2 (9,700 sq mi) and a strongly dissected relief. The
maximum height is 1,499 m (4,918 ft) at Payer Mountain and the average height is
1,000 to 1,100 m (3,300 to 3,600 ft).

Polar Ural[edit]
The mountains of the Polar Ural have exposed rock with sharp ridges, though
flattened or rounded tops are also found.[1][4]

Nether-polar Ural[edit]
The Nether-Polar Ural are higher, and up to 150 km (93 mi) wider than the Polar
Urals. They include the highest peaks of the range Mount Narodnaya (1,895 m (6,217
ft)), Mount Karpinsky (1,878 m (6,161 ft)) and Manaraga (1,662 m (5,453 ft)). They
extend for more than 225 km (140 mi) south to the Shchugor River. The many ridges
are sawtooth shaped and dissected by river valleys. Both Polar and Nether-Polar
Urals are typically Alpine; they bear traces of Pleistocene glaciation, along with
permafrost and extensive modern glaciation, including 143 extant glaciers.[1][4]

Northern Ural[edit]
The Northern Ural consist of a series of parallel ridges up to 1,0001,200 m
(3,3003,900 ft) in height and longitudinal hollows. They are elongated from north
to south and stretch for about 560 km (350 mi) from the Usa River. Most of the tops
are flattened, but those of the highest mountains, such as Telposiz, 1,617 m (5,305
ft) and Konzhakovsky Stone, 1,569 m (5,148 ft) have a dissected topography.
Intensive weathering has produced vast areas of eroded stone on the mountain slopes
and summits of the northern areas.[1][4]

Middle Ural[edit]
The Central Ural are the lowest part of the Ural, with smooth mountain tops, the
highest mountain being 994 m (3,261 ft) (Basegi); they extend south from the Ufa
River.[4]

Southern Ural[edit]
Main article Southern Ural
The relief of the Southern Ural is more complex, with numerous valleys and parallel
ridges directed south-west and meridionally. The range includes the Ilmensky
Mountains separated from the main ridges by the Miass River. The maximum height is
1,640 m (5,380 ft) (Mount Yamantau) and the width reaches 250 km (160 mi). Other
notable peaks lie along the Iremel mountain ridge (Bolshoy Iremel and Maly Iremel).
The Southern Urals extend some 550 km (340 mi) up to the sharp westward bend of the
Ural River and terminate in the wide Mughalzhar Hills.[1]
Mountain formation near Saranpaul.jpg Rochers dans les montagnes de l Oural
448122760 3572eca433 o.jpg Mount Iremel.jpg Ignateva cave entry.jpg
Mountain formation near Saranpaul, Nether-Polar Urals Rocks in a river, Nether-
Polar Urals Big Iremel Mountain Entry to Ignateva Cave, South Urals
Geology[edit]

A mine in the Ural Mountains, early colour photograph by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky,

1910
The Urals are among the world's oldest extant mountain ranges. For its age of 250
to 300 million years, the elevation of the mountains is unusually high. They were
formed during the Uralian orogeny due to the collision of the eastern edge of the
supercontinent Laurussia with the young and rheologically weak continent of
Kazakhstania, which now underlies much of Kazakhstan and West Siberia west of the
Irtysh, and intervening island arcs. The collision lasted nearly 90 million years
in the late Carboniferous early Triassic.[17][18][19][20] Unlike the other major
orogens of the Paleozoic (Appalachians, Caledonides, Variscides), the Urals have
not undergone post-orogenic extensional collapse and are unusually well preserved
for their age, being underlaid by a pronounced crustal root.[21][22] East and south
of the Urals much of the orogen is buried beneath later Mesozoic and Cenozoic
sediments.[17] The adjacent Pay-Khoy Ridge to the north and Novaya Zemlya are not a
part of the Uralian orogen and formed later.

Many deformed and metamorphosed rocks, mostly of Paleozoic age, surface within the
Urals. The sedimentary and volcanic layers are folded and faulted. The sediments to
the west of the Ural Mountains are formed of limestone, dolomite and sandstone left
from ancient shallow seas. The eastern side is dominated by basalts.[4]

The western slope of the Ural Mountains has predominantly karst topography,
especially in the Sylva River basin, which is a tributary of the Chusovaya River.
It is composed of severely eroded sedimentary rocks (sandstones and limestones)
that are about 350 million years old. There are many caves, sinkholes and
undergroun