The Ural Mountains

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Plate tectonic movements that happened to create the Ural Mountains

Russia, containing The Great European Plain, also offers a vast mountain range, called the Ural Mountains. The Ural Mountains, made over 300 million years ago, are located at about 64 degrees North latitude, and 61 degrees North longitude. This distance is about 800 miles away from Moscow, Russia. Compared to the land in the Eastern part of Russia, The Ural Mountains are raised above sea-level. The Ural mountain range creates a border between Europe and Asia and has many physical features. You may ask, "Well, how were they created?" The Ural Mountains were created by continental plates underground colliding together overlapping one another creating a fold on the surface, called a continental convergence. During this process, the mountains have created some many interesting characteristics and features. The Ural Mountains, containing hog backs and tors along the mountainside, create an interesting feature of the Ural Mountains' formation. Hog backs are basically just eroded folds in the land that are created by the movement of plate tectonics. Tors are piles of large, core stones along a landscape.

 This is a picture of Mount Narodnaya. (Above)

The tallest mountain in the Ural Mountain-range is called, Mt. Narodnaya. Mt. Narodnaya, rising at 1,895 meters (6,217 feet), creates a weathering limited landscape. A weathering limited landscapes is one that has no vegetation. Because of the frigid temperature ranging from 50 degrees celsius and 30 degrees celsius during the Winter, it makes it hard for any type of vegetation to grow. Much of the mountain sides have valleys, streams and even caves. The Ural Mountains have a karst topography, meaning, the landscape of the mountains have severely eroded sedimentary rocks including sandstone and limestone. Most of the karst topography in the Ural Mountains are found in the basin of the Sylva River, which is a tributary of the Chusovaya River, including many karst sinks, caves, and underground streams. However, on the Eastern side of the slope of the Ural's, less areas of karst topography is apparent. 

Platinum Mineral found in the Ural Mountains (Above)

(Above) Beryl Mineral found deep in the ground

 About 48 species of minerals and ores have been found in the Ural mountains including, Quartz, Andradite, Beryl and even Platinum.

Quartz Crystals (Above)

 

Mount Elbrus (Above)

The tallest mountain in all of Europe, even after Mt. Narodnaya, is called, Mt. Elbrus. Mount Elbrus is 5,642 meters (18,510 feet) being the tallest mountain in Europe. It's physical features include a colluvium, mass-wasting landscapes that make debris fall to the bottom. Mass-wasting is basically the gravitational effect that gravity has on physical parts of the land, such as, rocks in general, making them fall down to the base. As you can see in the picture, at the top of Mt. Elbrus, it is covered in snow, while the base of the mountain is warm and green. This shows that the elevation plays a role in the weather and climate in the surrounding area around Mt. Elbrus.

Russia's Climate

 Russia's Summertime with Horses!

Russia is perceived to always be cold and frigid. However, Russia's climate varies drastically, from the deep Arctic coldness located in the north, to the scorching hot temperatures of inland areas located in the south. Russia's winter normally starts in late November and ends early April. During the winter, the average temperature is -10 degrees Celsius or 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Russia only has two seasons essentially. Those seasons are Winter and Summer. Spring and Fall come between Winter and Summer for just a brief glimpse throughout the year. During the Summer, temperatures can rise up to 35-37 degrees Celsius or 95-97 degrees Fahrenheit! That's almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit! Most of Southern Russia is hot and dry because it is a large steppe. A steppe is a large area of flat, un-forested grassland located in southeastern Europe or Siberia (A.K.A. a prairie). 

Russia's Wintery Climate
Whereas steppe regions can be categorized into those which experience a hot semi-arid climate and those in a cold semi-arid climate, the extreme central-southern area of Russia falls into the latter with a classification similar to BSk applying there.  That's because this area of arid, open prairie sees cold winters due its high latitude.  The snowfall here is limited, relative to other parts of the world on the same parallel.  This is related in part to the great distance from any major body of water.  Even in summer, those mild temperatures can't always be counted on as remoteness and climate features the tendency to have wide fluctuations in temperature between night and day.  Some places can see conditions at the extremes of 30 and 70 degrees within one day.  
You would think Colorado is very bipolar, but that's just nuts!

Russian Permafrost

 Permafrost found in Russia (Above)

In over two-thirds of the Russian territory, there is something that may seem like stone beginning at three or four feet under the ground.  As you may imagine, Russia’s icy climate creates rock hard conditions in the ground known as perennial frost, or permafrost, scientifically known as ground constantly frozen for over two years.  Some regions of Russian territory have permafrost that is thousands of feet deep and frozen for many thousands of years.  Permafrost does not necessarily contain ice, but in areas where permafrost thaws and refreezes seasonally there may be frozen water.

Woolly Mammoth found in Permafrost (Above)

Elevating temperatures in recent years is sparking concerns in far north regions, such as Russia.  Many permafrost areas are having longer thawing periods, and in the outer edges of permafrost regions, some is melting away, permanently. Vladislav Bolov, head of the Emergency Situations Ministry's Center for Forecasting and Monitoring has reported in Moscow Times saying, "In the next 25 to 30 years, the permafrost zone in Russia could shrink by 10 to 18 percent. By mid-century that could rise to 15 to 30 percent.”  The nature of permafrost means that when it thaws, it is as if bedrock is evacuating from the ground.  This has and will continue to have a major effect on infrastructure and buildings built on or near permafrost.  Architecture in Siberia has developed with much influence from the existence of permafrost.  In some far-north towns, buildings are elevated on beams to mitigate the effects of the disastrous changing permafrost, with beams resting atop the layer of everlasting ice.

 Houses Collapsing from Permafrost

Railways in Russia demonstrate the dangers of thawing permafrost along some stretches where they are bending out of shape.  "The primary effect of permafrost melt is subsidence — sections of land that sink or shift unpredictably. These can appear as local subsidence tens of meters long, and as long 'wavy' areas that extend for a kilometer or more," Russian Railways reported Russian railways in a written report.

INTRODUCTION

Hello,
My name is Jason Davis. I am 18 years old and I am currently in Casey Allen's: Intro to Physical Geography 1202 class. Walter King, my group partner, is helping me to do this project. We will be doing the physical features of Moscow, Russia. Without further ado, I present to you.............
MOSCOW, RUSSIA!!!!!!! With FIREWORKS!!!! BAAAAMMMM! What a beauty..

Moscow: Red Square

You may ask why we chose this location out of the many within this world. I will simply say that we chose this location because I've always wanted to visit Moscow due to my Russian origin and the interesting facts of geography as well as the traditional history of the Russian heritage.

Moscow's Unique Geography

 Syneclise and Cambrian Rock

Moscow, Russia is located on the East European Platform, a very stable land form made of Cambrain crystalline Continental basement rock made over 540 million years ago. The city itself is located on top of Syneclise, a 400 million-year old ancient bedrock depression containing limestone, silt, clay and sand.  more info Moscow is not only one of the top ten most populated cities (8.6 million), but it also has some unique geographical features. One geographic feature is its' famous and renowned river, The Moskva River. 

 Moskva River

 With 49 bridges stretched out across the river, there are also road systems placed in rings around Kremlin, the heart of Moscow. Because the Moskva River is the main river in the city, It is used as a main waterway for transportation and hydroelectricity. It stretches 80km (About 50 miles) from the North-West to the South-East territory of Moscow. That's a freaking long river to be in a highly populated city!

Smolensko-Moskovsky Hills

Another geographical feature is Moscow's Smolensko-Moskovsky Hills.
At 55 degrees N with a relatively cold climate the area has a history of glacial activity.  Glaciers are responsible for the higher landscape of the northwestern part of the city.  This landscape is part of a larger feature that extends 400 miles, a ridge that represents the edge of one of the region's past glaciers. In the southern part of the city there is the Moskvoretsko-Oksky Plain.  This hilly area was created by erosion from streams and rivers. Much of rock and surface landmass of the Moscow area is related to ancient glaciers, including sediments and erosion from both glacier melt and glacier movement.