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Ural Mountains

Ural Mountains

The Ural Mountains (Russian: Уральские горы = Урал) also known simply as the Urals and as the Riphean Mountains in Greco-Roman antiquity, is a mountain range that runs roughly north and south through western Russia. The Urals extend 2500 km from the Kazakh steppes along the northern border of Kazakhstan to the coast of the Arctic ocean. The island of Novaya Zemlya forms a further continuation of the chain. Geographically this range marks the northern part of the (arbitrary) border between Asian and European sections of the Eurasian continent. Its highest peak is Mount Narodnaya (Poznurr, 1895 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. Yekaterinburg is the self-proclaimed capital of the Urals, though "Urals" is a geographical term, not an administrative one. The Urals are among the world's oldest extant mountain ranges. They were formed in the late Carboniferous period, when a continent consisting largely of Siberia collided with the supercontinent that contained much of the world's land at the time: the combination of Laurasia (Europe and North America) and Gondwana. Europe and Siberia have remained joined together ever since. Geographers have divided the Urals into five regions: South, Middle, North, Subarctic and Arctic Urals.

External links

- [http://wikitravel.org/en/Urals Wikitravel article] Category:Mountain ranges of the Russian Federation Category:Mountains of Russia ko:우랄 산맥 ja:ウラル山脈

Steppes

In physical geography, a steppe (from Russian step') is a plain without trees (apart from those near rivers and lakes); it is similar to a prairie, although a prairie is generally considered as being dominated by tall grasses, while short grasses are said to be the norm in the steppe. It may be semi-desert, or covered with grass or shrubs, or both depending on the season. The term is also used to denote the climate encountered in such regions, too dry to support a forest but not so dry as to make it a desert. They are usually found in areas of the world less prone to moisture. The soil is considered too moist to be a desert, but also too dry to support normal forest life. The climate of steppes can be summarized by hot summers and cold winters, averaging 10-20 inches of rain every year. Plant life is usually greater than one foot tall, including the blue grama and buffalo grass, cacti, sagebrush, speargrass, and other small relatives of the sunflower. Animal life includes but isn't limited to the Corsac Fox, Mongolian Gerbil, Saiga Antelope, Northern Lynx, and the Saker Falcon. The world's largest zone of steppes are found in central Russia and neighbouring republics of Central Asia. The steppes begin east of the Volga river and extend through desert or semi-desert south of the Ural Mountains and to the north and east of the Caspian Sea. To the east of the Caspian Sea they extend through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to the mountain ranges of Mongolia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. To the north on the eastern side of the Urals is the forested West Siberian Plain which extends nearly to the Arctic Ocean. Another large steppe area is located in the central United States and western Canada. The High Plains steppe is the westernmost part of the Great Plains region. Category:Grasslands Category:Climate

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located mostly in the north polar region, is the smallest of the world's five oceans, and the shallowest. Even though IHO recognizes it as an ocean, oceanographers may call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea, classifying it as one of the mediterranean seas of the Atlantic Ocean.

Geography

Atlantic Ocean The Arctic Ocean occupies a roughly circular basin and covers an area of about 14,090,000 km² (5,440,000 mi²), slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US. The coastline length is 45,389 km. Nearly landlocked, it is surrounded by the land masses of Eurasia, North America, Greenland, and a number of islands. It includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, White Sea and other tributary bodies of water. It is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Bering Strait and to the Atlantic Ocean through the Greenland Sea. An underwater ocean ridge, the Lomonosov Ridge, divides the Arctic Ocean into two basins: the Eurasian, or Nansen, Basin, which is between 4,000 and 4,500 m (13,000 and 15,000 ft) deep, and the North American, or Hyperborean, Basin, which is about 4,000 m deep. The topography of the ocean bottom is marked by fault-block ridges, plains of the abyssal zone, ocean deeps, and basins. The average depth of the Arctic Ocean is 1,038 m (3,407 ft), in part due to the large extent of continental shelf extant on the Eurasian side [http://www.marianatrench.com/mariana_trench-oceanography.htm]. continental shelfs.]] The greatest inflow of water comes from the Atlantic by way of the Norwegian Current, which then flows along the Eurasian coast. Water also enters from the Pacific via the Bering Strait. The East Greenland Current carries the major outflow. Temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes. Ice covers most of the ocean surface year-round, causing subfreezing temperatures much of the time. The Arctic is a major source of very cold air that inevitably moves toward the equator, meeting with warmer air in the middle latitudes and causing rain and snow. Little marine life exists where the ocean surface is covered with ice throughout the year. Marine life abounds in open areas, especially the more southerly waters. The ocean's major ports are the Russian cities of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk (Archangel). The Arctic Ocean is important as the shortest air route between the Pacific coast of North America and Europe overflies it. Major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern access to the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait); strategic location between North America and Russia; shortest marine link between the extremes of eastern and western Russia; floating research stations operated by the US and Russia; maximum snow cover in March or April about 20 to 50 centimeters over the frozen ocean; snow cover lasts about 10 months. Geographic coordinates:

Climate

Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk Polar climate characterized by persistent cold and relatively narrow annual temperature ranges; winters characterized by continuous darkness, cold and stable weather conditions, and clear skies; summers characterized by continuous daylight, damp and foggy weather, and weak cyclones with rain or snow. There is considerable seasonal variation in how much pack ice covers the Arctic Ocean.

Elevation extremes

- lowest point: Fram Basin −4,665 m (according to [http://www.marianatrench.com/mariana_trench-oceanography.htm], the Arctic Ocean's Eurasian Basin deepest point is at −5,450 m (17,881 ft))
- highest point: sea level 0 m

Natural resources

Oil and gas fields, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, sand and gravel aggregates, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales). The political dead zone near the center of the sea is also at the center of a mounting dispute between the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark. It is considered significant because of its potential to contain as much as or more than a quarter of the world's oil and gas resources, the tapping of which could greatly alter the flow of the global energy market. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4354036.stm#map The Arctic's New Gold Rush - BBC]

Natural hazards

Ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island; icebergs calved from glaciers in western Greenland and extreme northeastern Canada; permafrost on islands; virtually ice locked from October to June; ships subject to superstructure icing from October to May.

Environment - current issues

Endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage; thinning polar icepack; seasonal hole in ozone layer over the North Pole. Reduction of the area of Arctic sea ice will have an effect on the planet's albedo, thus possibly affecting global warming. Many scientists are presently concerned that warming temperatures in the Arctic may cause large amounts of fresh, Arctic Ocean meltwater to enter the North Atlantic, possibly disrupting global ocean current patterns. Potentially severe changes in the Earth's climate might then ensue.

Ports and harbors

ocean current patterns Churchill, Manitoba (Canada), Inuvik, (Canada) Prudhoe Bay, (US) Barrow, (US) Pevek, (Russia) Tiksi, (Russia), Dikson (Russia), Dudinka, (Russia), Murmansk (Russia), Arkhangelsk (Russia) Kirkenes, (Norway) Vardø, (Norway)

Transportation - note

Sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes; the Northwest Passage (North America) and Northern Sea Route (Eurasia) are important seasonal waterways.

Exploration

The first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean was led by Wally Herbert in 1969, in a dogsled expedition from Alaska to Svalbard with air support. See also Northwest Passage, Open Polar Sea.

References

Bibliography:
- Neatby, Leslie H., Discovery in Russian and Siberian Waters 1973 ISBN 0821401246
- Ray, L., and Stonehouse, B., eds., The Arctic Ocean 1982 ISBN 0333310179
- Thorén, Ragnar V. A., Picture Atlas of the Arctic 1969 ISBN 0821401246 Based on public domain text by US Naval Oceanographer: http://oceanographer.navy.mil/arctic.html

External links

- [http://www.arctic-council.org Arctic Council]
- [http://www.northernforum.org The Northern Forum]
- [http://vitalgraphics.grida.no/arcticmap Arctic Environmental Atlas] Interactive map of the Greater Arctic, including shaded relief and bathymetry of the Arctic Ocean.
- [http://www.arctic.noaa.gov NOAA Arctic Theme Page] Comprehensive Arctic Resource with data, photos, maps, essays on key Arctic issues, and much more.
- [http://dapper.pmel.noaa.gov/dchart/ NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer] Plot and download ocean observations
- [http://www.unaami.noaa.gov Arctic time series: The Unaami Data collection] Viewable interdisciplinary, diverse collection of Arctic variables from different geographic regions and data types.
- [http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/gallery_np.html NOAA North Pole Web Cam] Images from Web Cams deployed in Spring on an ice floe in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.
- [http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/gallery_np_weatherdata.html NOAA Near-realtime North Pole Weather Data] Data from instruments deployed on an ice floe in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.
- [http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,63980,00.html Search for Arctic Life Heats Up by Stephen Leahy] Category:Oceans Category:Seas Category:Arctic zh-min-nan:Pak-ke̍k-iûⁿ ko:북극해 ja:北極海 simple:Arctic Ocean th:มหาสมุทรอาร์กติก

Island

in New York, USA]] An island or isle is any piece of land that is completely surrounded by water. Very small islands are called islets. Although seldom adhered to, it is also proper to call an emergent land feature on an atoll an islet, since an atoll is a type of island. A key or cay is also another name for a relatively small island. Groups of related islands are called archipelagos. There are three main types of islands: continental islands, river islands, and volcanic islands. There are also some artificial islands. The word island derives ultimately from the Old English word igland. It was originally spelled phonetically: iland. The letter "s" was added out of the mistaken belief that it derived from isle (< Old French < Latin insula) + land, where no such etymological relationship existed.

Continental islands

Continental islands are bodies of land that are connected by the continental shelf to a continent. That is, these islands are part of an adjacent continent and are located on the continental shelf of that continent. Examples include Greenland and Sable Island off North America, Barbados and Trinidad off South America, Sicily off Europe, Sumatra and Java off Asia, New Guinea and Tasmania off Australia. A special type of continental island is the microcontinental island, which results when a continent is rifted. The best example is Madagascar off Africa. The Kerguelen Islands and some of the Seychelles are also examples. Another subtype is the barrier island: accumulations of sand on the continental shelf.

River islands

River islands occur in river deltas and in large rivers. They are caused by deposition of sediment at points in the flow where the current loses some of its carrying capacity. In essence, they are river bars, isolated in the stream. While some are ephemeral, and may disappear if the river's water volume or speed changes, others are stable and long-lived.

Volcanic islands

Volcanic islands are built by volcanoes. Mid-ocean examples are not geologically part of any continent. One type of volcanic island is found in a volcanic island arc. These islands arise from volcanoes where the subduction of one plate under another is occurring. Examples include the Mariana Islands, the Aleutian Islands, and most of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean. Some of the Lesser Antilles and the South Sandwich Islands are the only Atlantic Ocean examples. Another type of volcanic island occurs where an oceanic rift reaches the surface. There are two examples: Iceland, which is the world's largest volcanic island, and Jan Mayen—both are in the Atlantic. The last type of volcanic island are those formed over volcanic hotspots. A hot spot is more or less stationary relative to the moving tectonic plate above it, so a chain of islands results as the plate drifts. Over long periods of time, this type of island is eventually eroded down and "drowned" by isostatic adjustment, becoming a seamount. Plate movement across a hot-spot produces a line of islands oriented in the direction of the plate movement. An example is the Hawaiian Islands, from Hawaii to Kure, which then extends beneath the sea surface in a more northerly direction as the Emperor Seamounts. Another chain with similar orientation is the Tuamotu Archipelago; its older, northerly trend is the Line Islands. The southernmost chain is the Austral Islands, with its northerly trending part the atolls in the nation of Tuvalu. Tristan da Cunha is an example of a hotspot volcano in the Atlantic Ocean. An atoll is an island formed from a coral reef that has grown on an eroded and submerged volcanic island. The reef rises above the surface of the water and forms a new island. Atolls are typically ring-shaped with a central, shallow lagoon. Examples include the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and Bora Bora in the Pacific.

External links

- [http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/part8.htm Definition of island] from United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Category:Islands Category:Landforms zh-min-nan:Tó-sū ko:섬 ms:Pulau ja:島 simple:Island th:เกาะ

Asia

Asia is the central and eastern part of Eurasia, and the world's largest continent. Defined by subtracting Europe from Eurasia, Asia is either regarded as a landmass of its own, or as part of Eurasia. The demarcation between Asia and Africa is the isthmus of Suez (although the Sinai Peninsula, being a part of Egypt east of the canal, is often geopolitically considered a part of Africa). The boundary between Asia and Europe runs via the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, to the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the Caspian Sea, the Ural River to its source, and the Ural Mountains to the Kara Sea at Kara, Russia. About 60 percent of the world's human population lives in Asia. Asia as a political division consists of the eastern part of Eurasia and nearby islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, often excluding Russia. Pacific Ocean

Etymology

The word Asia entered English, via Latin, from Ancient Greek Ασία (Asia; see also List of traditional Greek place names). This name is first attested in Herodotus (c. 440 BC), where it refers to Asia Minor; or, for the purposes of describing the Persian Wars, to the Persian Empire, as opposed to Greece and Egypt. Even before Herodotus, Homer knew of a Trojan ally named Asios, son of Hyrtacus, a ruler over several towns, and elsewhere he describes a marsh as ασιος (Iliad 2, 461). The Greek term may be derived from from Assuwa, a 14th century BC confederation of states in Western Anatolia. Hittite assu- "good" is probably an element in that name. Alternatively, the ultimate etymology of the term may be from the Akkadian word (w)aṣû(m), cognate of Hebrew יצא, which means "to go out", referring to the direction of the sun at sunset in the Middle East. This may be compared to a similar etymology proposed for Europe, as being from Semitic erēbu "to enter" or "set" (of the sun). These etymologies presuppose an originally Mesopotamian or Middle Eastern perspective, which would explain how the term "Asia" first came to be associated with Anatolia as lying west of the Semitic speaking area.

Geographical Regions

See also Geography of Asia. As already mentioned, Asia is a subregion of Eurasia. For further subdivisions based on that term, see North Eurasia and Central Eurasia. Some Asian countries stretch beyond Asia. See Bicontinental country for details about the borderline cases between Asia and Europe, Asia and Africa and Asia and Oceania. Asia itself is often divided in the following subregions:
- North Asia
- Central Asia
- East Asia (or Far East)
- Southeast Asia
- South Asia (or Indian Subcontinent)
- Southwest Asia (or West Asia)

North Asia

This term is rarely used by geographers, but usually it refers to the bigger Asian part of Russia, also known as Siberia. Sometimes the northern parts of other Asian nations, such as Kazakhstan are also included in Northern Asia.

Central Asia

There is no absolute consensus in the usage of this term. Usually, Central Asia includes:
- the Central Asian Republics of Kazakhstan (excluding its small European territory), Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.
- Afghanistan, Mongolia, and the western regions of China are also sometimes included.
- Former Soviet states in the Caucasus region. Central Asia is currently geopolitically important because international disputes and conflicts over oil pipelines, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Chechnya, as well as the presence of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan.

East Asia (or Far East)

This area includes:
- The Pacific Ocean islands of Taiwan and Japan.
- North and South Korea on the Korean Peninsula.
- China, but sometimes only the eastern regions Sometimes the nations of Mongolia and Vietnam are also included in East Asia. More informally, Southeast Asia is included in East Asia on some occasions.

Southeast Asia

This region contains the Malay Peninsula, Indochina and islands in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. The countries it contains are:
- In mainland Southeast Asia, the countries Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
- In Maritime Southeast Asia, the countries of Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia (some of the Indonesian islands also lie in the Melanesia region of Oceania). East Timor (also Melanesian) is sometimes included too. The country of Malaysia is divided in two by the South China Sea, and thus has both a mainland and island part.

South Asia (or Indian Subcontinent)

South Asia is also referred to as the Indian Subcontinent. It includes:
- the Himalayan States of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
- the Indian Ocean nations of Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Southwest Asia (or West Asia)

This can also be called by the Western term Middle East, which is commonly used by Europeans and Americans. Middle East (to some interpretations) is often used to also refer to some countries in North Africa. Southwest Asia can be further divided into:
- Anatolia (i.e. Asia Minor), constituting the Asian part of Turkey.
- The island nation of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea.
- The Levant or Near East, which includes Syria, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and the Asian portion of Egypt.
- The Arabian peninsula, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen and occasionally Kuwait.
- The Caucasus region, including Armenia, a tiny portion of Russia and almost the whole of Georgia and Azerbaijan.
- The Iranian Plateau, containing Iran and parts of other nations. Also see Gulf States, for a different grouping involving several of the above countries.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Asia In terms of gross domestic product (PPP), Asia's largest economy wholly within Asia is that of the PRC (People's Republic of China), however the economy of the E.U. (European Union), one state of which (Cyprus) lies within Asia, is the largest in the world. The E.U.'s status as a supranational union, rather than a sovereign state, makes the claim questionable, especially since, when considered alone, the economy of Cyprus is one of the smallest in both the E.U. and Asia, and not many times larger than that of East Timor, the Asian state with the smallest economy (although as of 2005 there is no reliable data for either Iraq or North Korea). Over the last decade, China's and India's economies have been growing rapidly, both with an average annual growth rate over 6%. PRC is the world's third largest economy after the E.U. and U.S.A., followed by Japan and India as the world's fourth and fifth largest economies respectively (then followed by the European nations: Germany, U.K., France and Italy). In terms of exchange rates however, Japan has the largest economy in Asia and the third largest in the world. Trade blocs:
- Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
- Association of Southeast Asian Nations
- Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement
- Commonwealth of Independent States
- South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
- South Asia Free Trade Agreement (proposed)

Natural resources

Asia is by a considerable margin the largest continent in the world, and is rich in natural resources, such as Petroleum and iron. High productivity in agriculture, especially of rice, allows high population density of countries in the warm and humid area. Other main agricultural products include wheat and chicken. Forestry is extensive throughout Asia except Southwest and Central Asia. Fishing is a major source of food in Asia, particularly in Japan.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in PRC, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. The industry varies from manufacturing cheap goods such as toys to high-tech goods such as computers and cars. Many companies from Europe, North America, and Japan have significant operations in the developing Asia to take avantage of its abundant supply of cheap labor. One of the major employers in manufacturing in Asia is the textile industry. Much of the world's supply of clothing and footwear now originates in Southeast Asia.

Financial and other services

Asia has three main financial centers. They are in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. Call centers are becoming major employers in India, due to the availablity of many well-educated English speakers. The rise of the business process outsourcing industry has seen the rise of India and China as the other financial centers.

Early history

Main article: History of Asia The history of Asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions, East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East, linked by the interior mass of the Eurasian steppe. The coastal periphery was home to some of the world's earliest known civilizations, with each of the three regions developing early civilizations around fertile river valleys. The civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Yangtze shared many similarities and likely exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel. Other notions such as that of writing likely developed individually in each area. Cities, states and empires developed in these lowlands. The steppe region had long been inhabited by mounted nomads, and from the central steppes they could reach all areas of Asia. The earliest known such central expansion out of the steppe is that of the Indo-Europeans, who spread their languages into the Middle East, India, and in the Tocharians to the borders of China. The northern part of Asia, covering much of Siberia, was inaccessible to the steppe nomads, due to the dense forests and the tundra. These areas were very sparsely populated. The centre and periphery were kept separate by mountains and deserts. The Caucasus, Himalaya, Karakum Desert and Gobi Desert formed barriers that the steppe horsemen could only cross with difficulty. While technologically and culturally, the urban city dwellers were more advanced, they could do little militarily to defend against the mounted hordes of the steppe. However, the lowlands did not have enough open grasslands to support a large horsebound force. Thus the nomads who conquered states in China, India, and the Middle East were soon forced to adapt to the local societies.

Population density

The following table lists countries and dependencies by population density in inhabitants and km². Unlike the figures in the country articles, the figures in this table are based on areas including inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers) and may therefore be lower here. The whole of Egypt, Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey are referred to in the table, although they are only partly in Asia.

Religion

A large majority of the people in the world who practice a religious faith practice one which was founded in Asia. Religions founded in Asia and with a majority of their contemporary adherents in Asia include:
- Bahá'í Faith (slightly more than half of all adherents are in Asia)
- Buddhism (Japan,Sri Lanka, Korea, Singapore, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, India)
- Hinduism (India, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, Bali)
- Islam (Central, South, and Southwest Asia, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia)
- Jainism (India)
- Shinto (Japan)
- Sikhism(India, Malaysia, Hong kong)
- Taoism (China, Vietnam, Singapore, and Taiwan)
- Zoroastrianism (Iran, India, Pakistan) Religions founded in Asia that have the majority of their contemporary adherents in other regions include:
- Christianity (South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, India and the Philippines)
- Judaism (slightly fewer than half of its adherents reside in Asia)

References

External links

- http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/asia.html
- http://www.freeworldmaps.net/asia/index.html
- [http://www.alloexpat.com AlloExpat - Asia Information & Forums]
- [http://www.asiaexpat.info Asia Expat Forum - Discuss this region with expatriates] Category:Continents zh-min-nan:A-chiu ko:아시아 ms:Asia ja:アジア simple:Asia th:ทวีปเอเชีย

Eurasia

] Eurasia is the landmass composed of the continents of Europe and Asia. It can be considered a supercontinent, part of a supercontinent of Africa-Eurasia, or simply a continent. In plate tectonics, the Eurasian Plate includes Europe and most of Asia, but not the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the Cherskiy Range in Sakha. Eurasia is also used in international politics as a neutral way to refer to organizations of or affairs concerning the post-Soviet states. An analogous term to Eurasia as used to mean a "twin (or double) continent" is the use of America or (the) America(s). Europeans traditionally considered Europe and Asia to be separate continents, with the dividing line placed along the Aegean Sea, Dardanelles, Bosphorus, Black Sea, Caucasus Mountains, Caspian Sea, Ural River, and Ural Mountains, and this terminology has spread to the rest of the world, even though Asia contains multiple regions and cultures as large and populous as Europe, and as different and geographically separated from each other as they are from Europe. Jared Diamond, in his book Guns, Germs and Steel, credits Eurasia's dominance in world history to the east-west extent of Eurasia and its climate zones, and the availability of Eurasian animals and plants suitable for domestication. The Silk Road symbolizes trade and cultural exchange linking Eurasian cultures through history and has been an increasingly popular topic. Recent decades have brought forth a view toward a greater Eurasian history, establishing genetic, cultural, and linguistic relationships between European and Asian cultures of antiquity, which had long been thought of as distinct.

Other uses

Eurasia was also a fictional country comprising approximately the same land area in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, excluding the British Isles (controlled by Oceania) and Eastasia, the latter of which was formed, as the novel says, by an alliance of the states of the region, being the most important couple China and Japan after a 'decade of confused fighting'. India was a contested border zone between Eurasia and Oceania.
In the game universe of the Earth series (Earth 2140,2150,2160), one of the major factions was the Eurasian Dynasty.

External links

- [http://www.eurasianet.org EurasiaNet provides information and analysis about political, economic, environmental and social developments in the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as in Russia, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia.] Category:Continents Category:Eurasia als:Eurasien ko:유라시아 ja:ユーラシア大陸 simple:Eurasia th:ทวีปยูเรเชีย

Mount Narodnaya

Mount Narodnaya (Russian: Народная) is the highest peak of the Urals, located on the border of Komi Republic and Tyumen Oblast in Russia. 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. Category:Mountains of Russia

Beryl

]The mineral beryl is a beryllium aluminium cyclosilicate with the chemical formula Be₃Al₂(SiO₃)₆. The hexagonal crystals of beryl may be very small or range to several meters in size. Terminated crystals are relatively rare. Beryl exhibits conchoidal fracture, has a hardness of 7.5-8, a specific gravity of 2.63-2.80. It has a vitreous lustre and can be transparent or translucent. Its cleavage is poor basal and its habit is dihexagonal bipyramidal. Pure beryl is colorless, but it is frequently tinted by impurities; possible colors are green, blue, yellow, red, and white. The name comes from the Greek beryllos for the precious blue-green color of sea water.

Varieties

Varieties of beryl have been considered gemstones since prehistoric times. Green beryl is called emerald, red beryl is bixbite or red emerald or scarlet emerald, blue beryl is aquamarine, pink beryl is morganite, and a clear bright yellow beryl is called golden beryl. Other shades such as yellow-green for heliodor and honey yellow are common.

Deposits

Beryl is found most commonly in granitic pegmatites, but also occurs in mica schists in the Ural Mountains and is often associated with tin and tungsten orebodies. Beryl is found in Europe in Austria, Germany, and Ireland. Beryl occurs in Madagascar (especially morganite). The most famous source of emeralds in the world is at Muso and Chivor, Boyacá, Colombia, where they make a unique appearance in limestone. Emeralds are also found in the Transvaal, South Africa, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and near Mursinka in Urals. In the United States emeralds are found in North Carolina. New England's pegmatites have produced some of the largest beryls found, including one massive crystal with dimensions 5.5 m by 1.2 m (18 ft by 4 ft) with a mass of around 18 metric tons. Other beryl locations include South Dakota, Colorado, Utah, and California.

Applications

Massive beryl is a primary ore of the metal beryllium.

References and external links

- Sinkankas, John, 1994, Emerald & Other Beryls, Geoscience Press, ISBN 0801971144
- Hurlbut, Cornelius S.; Klein, Cornelis, 1985, Manual of Mineralogy, 20th ed., John Wiley and Sons, New York ISBN 0471805807
- [http://www.minerals.net/mineral/silicate/cyclo/beryl/beryl.htm Minerals.net]
- [http://webmineral.com/data/Beryl.shtml Webmineral.com]
- [http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/silicate/beryl/beryl.htm Mineral Galleries]

Virgin Komi Forests

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 reserve and Yugyd-Va National Park. Its World Heritage status was recognised in 1995, making it the first natural WH 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. Nothwithstanding 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. Category:Geography of Russia Category:World Heritage Sites in Russia Category:Forests ko:버진 코미 삼림지대

World heritage

__NOEDITSECTION__ left left, including the Pyramids of Giza (Egypt).]] Egypt).]] Egypt).]] Egypt).]] Egypt (India).]] India).]] India of Miyajima, Hiroshima (Japan).]] Japan).]] Japan).]] Japan (Argentina).]] A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain range, lake, desert, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated for the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. The programme aims to catalogue, name, and preserve sites of outstanding importance, either cultural or natural, to the common heritage of humankind. Listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund under certain conditions. The programme was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage that was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972. 180 countries, called "States Parties", have since then ratified the convention. As of 2005, a total of 812 sites have been included in the list (628 cultural, 160 natural and 24 mixed properties in 137 States Parties). Note that UNESCO references each World Heritage Site with a unique identifying number. However, often a new inscription has included previous sites now listed as part of a larger description. As a result, the numbering system currently ends above 1100, but there are fewer than that on the actual list. Currently, Italy is the country that held the highest number of World Heritages Sites with 40 in total. Each World Heritage Site is the property of the country on whose territory the site is located, but it is considered in the interest of the international community to preserve each site for future generations of humankind. The protection and conservation of these sites is a concern of all the 180 World Heritage countries.

History

Pre-Convention

In 1959, the government of Egypt decided to build the Aswan High Dam, an event that would flood a valley containing treasures of ancient civilization such as the Abu Simbel temples. UNESCO then launched a worldwide safeguarding campaign, despite appeals from the governments of Egypt and Sudan. The Abu Simbel and Philae temples were taken apart, moved to a higher location, and put back together piece-by-piece. The cost of the project was approximately US $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 different countries. It was widely regarded as a total success, and led to other safeguarding campaigns (saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Moenjodaro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia). UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, a draft convention to protect the common cultural heritage of humankind.

Convention and Background

The United States initiated the idea of combining cultural conservation with nature conservation. A White House conference in 1965 called for a World Heritage Trust to preserve "the world's superb natural and scenic areas and historic sites for the present and the future of the entire world citizenry." The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, and they were presented in 1972 to the United Nations conference on Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden. A single text was ultimately agreed on by all parties involved, and the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972.

Nominating Process

A country must first take an inventory of all its significant cultural and natural properties. This is called the Tentative List, and is important because a country may not nominate properties that have not already been included on the Tentative List. Next, it can select a property off this list to make into a Nomination File. The World Heritage Centre offers advice and help in preparing this file, which needs to be as comprehensive as possible. At this point, the file is independently evaluated by two organizations: the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the World Conservation Union. These bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. The Committee meets once per year to determine whether or not to inscribe each nominated property on the World Heritage List, and sometimes defers the decision to request more information from the States Parties. There are ten selection criteria that a site must meet to be included on the list.

Selection Criteria

Until the end of 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so that there is only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of "outstanding universal value" and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Cultural Criteria
- I. "to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius";
- II. "to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design";
- III. "to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared";
- IV. "to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history";
- V. "to be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change";
- VI. "to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria)"; Natural Criteria
- VII. "to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance";
- VIII. "to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features";
- IX. "to be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals";
- X. "to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation."

List of World Heritage Sites

- List of World Heritage Sites in Africa
- List of World Heritage Sites in Asia and Australasia
- List of World Heritage Sites in Europe
- List of World Heritage Sites in the Americas
- List of World Heritage Sites in danger

External links

- [http://whc.unesco.org UNESCO World Heritage Sites] — Official website
- [http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31 List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites] — Official website
- [http://www.worldheritagesite.org World Heritage Site] — World Heritage Details website
- [http://www.world-heritage-tour.org WHTour] — The World Heritage List in panographies and virtual tours
- [http://www.vrheritage.org VRheritage.org] — Documentation of World Heritage Sites
- [http://worldheritage-forum.net/en/ Worldheritage-Forum] — Weblog and Information on World Heritage Issues
- [http://www.thesalmons.org/lynn/world.heritage.html UNESCO World Heritage List] — Complete list with links and map of all sites
- [http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=38862 whc.kmz] — The World Heritage List in Google Earth ([http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=195484 en français])
- [http://law-ref.org/HERITAGE/index.html Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage at Law-Ref.org] — Fully indexed and crosslinked with other documents
- [http://www.ovpm.org/ Organization of World Heritage Cities] — Dealing with urban sites only Category:Archaeological sites ko:세계유산 zh-min-nan:UNESCO Sè-kài Ûi-sán ja:世界遺産

Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg (, also transliterated Ekaterinburg or Jekaterinburg) is a major city in central Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the Asian side of the Ural mountain range, at It is the main industrial and cultural center of the Ural region. Its population of 1,300,000 (2002) makes it Russia's fifth largest city. Between 1924 and 1991, the city was known as Sverdlovsk (Свердло́вск), after the Bolshevik leader Yakov Sverdlov.

History

The city was founded in 1723 by Vasily Tatischev and named after Saint Catherine, the namesake of tsar Peter the Great's wife Catherine (Yekaterina). It was renamed Sverdlovsk after the Bolshevik party leader and Soviet official Yakov Sverdlov from 1924 to 1991. Soon after the Russian Revolution, on July 17, 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their children Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Tsarevich Alexei were executed by Bolsheviks in this city. In the 1920s Yekaterinburg became a large industrial center of Russia. Heavy machinery plant Uralmash, the biggest in Europe, was built. During World War II, many government technical institutions and the whole plants were evacuated to Yekaterinburg from the war-affected areas (mostly Moscow) and many remained in Yekaterinburg after the war was over. In the 1960s, during the Khruschev government, many similar five-storey apartment blocks were built all around Yekaterinburg. Most of them remain until today in Kirovsky, Chkalovsky, and other residential areas of Yekaterinburg. On May 1, 1960, an American spy-plane U-2, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, was shot over Yekaterinburg. The pilot was captured and later exchanged for Rudolph Abel, a Russian spy, in the United States. There was an anthrax outbreak in Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk) in April and May 1979, which was attributed by Soviet officials to the locals eating contaminated meat. However, American agencies believe that the locals inhaled spores accidentally released from an aerosol of pathogen at a military microbiology facility. Dr. Kanatjan Alibekov's account of the outbreak in his book Biohazard agrees with the American agencies' view.

Geography

Biohazard Yekaterinburg is situated 1,667 km east of Moscow.

Economy

The city produces heavy machinery, steel, chemicals, tires, and petroleum. Gem cutting is a well-developed light industry.

Education

Urals Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences ([http://www.uran.ru UB RAS]) and numerous scientific research institutes and establishments are situated in Yekaterinburg. With its 16 state-owned universities and educational academies, as well as a number of private higher education institutions (2005), Yekaterinburg is rightfully considered the leading educational and scientific center of the Urals. Urals A.M. Gorky State University, Ural State Technical University, Urals State Pedagogical University, Urals State University of Forestry, Urals State University of Mines, Urals State University of the Railways, Russian State Vocational Pedagogics University, Urals State University of Economics, Military Institute of Artillery, Urals State Conservatory, Urals State Agricultural Academy, Urals State Academy of Law, Urals State Academy of Medicine, Urals State Academy of Performing Arts, Urals Academy of Public Service, and Urals Academy of Architecture are among them.

Transportation and accommodation

Yekaterinburg is an important railway junction, with lines radiating to all parts of the Urals and the rest of Russia. As the economic slump subsided, several European airlines started or resumed flying to the city's Koltsovo international airport (SVX). These include Lufthansa, British Airways and CSA Czech Airlines.

International relations

The largest city in the Urals and one of the top five in Russia, Yekaterinburg has a number of consulates of major countries. For people wishing to make a visa application and needing to attend interview, this can easily take a half-week off the travelling time to get to the interview (in the event that there are internal flights to Yekaterinburg, they may only be once per week). Yekaterinburg is a sister city of San Jose, California, U.S.A.

Consulates

- United States Consulate — 15 Gogolya St.; First consulate in the Urals, established in 1994.
- United Kingdom Consulate — established 1997 as a full consulate with a visa section, at 15a Gogolya St.

External links and sources

-
- [http://www.e-burg.biz Yekaterinburg Information Portal]
- [http://www.ekaterinburg.tv Yekaterinburg local information]
- [http://flickr.com/photos/tags/yekaterinburg Flickr photos tagged yekaterinburg] Category:Cities and towns in Russia ko:예카테린부르크 ja:エカテリンブルク

Carboniferous

The Carboniferous is a major division of the geologic timescale that extends from the end of the Devonian period, about 359.2 Ma (million years ago), to the beginning of the Permian period, about 299.0 Ma (ICS 2004). As with most older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the exact dates are uncertain by 5–10 million years. The Carboniferous is named for the extensive coal beds of that age found in Great Britain and Western Europe. In North America, the first third of the Carboniferous is called the Mississippian period, and the remainder is called the Pennsylvanian. Conifer trees were introduced in this impotant and well-known time period.

Subdivisions

The Carboniferous is usually broken into Lower and Upper subdivisions. The Faunal stages from youngest to oldest are:

Gzhelian (most recent)

- Noginskian/Virgilian

Kasimovian

- Klazminskian
- Dorogomilovksian/Virgilian
- Chamovnicheskian/Cantabrian/Missourian
- Krevyakinskian/Cantabrian/Missourian

Moscovian

- Myachkovskian/Bolsovian/Desmoinesian
- Podolskian/Desmoinesian
- Kashirskian/Atokan
- Vereiskian/Bolsovian/Atokan

Bashkirian/Morrowan

- Melekesskian/Duckmantian
- Cheremshanskian/Langsettian
- Yeadonian
- Marsdenian
- Kinderscoutian

Serpukhovian

- Alportian
- Chokierian/Chesterian/Elvirian
- Arnsbergian/Elvirian
- Pendleian

Visean

- Brigantian/St Genevieve/Gasperian/Chesterian
- Asbian/Meramecian
- Holkerian/Salem
- Arundian/Warsaw/Meramecian
- Chadian/Keokuk/Osagean/Osage

Tournaisian (oldest)

- Ivorian/Osagean/Osage
- Hastarian/Kinderhookian/Chautauquan/Chouteau

Paleogeography

The southern continents remained tied together in the supercontinent Gondwana, which collided with North America-Europe (Laurussia) along the present line of eastern North America. In the same time frame, much of present eastern Eurasian plate welded itself to Europe along the line of the Ural mountains. Most of the Mesozoic supercontinent of Pangea was now assembled, although pieces of present east Asia still remained detached.

Rocks and coal

Carboniferous rocks in Europe and eastern North America largely consist of a repeated sequence of limestone, sandstone, shale and coal beds. In North America, the early Carboniferous is largely marine limestone, which accounts for the division of the Carboniferous into two periods in North American schemes. The Carboniferous coal beds provided much of the fuel for power generation during the Industrial Revolution and are still of great economic importance. The large coal deposits of the Carboniferous primarily owe their existence to two factors. The first of these is the appearance of bark bearing trees (and in particular the evolution of the bark fiber lignin). The second is the lower sea levels that occurred during the Carboniferous as compared to the Devonian period. This allowed for the development of extensive lowland swamps and forests in North America and Europe. It has been hypothesized that large quantities of wood were buried during this period because animals and decomposing bacteria had not yet evolved that could effectively digest the new lignin. It has also been observed that the extensive burial of organically produced carbon led to a buildup of surplus oxygen in the atmosphere resulting in concentrations up to 80% higher than today. The oxygen increase is implicated in increased wildfire activity, as well as the expression of gigantism in certain insects and amphibians, whose size is constrained by respiratory systems that are limited in their ability to diffuse oxygen. In eastern North America, marine beds are more common in the older part of the period than the later part and are almost entirely absent by the Late Carboniferous. More diverse geology existed elsewhere of course. Marine life is especially rich in crinoids and other echinoderms. Brachiopods were abundant. Trilobites became quite uncommon. On land, large and diverse plant populations existed. Land vertebrates included large amphibians.

Life

One of the greatest evolutionary innovations of the Carboniferous was the amniote egg, which allowed for the further exploitation of the land by certain tetrapods. The amniote egg allowed the ancestors of birds, mammals, and reptiles to reproduce on land by preventing the desiccation, or drying-out, of the embryo inside.

External links

- ja:石炭紀

Siberia

:Siberia is also an album by Echo & The Bunnymen. Echo & The Bunnymen Siberia (, common English transliterations: Sibir’, Sibir; from the Tatar for “sleeping land”) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of northern Asia. It extends eastward from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean and southward from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and the borders of both Mongolia and China. All but the extreme south-western area of Siberia lies in Russia, and it makes up about 56% of that country's territory.

Administrative subdivisions

China Geographically, Siberia includes the federal subjects of the Urals Federal District, Siberian Federal District and Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, which is a part of the Far Eastern Federal District (see a list of subjects below). From the historical point of view, the whole Russian Far East is considered a segment of Siberia.
- Altai Krai, administrative center — Barnaul
- Altai Republic, capital — Gorno-Altaisk
- Buryat Republic, capital — Ulan Ude
- Chita Oblast, administrative center — Chita
- Irkutsk Oblast, administrative center — Irkutsk
- Republic of Khakassia, capital — Abakan
- Kemerovo Oblast, administrative center — Kemerovo
- Koryakia Autonomous District, administrative center — Palana
- Krasnoyarsk Krai, administrative center — Krasnoyarsk
- Novosibirsk Oblast, administrative center — Novosibirsk
- Omsk Oblast, administrative center — Omsk
- Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, capital — Yakutsk
- Tomsk Oblast, administrative center — Tomsk
- Tuva Republic, capital — Kyzyl Major cities include:
- Irkutsk
- Krasnoyarsk
- Novosibirsk
- Omsk
- Tomsk

History

Main article: History of Siberia Siberia was occupied by differing groups of nomads such as the Yenets, the Nenets, the Huns, and the Uyghurs. The Khan of Sibir in the vicinity of modern Tobolsk was known as a prominent figure who endorsed Kubrat as Khagan in Avaria in 630. The area was conquered by the Mongols in the 13th century and eventually became the autonomous Siberian Khanate. The growing power of Russia to the east began to undermine the Khanate in the 16th century. First groups of traders and Cossacks began to enter the area, and then the imperial army began to set up forts further and further east. The towns like Mangazeya, Tara, Yeniseysk, and Tobolsk sprang up, the latter being declared the capital of Siberia. By the mid-17th century, the Russian-controlled areas had been extended to the Pacific. Siberia remained a mostly unexplored and uninhabited area. During the following few centuries, only a few exploratory missions and traders inhabited Siberia. The other group that was sent to Siberia consisted of prisoners exiled from western Russia. The first great change to Siberia was the Trans-Siberian railway, constructed in 1891 - 1905. It linked Siberia more closely to the rapidly-industrializing Russia of Nicholas II. Siberia is filled with natural resources and during the 20th century these were developed, and industrial towns cropped up throughout the region.

Geography and geology

With an area of over 9,653,000 km², Siberia makes up roughly two thirds of the total area of Russia. If Siberia were to secede from Russia, it would be the world's second-largest country, with only Canada being larger. Major geographical zones include the West Siberian Plain and the Central Siberian Plateau. The West Siberian Plain consists mostly of Cenozoic alluvial deposits and is extraordinarily flat, so much so that a rise of fifty metres in sea level would cause all land between the Arctic Ocean and Novosibirsk to be inundated. Many of the deposits on this plain result from ice dams; having reversed the flow of the Ob and Yenisei Rivers, so redirecting them into the Caspian Sea (perhaps the Aral as well). It is very swampy and soils are mostly peaty Histosols and, in the treeless northern part, Histels. In the south of the plain, where permafrost is largely absent, rich grasslands that are an extension of the Kazakh Steppe formed the original vegetation (almost all cleared now). The Central Siberian Plateau is an extremely ancient craton (sometimes called Angaraland) that formed an independent continent before the Permian (see Siberia (continent)). It is exceptionally rich in minerals, containing large deposits of gold, diamonds, and ores of manganese, lead, zinc, nickel, cobalt and molybdenum. Only the extreme northwest was glaciated during the Quaternary, but almost all is under exceptionally deep permafrost and the only tree that can thrive, despite the warm summers, is the deciduous Siberian Larch (Larix sibirica) with its very shallow roots. Soils here are mainly Turbels, giving way to Spodosols where the active layer becomes thicker and the ice content lower. Eastern and central Sakha comprise numerous north-south mountain ranges of various ages. These mountains extend up to almost three thousand metres in elevation, but above a few hundred metres they are devoid of vegetation to an extraordinary degree. The Verkhoyansk Range was extensively glaciated in the Pleistocene, but the climate was too dry for glaciation to extend to low elevations. At these low elevations are numerous valleys, many of them deep, and covered with larch forest except in the extreme north, where tundra dominates. Soils are mainly Turbels and the active layer tends to be less than a metre deep except near rivers.

Lakes and rivers

- Anabar River
- Angara River
- Indigirka River
- Irtysh River
- Kolyma River
- Lake Baikal
- Lena River
- Ob River
- Tunguska River
- Uvs Nuur Lake
- Yana River
- Yenisei River

Mountain ranges

- Anadyr Range
- Chersky Range
- Dzhugdzhur Mountains
- Gydan Mountains
- Koryak Mountains
- Sayan Mountains
- Ural Mountains
- Verkhoyansk Mountains
- Yablonoi Mountains A harsh climate has limited Siberia's development and population growth. The region has an abundance of natural resources, including many minerals, vast oil fields, rich forests, and grasslands in the extreme southwest that are good for farming. However, the winters are long and bitter. Ice and snow cover most of the region for about six months of the year. The temperature can drop below -68°C (-90°F). Most of the coastal waters, lakes, and rivers freeze for much of the year.

Demographics

Siberia has a population density of only 3 persons per square kilometer. Most Siberians are Russians and Russified Ukrainians. Ethnic Russians are descended from Slavs who lived in Eastern Europe several hundred years ago. Such Mongol and Turkic groups as Buryats, Tuvinians, and Yakuts lived in Siberia originally, and descendants of these peoples still live there. Other ethnic groups include: Evenks, Chukchis, Koryaks, Yukaghirs. See the Northern indigenous peoples of Russia article for more. About 70% of Siberia's people live in cities. Most city people are crowded into small apartments. Many people in rural areas live in simple, but more spacious, log houses. Novosibirsk is the largest city in Siberia, with a population of about 1.5 million. Tobolsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk and Omsk are the older, historical centers. With a lowest record temperature of -71.2 Celsius, Oymyakon has the distinction of being the coldest town on Earth.

On Film

- "Dersu Uzala" (1974). Survival in Siberia in the year 1900. Directed by Akira Kurosawa.

External links

-
- [http://www.altaionline.com Tourism in Siberia]
- [http://www.baikalinfo.com Tourism around Lake Baikal and the Sayan Mountains]
- [http://frontiers.loc.gov/ Meeting of Frontiers: Siberia, Alaska, and the American West] Category:Geography of Russia Category:Asia
- ko:시베리아 ja:シベリア

Laurasia

Laurasia was a supercontinent that broke off from the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic era. It included most of the landmasses which make up today's continents of the northern hemisphere. Around 200 million years ago, Laurasia divided into the continents after which it is named: Laurentia (now North America) and Eurasia (excluding India and Arabia). The southern supercontinent created is called Gondwana.

Gondwana

:This article is about the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana. For the region of India called Gondwana, see Gondwana (India). Gondwana (India) The southern supercontinent Gondwana (originally Gondwanaland) included most of the landmasses which make up today's continents of the southern hemisphere, including Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Arabia, Australia-New Guinea and New Zealand. It was formed in the early Jurassic about 200 million years ago by the break-up of Pangaea. The other continents at that time — North America and Eurasia — were still joined, forming the northern supercontinent, Laurasia. Although Gondwana was centered roughly where Antarctica is today (at the extreme south of the globe), the climate was generally mild. During the Mesozoic, average global temperatures were considerably warmer than they are today. Gondwana was then host to a huge variety of flora and fauna for many millions of years. The supercontinent began to break up in the late Jurassic (about 160 million years ago) when Africa became separated and began to drift slowly northwards. The next large block to break away was India, in the early Cretaceous (about 125 million years ago). New Zealand followed about 80 million years ago, only about 15 million years before the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event wiped out about 50% of all species on the planet, most notably the dinosaurs. As the age of mammals got underway, the continent of Australia-New Guinea began to gradually separate and move north (55 million years ago), rotating about its axis to begin with, and thus retaining some connection with the remainder of Gondwana for a considerable time. About 45 million years ago, the Indian subcontinent collided with Asia, forcing the crust to buckle and forming the Himalayas. At about the same time, the southern-most portion of Australia (modern Tasmania) finally separated from what is now Antarctica, allowing ocean currents to flow between the two continents for the first time. This in turn produced cooler and drier climates on the two landmasses. Far more significant as a world climatic event, however, was the separation of South America from Antarctica sometime during the Oligocene, perhaps 30 million years ago. With the opening of Drake Passage, there was now no barrier to force the cold waters of the Southern Ocean north, to be exchanged with warmer tropical water. Instead, a cold circumpolar current developed and Antarctica became what it is today: a frigid continent which locks up much of the world's fresh water as ice. Sea temperatures dropped by almost 10 degrees, and the global climate became much colder. About 15 million years ago, New Guinea began to collide with southern Asia, once again pushing up high mountains, and more recently still, South America became joined to North America via the Isthmus of Panama. The continent was named by Eduard Suess after Gondwana, a region of eastern India where some of the geology of the ancient continent was determined.

External link

- [http://earth.leeds.ac.uk/~greg/Gond.html Animation showing the dispersal of Gondwanaland]
- [http://kartoweb.itc.nl/gondwana/index.asp Another animation] Category:Historical continents ja:ゴンドワナ大陸

Category:Mountains of Russia

Russia, Mounta