Mountains of Southern Siberia: history and geography

One of the main mountain systems of the mainland, stretching for 4,500 kilometers, with a total area of more than 1.5 million square kilometers - the mountains of Southern Siberia. Hidden in the depths of Asia, starting from the west and extending to the Pacific coast , these chains form a watershed between the great Siberian rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean and the no less famous reservoirs of the Far East, giving their waters to the Tihom. The belt of the mountains of Southern Siberia has a considerable height above sea level and is clearly divided into landscape zones. Over 60% is occupied by mountain taiga. The relief of the surface along the entire length is highly intersected, with huge amplitudes of heights, and this causes a wide variety of terrain and contrasts of natural and climatic conditions.

Geology

The mountains of South Siberia were not formed at once. First, tectonic uplifts occurred in the Baikal region and in the Eastern Sayan Mountains, this is indicated by Precambrian and Lower Paleozoic rocks. In the Paleozoic the Altai, the Western Sayan and the Salair Range formed. Later all, already in Mesozoic, the Eastern Transbaikalia rose. Mountain formation continues to this day, as indicated by annual earthquakes and movements of the earth's crust in the form of slow descents or uplifts. The mountains of Southern Siberia were formed under the influence of the quaternary glaciation. The glaciers thickly covered not only all the massifs, but also extended far to the plains of the south-west. It was the glaciers that dismembered the ridges and formed rock niches, due to which the crests became narrow and sharp, the slopes - steep, the gorges - deep.

Climate and types of relief

Throughout the length of the territory the mountains of Southern Siberia have negative average annual temperatures, that is, long winters with very high frosts. On the western slopes the summer is rainy, the snow cover is the most powerful - up to three meters. For this reason the mountains of South Siberia in these places are covered with damp taiga (fir, cedar), there are many marshes and magnificent meadows. On the eastern slopes and in the basins of precipitation is much less, summers are hot and very dry, landscapes are most often steppe. Among all ridges of the mountain of South Siberia for snow borders rise only in the Altai, in the Eastern Sayan Mountains and in the Stanoi Highlands - only there are glaciers. Especially a lot of them in the Altai - 900 square kilometers of glaciation.

Homeland of the Great Rivers

It is there that all the great Siberian rivers originate : the Ob, the Irtysh, the Yenisei, the Lena, the Amur. They flow first in narrow picturesque valleys between steep and impenetrable rocks. The current is incredibly fast - the slopes of the channel reach several tens of meters per kilometer of traffic. At the bottom of almost all rivers left glaciers in the form of curly rocks, "mutton head", crossbars and moraines. Mountains of South Siberia, whose map is studied even in school, formed in their basins and circuses the exceptional beauty of the lake. There are many of them, and some are more beautiful. For example, cascade Multinsky in Altai, in the same place Teletskoye - local pearl, and amazing Aya. Great and beautiful is the cleanest lake in the world - Lake Baikal. Fine Markakol, Ulug-Hol, Toja.