Physical Geography of Russia

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Physical Geography of Russia The Repbulics

• A Land of Extrems
• Chapter 15
• Section 1

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Russia
Largest country in the world (6,592,800 sq.
miles) Population (300 million people) Spans 11
time zones Worlds largest mineral and energy
resources Worlds largest forest reserves Its
lakes contain approximately ¼ of the worlds
unfrozen fresh water
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Russian Soviet Expansion
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Former Soviet Union/Russia and the Republics
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Human Perspective

• Russia and the Republics occupy a tremendous
  expanse of territoryapproximately three times
  the land are of the United States. The region
  sprawls across the continents of both Europe and
  Asia and crosses 11 time zones. When Laborers in
  the western city of Kaliningrad are leaving their
  jobs after a days work, herders on the regions
  Pacific coast are just beginning to awaken their
  animals for the next days grazing.

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Population Density
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Northern Landforms

• 1. The Northern Europe Plain Extensive lowland
  area between the western border of Russia and the
  Republics and the Ural Mountains Chernozem, one
  of the worlds most fertile soils, is abundant
  there. It is call black earth, three feet deep,
  many of agricultural done here. 75 of over 300
  million people live here. Three of the largest
  cities are here Moscow, Russia Capital St.
  Petersburg and Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
• 2. West Siberian Plain Between the Ural
  Mountains and the Yenisey River and between the
  shores of the Arctic Ocean and the foothills of
  the Altay Mountains. It separate the Northern
  European and West Siberian plains. Its
  considered the dividing line between Europe and
  Asia. Other people consider both to be one single
  continent and they called it Eurasia. Since it
  tilted toward the north, its rivers flow toward
  the Arctic Ocean.
• 3. Central Siberian Plateau area of high
  plateaus between the Yenisey and Lena rivers
  East of this region lies a system of volcanic
  ranges. Mountains Upland are the dominant
  landforms with heights of 1,000-2,000 feet.
  Russian Far East its volcanic ranges. Kamchatka
  peninsula contains 120 volcanoes and 20 are
  still active. Sakhalin Kuril islands were size
  from Japan after WWII Japan still claims
  ownership of the Kuril Islands.

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Southern Landforms mountains, barren uplands
semiarid grasslands

• 4. Caucasus other Mts. stretch along the
  isthmus between the Black and Caspian Seas
  Caucacsus forms the border between Russia and
  Transcaucasia Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
  They stretch across the land that separates the
  Black and Caspian sea. It form the border between
  Russia and Transcaucasia (Armenia, Azerbaijan
  Georgia). Some of the mts. Are located in the SE
  border of Central Asia, in Kazakhstan,
  Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
  Uzbekistan. They are so high they stop any moist
  air causing it to have arid climate in Central
  Asia.
• 5. Turan Plain Extensive lowland between Caspian
  Sea and the mountains and uplands of Central
  Asia mostly arid land or desert. Two major
  rivers, the Syr Darya Amu Darya, yet much of
  the lowland is very dry. Two large deserts, the
  Kara Kum the Kyzyl Kum.

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Transcaucasia Central Asia
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Rivers and Lakes

• 6. Rivers/basins Arctic basin is largest Volga
  River is the longest on the European continent
  and drains into the Caspian Sea basin. Other
  drainage basins are the Pacific Ocean, Baltic
  Sea, Black Sea, and Aral Sea basins. The Ob, the
  Yenisey, the Lena rivers drain an area of over
  3 million miles into the Arctic ocean. The Volga
  carries about 60 of Russias river traffic.
• 7. Lakes Caspian (a saltwater lake worlds
  largest inland sea) and Aral seas in Central
  Asia. The Aral seas is also a saltwater lake,
  but since the 1960s, is has about 80 of its
  water volume. Irrigation from rivers that feed
  this lake.
• 8. Lake Baikal Oldest and deepest lake in the
  world with great diversity of species. North to
  South, it stretches 400 miles. Holds 20 of the
  worlds fresh water. Through some pollution, is
  remarkably clean. Thousand of spices of plants
  animals.

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Resources

• 1. Abundant resources, including huge coal
  reserves, deposits of iron ore, and other metals
  leading producer of oil and natural gas has
  one-fifth of the worlds timber resources large
  producer of hydroelectric power

• 2. Harsh climates (especially in Siberia), rugged
  terrain, and vast distances make resources
  difficult to extract and move them to market.
  (Siberia) Resources that are extracted are often
  done so at great environmental cost.

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Chapter 15 Section 2

• Areas in a Siberian town of Oymyakon has reported
  temperatures of -95 degrees. It can crack steel
  and cause tire to explode. When you exhale, your
  breath freezes into crystals that fall to the
  ground and make a noise that Siberians call the
  whispering of the stars. Some of the regions
  native believe that words are frozen during
  winter and in the warmer climates the air fills
  with out-of-date gossip, unheard jokes and cries
  of forgotten pain.

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Climate Vegetation

• 1. Distance from the moderating influence of the
  sea
• 2. Moisture travels such a long distance from the
  Atlantic Ocean that by the time the moist air
  arrives, it has lost much of its capacity for
  precipitation.
• 3. These are extreme as a result of distance from
  the sea.

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Vegetation Region of Russia and the Republics

• 1. Mostly in the Arctic climate zone Only plants
  such as mosses, lichens, small herbs, and low
  shrubs can survive there.
• 2. the taiga, largest forest on earth, composed
  primarily of coniferous trees Deciduous trees
  found farther south.
• 3. fertile, temperate grassland extending from
  southern Ukraine through northern Kazakhstan to
  the Altay Mountains.
• 4. In west and central areas of Central Asia the
  Kara Kum and Kyzyl Kum deserts occupy large areas
  of Turkmenistan Uzbekistan respectively.

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Section 3 Human-Environment Interaction

• Since the 1960s, irrigation policies in Central
  Asia have had a dramatic impact on the Aral Sea.
  The dried-up seabed had become a graveyard for
  abandoned ships. Thousands of people have left
  the region and those who remain risk illness, or
  even death.

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The Shrinking Ara Sea

• 1. Diverting water from the Aral Seas two main
  tributaries.
• Aral sea receives its water from two rivers, the
  Amu Darya the Syr Darya. In the 1950s,
  officials began to irrigate Central Asias cotton
  fields and large scale projects.
• 2. About 80 percent, with a trend toward total
  loss. It took so much water that the Aral slowed
  to a trickle. It began to evaporate.
• 6. Sharp rise in diseases, including cancer,
  respiratory diseases, dysentery, typhoid, and
  hepatitis. Cotton growers have used pesticides
  and fertilizers. Runoff picked up chemicals.
  Runoff carried the chemicals into the rivers that
  feed the Aral. The retreating water exposed
  fertilizers and pesticides as well as salt.
  Windstorms dump them on nearby population.

• 4. Large-scale projects such as the 500-mile-long
  Kara Kum canal. In order to keep the lake at the
  present levels, they would have to remove 9 of
  the 18 million acres that are used for farming.
• 5. all fish killed
• 6. High child mortality rate are among the
  highest. This pollution has caused a sharp
  increase in diseases. The incidence of throat
  cancer and respiratory diseases has risen
  dramatically. Dysentery, typhoid, and hepatitis
  have also become more common.

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The Russian Winter

• 1. Most variable temperatures on earth. 32
  million people make their home in Siberia.
  Winters are -94 and summer around 95 degrees.
  Most of the time is cold. Unbearable for the
  people.
• 2. extremely harsh winters, summers that bring
  swamps and swarms of insects. Because of snow
  melting, it creates a breeding ground for
  mosquitoes and black flies.
• 3. Permafrost means its hard to build, or
  buildings sink, tilt, or fall during thaws. The
  ground is hard to built on and with heated
  buildings will thaw the permafrost, but will
  sink, tilt or make building falls. To stop this
  problem, builder raise their structure a few feet
  off the ground on concrete pillars.
• 4. Seasons helped cause the defeat of napoleon.
  Napoleon in 1812 he left with 100,000 troop and
  came back to Poland with 10,000. The winter
  defeated him as well as Germany march to Russia.

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Crossing the Wild East

• 5. Tamed the Wild West of Russia 5,700 miles
  of tracks over seven time zones. Travel through
  the region was dangerous slow. The
  Trans-Siberian Railroad link Moscow to the
  Pacific port of Vladivostok. Between 1891 to
  1903, approximately 70,000 workers moved 77
  million cubic feet of earth, cleared more than
  100,000 acres of forest and built bridges over
  major rivers.
• 6. coal and iron ore. Russian officials speed up
  this project to populated Siberia in order to
  profit from resources. In 1904, 5 millions
  peasant farmers moved to Siberia. Within years
  the railroad aid the political and economic
  development of Russia.

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Rail Routes Across Russia