A range of western Russia forming the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia and extending about 2,414 km (1,500 mi) from the Arctic Ocean southward to Kazakhstan.
Urals
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U·ral Mountains (yʊr'əl)  |
A range of western Russia forming the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia and extending about 2,414 km (1,500 mi) from the Arctic Ocean southward to Kazakhstan.
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Urals or Ural Mountains, E European Russia and NW Kazakhstan, forming, together with the Ural River, the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia and separating the Russian plain from the W Siberian lowlands. The Urals extend c.1,500 mi (2,400 km) north and south from the Arctic tundra to the deserts N of the Caspian Sea. The polar section (north of lat. 64°N) is covered by tundra. The northern section (between lat. 64°N and lat. 61°N), a rocky treeless range, has the highest peaks, Naroda and Telpos-Iz. The central Urals (between lat. 61°N and lat. 55°N) are also known as the Ore Urals and have many low passes. The southern section (between lat. 55°N and lat. 51°N), known as the Mugodzhar Hills, consists of several high, parallel ridges that rise to 5,377 ft (1,639 m) in the Yaman-Tau. The S Urals are drained by the Ural River into the Caspian Sea. The waterways in the west are the Kama and Belaya rivers, tributaries of the Volga, and, in the east, the Ob-Irtysh drainage system. The Trans-Siberian RR crosses the central Urals, and the Samara-Tashkent RR crosses the S Urals. To the west, the Ural foothills slope gradually to the Volga. The eastern slope drops abruptly to the W Siberian lowlands. The population consists primarily of Russians, with some Bashkirs, Tatars, Udmurts, and Komi-Permyaks.
Resources and Industry
Except in the polar and northern sections, the mountains are forested, and lumbering is an important industry. The great mineral resources of Russia are in the Urals. Iron ore is mined in the south, and there are rich deposits of coal, copper, manganese, gold, aluminum, and potash. Oil fields and refineries along the Kama and Belaya rivers in the W Urals produce oil. Emeralds, chrysoberyl, topaz, and amethyst are mined, as are deposits of bauxite, asbestos, zinc, lead, silver, platinum, nickel, chrome, and tungsten.
The Urals industrial area (c.290,000 sq mi/751,100 sq km), a major Russia metallurgical region, is in the central and S Urals and the adjacent lowlands. Huge industrial centers are found at Yekaterinburg, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk, Perm, Berezniki, Nizhni Tagil, Orsk, Orenburg, Ufa, and Zlatoust. The concentration of industry in the Urals has led to the severe environmental degradation of many of the region's mountain habitats.
History
Known to medieval Russia as the Stone Belt, the Urals were reached in the early 12th cent. by colonists and fur traders from Novgorod. Colonization developed rapidly in the late 16th cent. The first ironworks were established in the 1630s, and metallurgy was encouraged by Peter the Great. In the late 18th and early 19th cent., the Urals area was a major iron producer, but its relative importance declined in the late 19th cent.
Under the first two Five-Year Plans (1929-39), the tremendous industrial development of the Urals was based on Ural iron ore and coking coal shipped by rail from the Kuznetsk Basin. During World War II, industries were transplanted from European USSR to the Urals, strategically situated in the heart of the USSR. Since the war, coking coal from the Qaraghandy Basin, Kuznetsk coal, and hydroelectric power have supported the metallurgical industry, which has been enormously expanded.
| Geography: Urals |
| Wikipedia: Ural Mountains |
This article is about the land formation. For other uses, see Ural.
- Riphean redirects here. For the time period, see Riphean (stage)
| The Ural Mountains | |
| Range | |
 |
|
| Countries | Russia, Kazakhstan |
|---|---|
| Regions | Bashkortostan, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Perm Krai, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Kurgan Oblast, Orenburg Oblast, Tyumen Oblast, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, West Kazakhstan |
| Highest point | Mount Narodnaya |
| - elevation | 1,895 m (6,217 ft) |
| Period | Carboniferous |
The Ural Mountains (Russian: Ура́льские го́ры, 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.
Geography
The Urals extend 2,498 km from the Kazakh steppes along the northern border of Kazakhstan to the coast of the Arctic ocean. Vaygach Island and the island of Novaya Zemlya form a further continuation of the chain. Geographically this range marks the northern part of the border between the continents of Europe and Asia. Its highest peak is Mount Narodnaya (Poznurr, 1,895 m). Erosion has exposed considerable mineral wealth in the Urals, including gems such as topaz and beryl. The Virgin Komi Forests in the northern Urals are recognized as a World Heritage site. 68% of the Ural Mountains are located in Russia, while the remaining 32% are located in Kazakhstan.[1][2] Geographers have divided the Urals into five regions: South, Middle, North, Subarctic and Arctic. The tree line drops from 1,400 metres to sea level as one progresses north. Sections of the south and middle regions are completely forested.
Etymology
The Urals were named after the Uralian tribe that was once native to the northern region of Asia. The Uralians were hunter-gatherers; however the lack of plentiful resources in the area forced them to relocate, spreading throughout the Asian region. According to another explanation, the word Ural is of Turkic origin and means a stone belt.[3]
Geology
Main article: Uralian orogeny
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 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, which subsequently broke itself apart into the seven continents known today. 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, oil and other minerals.
Flora and Fauna
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. |
The Urals are considered the backbone of Russian wilderness, with a diverse plant and wildlife population.
References
See also
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ural Mountains |
 Chusovaya River in the Ural Mountains. |
 A mine in the Ural Mountains, 1910 |
Coordinates: 60°00′N 60°00′E / 60°N 60°E
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Mentioned in
- Yuzhnoural᾽sk
- Naroda (mountain, Russia)
- Telpos-Iz (mountain, Russia)
- Bashkiria
- Beloretsk (city, Russia)
- Tëplaya Gora
- Samara (river, Russia)
- Vysokaya (mountain, Russia)
- demantoid
- amethyst
