More commonly known as the Urals, it's considered as the natural boundary between Europe and Asia.
Being of Eastern European descent, I'm naturally curious about all things Eastern European especially the Ural Mountains! What fascinates me about the Urals is referred to as Uralian orogeny. That refers to the long series of geological events that raised the Urals.
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 in the late Carboniferous period, when western Siberia collided with eastern Baltica and Kazakhstania to form the supercontinent of Laurasia.
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Ural Mountains at a glance
:Riphean redirects here. For the time period, see Riphean (stage)
The Ural Mountains (, Uralskiye gory) (also known as the Urals) are a mountain range that runs roughly north-south through western Russia. They are usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia.
In Greco-Roman antiquity, Pliny the Elder thought that the Urals correspond to the Riphean Mountains mentioned by various authors. They are also known as the Great Stone Belt in Russian history and folklore.
The Timeworn Urals
by Barbara A. Somervill
The Timeworn Urals (Geography of the World)
Amazon Price: $27.07 (as of 12/07/2009)
Compared to the world's other mountain ranges, the Urals are old and worn down. Yet their age makes them all the more fascinating. Young readers will scale the timeworn peaks of the Urals, straddling the distinct ecosystems and cultures of Europe and Asia.
Urals Geography
The Urals extend 2,500 km from the Kazakh steppes along the northern border of Kazakhstan to the coast of the Arctic ocean.
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Kazakhstan at a glance
Kazakstan (also spelled Kazakhstan, Qazaqstan, pronounced ; ), officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is an Asian country which is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country.Agency of Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan (ASRK). 2005. Main Demographic Indicators. Available at http://www.stat.kzUnited States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). 2007. ?Kazakhstan? in The World Factbook. Book on-line. Available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kz.html Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe. It is neighbored clockwise from the north by Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and also borders on a significant part of the Caspian Sea. The capital moved in 1997 to Astana from Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city.
Vast in size, the terrain of Kazakhstan ranges from flatlands, steppes, taigas, rock-canyons, hills, deltas, in part snow-capped mountains and deserts. With 16.4 million people (2009 census), Kazakhstan has the 62nd largest population in the world, though its population density is less than 6 people per square kilometre (15 per sq. mi.).
For most of its history the territory of modern-day Kazakhstan has been inhabited by nomadic tribes. By the 16th century the Kazakhs emerged as a distinct group, divided into three hordes. The Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century all of Kazakhstan was part of the Russian Empire. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganised several times before becoming the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936, a part of the USSR. During the 20th century, Kazakhstan was the site of major Soviet projects, including Khrushchev's Virgin Lands campaign, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and the Semipalatinsk "Polygon", the USSR's primary nuclear weapon testing site.
Kazakhstan declared itself an independent country on December 16, 1991, the last Soviet republic to do so. Its communist-era leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, became the country's new president. Since independence, Kazakhstan has pursued a balanced foreign policy and worked to develop its economy, especially its hydrocarbon industry. While the country's economic outlook is improving, President Nazarbayev maintains strict control over the country's politics. Nevertheless, Kazakhstan's international prestige is building.Zarakhovich, Yuri (September 27, 2006). "Kazakhstan Comes on Strong", Time Magazine. It is now considered to be the dominant state in Central Asia.Medvedev Visit Underscores Kazakh Victory Over Uzbekistan For Regional Dominance Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty The country is a member of many international organizations, including the United Nations, NATO's Partnership for Peace, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. In 2010, Kazakhstan will chair the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Kazakhstan is ethnically and culturally diverse, in part due to mass deportations of many ethnic groups to the country during Stalin's rule. Kazakhs are the largest group. Kazakhstan allows freedom of religion, and many different beliefs are represented in the country. Islam is the primary religion. The Kazakh language is the state language, while Russian is also officially used as an "equal" language (to Kazakh) in Kazakhstan's institutions.CIA, The Word Factbook. Available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kz.htmlThe constitution of Kazakhstan: 1. The state language of the Republic of Kazakhstan shall be the Kazakh language. 2. In state institutions and local self-administrative bodies the Russian language shall be officially used on equal grounds along with the Kazakh language. Available at http://www.kazakhstan.orexca.com/kazakhstan_constitution.shtml
Arctic Ocean at a glance
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea, classifying it as one of the mediterranean seas of the Atlantic Ocean. Alternatively, the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost lobe of the all-encompassing World Ocean.
Almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America, the Arctic Ocean is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year Since the beginning of the 21st century, sea ice covers only 1/3 to 1/2 the surface of the Arctic Ocean at the end of summer. (and almost completely in winter). The Arctic Ocean's temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes;Some Thoughts on the Freezing and Melting of Sea Ice and Their Effects on the Ocean K. Aagaard and R. A. Woodgate, Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory
University of Washington, January 2001. Retrieved 7 December 2006. its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major oceans, due to low evaporation, heavy freshwater inflow from rivers and streams, and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities. The summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50%. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) use satellite data to provide a daily record of Arctic sea ice cover and the rate of melting compared to an average period and specific past years.
Category: Image - :Arctic Ocean - en.png|thumb|300px|right|The Arctic Ocean
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Ural Mountain trip documentary
The Uralic Languages
by Danie Abondolo
The Uralic Languages (Routledge Language Family Series)
Amazon Price: $64.08 (as of 12/06/2009)
The Uralic Languages form a language family of about 30 languages spoken by approximately 20 million people. The name of the language family refers to the location of the family's suggested Urheimat (homeland), which is often placed close to the Ural mountains. Countries that are home to a significant number of speakers of Uralic languages include: Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Romania, Russia, the Serbian province of Vojvodina, and Sweden. The healthiest Uralic languages, in terms of the number of native speakers and national identity, are Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian.
The Urals Continue
Vaygach Island and the island of Novaya Zemlya form a further continuation of the chain.
Vaygach Island at a glance
Vaygach Island () is an island in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, in the Arctic Sea between the Pechora Sea and the Kara Sea.
Vaygach Island is separated from the Yugorsky Peninsula in the mainland by the Yugorsky Strait and from Novaya Zemlya by the Kara Strait. The island is a part of Nenets Autonomous Okrug of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia.
*Area:
*Length: ~
*Width: up to
*Average temperatures: −20°? (February), +5°? (June)
*Highest point:
Vaygach Island is mainly formed of argillaceous slates, sandstone, and limestone. There are many rivers (20-40 km in length), swamps, and small lakes on the island. For the most part it consists of tundra. Slight rocky ridges run generally along its length, and the coast has low cliffs in places. The island consists mostly of limestone, and its elevation above the sea is geologically recent. Raised beaches are frequent. The rocks are heavily scored by ice, but this was probably marine ice, not that of glaciers. The settlements of Vaygach, Dolgaya Guba, and Varnek are located on the island.
Novaya Zemlya at a glance
Novaya Zemlya (, also spelled Novaja Zemlja, lit. New Land; also known in English and in Dutch as Nova Zembla, Norwegian Gåselandet (Goose Land)) is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe at Cape Zhelaniya (see also extreme points of Europe). The archipelago is administered by Arkhangelsk Oblast as Novaya Zemlya Island Territory. Its population is 2,716 (2002 census), of which 2,622 reside in Belushya Guba, an urban-type settlement that is the administrative center of Novaya Zemlya District. The indigenous population consists of about 100 Nenetseshttp://www-ns.iaea.org/downloads/rw/waste-safety/north-test-site-final.pdf who subsist mainly on fishing, trapping, polar bear hunting and seal hunting.
Novaya Zemlya consists of two major islands, separated by the narrow Matochkin Strait, and a number of smaller ones. The two main islands are Severny (northern) and Yuzhny (southern). Novaya Zemlya separates the Barents Sea from the Kara Sea. The total area is about 90,650 km².
As Novaya Zemlya was a sensitive military area during the Cold War years, the Soviet Air Force maintained a presence at Rogachevo air base on the southern part of the island. It was used primarily for interceptor aircraft operations but also provided logistical support for the nearby nuclear test area.
Ural Mountains: first snows
Silverland: A Winter Journey Beyond the Urals
by Dervla Murphy
Silverland: A Winter Journey Beyond the Urals
Amazon Price: $11.96 (as of 12/07/2009)
Journey through the wind-blown snowscapes of Far Eastern Russia with the septuagenarian globetrotter Dervla Murphy in this engaging travelogue. As Murphy travels deeper into the hinterland, she encounters a strange world of lynx and elks, indigenous tribes and shamanism, reindeer broth and taiga-berry pie. The slow-train takes Murphy into relatively untouched regions where she meets a host of colorful and generous characters who enjoy fireside debates bolstered by steaming samovars of sweet tea. Insightful, warm, and original, this is an amazing account of the secrets of Siberia and beyond.
Dervla Murphy has been writing accounts of her journeys to the remoter areas of four continents since 1964; her books include Eight Feet in the Andes and Through Siberia By Accident.
The Urals form Country Border
Geographically this range marks the northern part of the border between Asian and European sections of the Eurasian continent.
Ural Mountains (Encyclopædia Britannica) : forming a rugged spine in west-central Russia and the major part of the boundary bet
Urals up close: between Europe and Asia
Russia Close-Up: between Europe and Asia
South UralsRussia's Chelyabinsk Region, located on the border between Europe and Asia in the southern Ural Mountains, still has a long way to go to become a mainstream holiday spot. But thought it lacks a developed tourist infrastructure, the region offers plenty of maiden forests and wilderness of the real Russia.
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The Great Urals: Regionalism and the Evolution of the Soviet System
by James R. Harris
The Great Urals: Regionalism and the Evolution of the Soviet System
Amazon Price: $59.95 (as of 12/07/2009)
Political histories of the Soviet Union have portrayed a powerful Kremlin leadership whose will was passively implemented by regional Party officials and institutions. Drawing on his research in recently opened archives in Moscow and the Urals--a vast territory that is a vital center of the Russian mining and metallurgy industries--James R. Harris overturns this view.
He argues here that the regions have for centuries had strong identities and interests and that they cumulatively exerted a significant influence on Soviet policy-making and on the evolution of the Soviet system. After tracing the development of local interests prior to the Revolution, Harris demonstrates that a desperate need for capital investment caused the Urals and other Soviet regions to press Moscow to increase the investment and production targets of the first five year plan. He provides conclusive evidence that local leaders established the pace for carrying out such radical policies as breakneck industrialization and the construction of forced labor camps.
When the production targets could not be met, regional officials falsified data and blamed "saboteurs" for their shortfalls. Harris argues that such deception contributed to the personal and suspicious nature of Stalin's rule and to the beginning of his onslaught on the Party apparatus. Most of the region's communist leaders were executed during the Great Terror of 193638. In his conclusion, Harris measures the impact of their interests on the collapse of the communist system, and the fate of reform under Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
Urals' Highest Peak
Its highest peak is Mount Narodnaya (Poznurr, 1,895 m).
Mount Narodnaya at a glance
Mount Narodnaya, in the Research Range, is the highest peak of the Urals, located in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, 0.5 km to east from the border of Komi Republic. Its height is 1,894 m. It is formed with quartzites and metamorphosed slates of the Proterozoic and Cambrian eras. There are some glaciers on the mountain. Also, there are sparse forests of larch and birch in deep valleys at the foot of the Mount Narodnaya. The slopes of the mountain are covered with highland tundra.
Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia's City of Steel
by John Scott and Stephen Kotkin
Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia's City of Steel
Amazon Price: $14.72 (as of 12/07/2009)
This book is a first-person account of work life in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Disenchanted with opportunities in Depression America in 1931, Scott takes off for the Workers' Paradise. He finds a job as a welder building the massive steelworks in the new Soviet city of Magnitogorsk in the Ural Mountains. Altogether, he spent six years living and working in Magnitogorsk until he lost his job due to Stalin's purges.
The conditions that Scott found himself working in are simply incredible. He rose well before dawn and went to work outdoors in -30 degree temperatures with no breakfast. Lunch, the major meal of the day, was a hunk of bread and some watery soup with perhaps a slice of tough meat. Work place injuries were extremely common, due to the cold, lack of food and lack of training or safety equipment. For example, Scott describes an incident where he was working high above the ground and saw something, or rather, somebody, go sailing past only to the pipes below. As a foreigner, Scott knew some first aid, so he was always called on to care for such injuries when they occurred at the work site. In addition to describing work life and living conditions, Scott also discusses the educational and training systems that were in place and spare time activities such as vacations. He also includes some anecdotes about ex-pat workers who he met in Magnitogorsk.
Scott remains objective throughout the book, making the message of the book extremely powerful, much more so than if he had pressed political arguments or personal viewpoints. A particularly interesting facet of the book is its discussion of the purges of the 1930s and speculation on their cause. Few other outsiders were living inside Soviet society at the time, so Scott's views can be uniquely enlightening about how Soviets perceived what was happening to their society and why. Scott identifies several possible causes for the purges, but seems to place great emphasis on the fear of foreign saboteurs and does not mention Stalin's personality at all as a possible cause. Area specialists and historians will find much of interest in this book, as will casual readers.
Virgin Komi Forests: UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Virgin Komi Forests is a natural UNESCO World Heritage site in the Northern Ural mountains of the Komi Republic, Russia. At 32,800 km² it is the largest virgin forest in Europe.
Virgin Komi Forests at a glance
The Virgin Komi Forests is a natural UNESCO World Heritage site in the Northern Ural mountains of the Komi Republic, Russia. At 32,800 km² it is the largest virgin forest in Europe.
The Virgin Komi Forests belong to the Ural Mountains taiga ecoregion. Dominant tree species include Siberian Spruce, Siberian Fir and Siberian Larch, while the most prominent mammals are the reindeer, the sable, the mink and the hare.
The site corresponds to Russia's Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve and Yugyd Va National Park. Its World Heritage Site status was recognised in 1995, making it the first natural World Heritage site in the country. This recognition brought the site additional funding from abroad and saved it from imminent logging by a French company (HUET Holding). However, conservation threats remain, illegal logging and gold-mining in particular. Deposits of gold in the northern part of the Yugyd-Va National Park were to be mined prior to 1995.
Despite the area's recognition as a World Heritage site, attempts at extracting gold are being actively lobbied by the Head of the Republic and Komi's Ministry of Nature. The regional government's attempts to move the site's borders so as to exclude the gold-rich parts and strip them of their protected status have been recently ruled out by Komi's Supreme Court.
Ural Mountains among world's oldest mountain ranges ...
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 in the late Carboniferous period, when western Siberia collided with eastern Baltica (~connected to Laurentia (North America) to form the minor supercontinent of Euramerica) and Kazakhstania to form the supercontinent of Laurasia. Later Laurasia and Gondwana collided to form the supercontinent of Pangaea. Europe and Siberia have remained joined together ever since.The Urals were first studied in a systematic way by Russian mineralogist Ernst Karlovich Hofmann (1801-1871) of St. Petersburg University. During his tireless research, which began in 1828, Hofmann travelled thousands of miles in the Urals and gathered a vast collection of minerals, like gold, platinum, magnetite, ilmenite, perovskite, rutile, chromite, chrysoberyl, quartz, zircon, uvarovite, phenakite, topaz and beryl, among others.
The Urals have large deposits of gold, platinum, coal, iron, nickel, silver, and other minerals.
Geological events formed Urals: Uralian Orogeny ...
The Uralian orogeny refers to the long series of geological events that raised the Ural Mountains, starting in the Late Carboniferous and Permian periods of the Palaeozoic Era, ca. 318-299 and 299-251 Mya, and ending with the last series of continental collisions in Triassic to early Jurassic times.
Uralian orogeny at a glance
The Uralian orogeny refers to the long series of mountain building events that raised the Ural Mountains, starting in the Late Carboniferous and Permian periods of the Palaeozoic Era, ca. 318-299 and 299-251 Mya, and ending with the last series of continental collisions in Triassic to early Jurassic times. In terms of plate tectonics and continental drift, the Uralian orogeny resulted from a southwestern movement of the Siberian plate, catching a smaller landmass, Kazakhstania, between it and the nearly completely assembled supercontinent, Pangaea. The mountains of Eastern Europe, on the paleocontinent geologists call Laurussia, and those of Western Siberia both rose as the edge of Kazakhstania dove under the European plate. This event was the last stage in the assembly of Pangaea.
The Urals and Western Siberia in the Bronze and Iron Ages (Cambridge World Archaeology)
by Ludmila Koryakova and Andrej Epimakhov
The Urals and Western Siberia in the Bronze and Iron Ages (Cambridge World Archaeology)
Amazon Price: $103.37 (as of 12/07/2009)
This book is the first synthesis of the archaeology of the Urals and Western Siberia. It presents a comprehensive overview of the late prehistoric cultures of these regions, which are of key importance for the understanding of long-term changes in Eurasia. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, the Urals and Western Siberia are characterized by great environmental and cultural diversity which is reflected in the variety and richness of their archaeological sites. Based on the latest achievements of Russian archaeologists, this study demonstrates the temporal and geographical range of its subjects starting with a survey of the chronological sequence from the late fourth millennium BC to the early first millennium CE. Recent discoveries made in different regions of the area contribute to an understanding of several important issues, such as development of Eurasian metallurgy, technological and ritual innovations, the emergence and development of pastoral nomadism and its role in Eurasian interactions, and major sociocultural fluctuations of the Bronze and Iron Ages.
Ludmila Koryakova is professor at the Ural State University and Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She has received fellowships from the European Community (INTAS foundation), the Russian Academy of Science, CNRS, and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is the author of more than eighty publications in Russian, European, and American books and journals. Andrej Vladimirovich Epimakhov is a Ph.D. Research Fellow at the Institute of History and Archaeology, Russian Academy of Science, as well as Assistant Professor at Southern Ural State University.
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Ural Mountain music
The Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Yekaterinenburg - Valentin Silvestrov: Orchestral Works vol. 1
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Beyond The Ural River
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Russian Cossack Music from the Urals
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Ural Cossacks Choir / Ural'skij Kazachij Hor
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Drop me a line ... what do you think of the Ural Mountains?
Do you have a fascination with Eastern European history or geography? Have you traveled there? Seen the Ural Mountains in person? I'd love to hear from you!
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Reply
- Shelly Shelly Oct 7, 2009 @ 11:04 am
- Well raise your hand if you have ever flown over the Urals--my hand is up! looking down, I realized why it is so difficult to find people who are lost there or even a crashed plane. I was fascinated and took lots of pictures--I would have been talking to a couple Russian soldiers, but we hit a bit of turbulance, so I had to return to my seat--they did point out right where we were on a map for me. My pictures really under-represented the vastness and wonder of them. Another cool lens of yours that I hadn't encountered before. I particularly enjoyed the first snow slide show and music.
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- cyberpunkdreams cyberpunkdreams Sep 23, 2009 @ 7:14 pm
- Great lens. I've found them quite fascinating as well.
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- dc64 dc64 Jul 7, 2009 @ 9:36 am
- I so love geography, and wish I could sprout wings and fly to all the beautiful places on Earth. The only thing is, I'd have to learn how to sleep with wings sticking out of my back.
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- ElizabethJeanAllen ElizabethJeanAllen Oct 31, 2008 @ 4:41 pm
- It looks like a very interesting area to visit. The mountains are beautiful at a distance. I'll bet their even prettier up close.
Great lens
Lizzy
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