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Ural mountains ridge. The origin of the name of the Ural mountains

Mountain system between the East European and West Siberian plains. Length Ural mountains- more than 2000 km, width from 40 to 150 km.

In ancient sources they are called the Riphean or Hyperborean mountains. Russian pioneers called it Stone, under the name Ural these mountains are first mentioned in Russian sources in late XVII century. The name Ural was introduced by V. Tatishchev from the Mansi "ur" (mountain). According to another version, this word is of Turkic origin.

They were formed in the late Paleozoic during the era of intensive mountain building (Hercynian folding). Formation of the mountain system

The Urals began in the late Devonian (about 350 million years ago) and ended in the Triassic (about 200 million years ago).

Within the Urals, deformed and often metamorphosed rocks of predominantly Paleozoic age come to the surface. The strata of sedimentary and volcanic rocks are usually strongly folded, disturbed by ruptures, but in general they form meridional bands, which determine the linearity and zonality of the structures of the Ural Mountains.

From west to east, among the Ural Mountains stand out:

Cis-Ural marginal foredeep with relatively gentle sedimentation in the western side and more complex in the eastern side;
the zone of the western slope of the Ural Mountains with the development of intensely crumpled and thrust-disturbed sedimentary strata of the Lower and Middle Paleozoic;
the Central Ural uplift, where among the sedimentary strata of the Paleozoic and Upper Precambrian, older crystalline rocks of the edge of the East European Platform outcrop in places;
a system of troughs-synclinoria of the eastern slope (the largest are Magnitogorsk and Tagil), made mainly by Middle Paleozoic volcanic strata and marine, often deep-sea sediments, as well as deep-seated igneous rocks (gabbroids, granitoids, less often alkaline intrusions) that break through them - the so-called. greenstone belt of the Ural Mountains;
Ural-Tobolsk anticlinorium with outcrops of older metamorphic rocks and wide development of granitoids;
East Ural synclinorium, in many respects similar to Tagil-Magnitogorsk.

It is a treasure trove of various minerals. 48 species are represented in the Ural Mountains. For the eastern regions of the Ural Mountains, the most characteristic deposits are copper pyrite ores (Gaiskoye, Sibayskoye, Degtyarskoye deposits, Kirovgradskaya and Krasnouralskaya groups of deposits), skarn-magnetite (Goroblagodatskoye, Vysokogorskoye, Magnitogorskoye deposits), titanomagnetite (Kachkanarskoye, Pervouralskoye), oxide nickel ores (Orsko group -Khalilovsky deposits) and chromite ores (deposits of the Kempirsai massif), confined mainly to the greenstone belt of the Ural Mountains, coal deposits (Chelyabinsk coal basin), placers and primary deposits of gold (Kochkarskoye, Berezovskoye) and platinum (Isovskoe).

The largest deposits of bauxite (North Ural bauxite-bearing region) and asbestos (Bazhenovskoye) are located here. On the western slope of the Ural Mountains and in the Urals there are deposits of coal (Pechora coal basin, Kizel coal basin), oil and gas (Volga-Ural oil and gas region, Orenburg gas condensate field), potassium salts (Verkhnekamsk basin). Especially the Ural Mountains are famous for their "gems" - precious, semi-precious and ornamental stones (emerald, amethyst, aquamarine, jasper, rhodonite, malachite, etc.). The best jewelry diamonds in the USSR were mined in the Urals.

In the bowels Ural mountains contains more than two hundred different minerals, for example, from the Ural malachite and the bowls of the St. Petersburg Hermitage are made

Basic moments

This mountain system itself, which not only separates both continents, but is also an officially delineated cordon between them, belongs to Europe: the border is usually drawn along the eastern foot of the mountains. Formed as a result of the collision of the Eurasian and African lithospheric plates, the Ural Mountains cover a vast territory. It includes the expanses of the Sverdlovsk, Orenburg and Tyumen regions, Perm Territory, Bashkortostan and the Komi Republic, as well as the Aktobe and Kustanai regions of Kazakhstan.

In terms of its height, which does not exceed 1895 meters, the mountain system is significantly inferior to such giants as the Himalayas and the Pamirs. For example, the peaks of the polar Urals are average in terms of level - 600-800 meters, not to mention the fact that they are also the narrowest in terms of the width of the ridge. However, there is a definite plus in such geological characteristics: they remain accessible to humans. And this is not so much about scientific research, but about the tourist attractiveness of the places through which they run. The landscape of the Ural Mountains is truly unique. Here, crystal clear mountain streams and rivers begin their run, growing into larger reservoirs. Such large rivers as the Ural, Kama, Pechora, Chusovaya and Belaya also flow here.

For tourists, a wide variety of recreational opportunities open up here: both for real extreme sportsmen and for beginners. And the Ural Mountains are a true treasure trove of minerals. In addition to deposits of coal, natural gas and oil, mines are being developed here, in which copper, nickel, chromium, titanium, gold, silver, and platinum are mined. If we recall the tales of Pavel Bazhov, the Ural zone is also rich in malachite. And also - emerald, diamond, crystal, amethyst, jasper and other precious stones.

The atmosphere of the Ural Mountains, regardless of whether you visit the Northern or Southern Urals, Subpolar or Middle, is indescribable. And their greatness, beauty, harmony and the purest air energize and positive, inspire and, of course, leave vivid impressions for the rest of your life.

History of the Ural Mountains

The Ural Mountains have been known since ancient times. In sources that have survived to this day, they are associated with the Hyperborean and Riphean mountains. So, Ptolemy pointed out that this mountain system consists of the mountains Rhymnus (this is the current Middle Urals), Norosa (Southern Urals) and the northern part - the Hyperborean mountains proper. In the first written sources of the 11th century AD, it was called the “Earth Belt” because of its great length.

In the first Russian chronicle, The Tale of Bygone Years, which dates back to the same 11th century, the Ural mountains were called by our compatriots Siberian, Poyasov or Big Stone. Under the name "Big Stone" they were also applied to the first map of the Russian state, also known as the "Big Drawing", published in the second half of the 16th century. Cartographers of those years depicted the Urals as a mountain belt, from where many rivers originate.

There are many versions of the origin of the name of this mountain system. E. K. Hoffman, who developed the so-called Mansi version of this toponym, compares the name "Ural" with the Mansi word "ur", which translates as "mountain". The second point of view, also very common, is the borrowing of the name from the Bashkir language. She, according to many scientists, seems to be the most convincing. After all, if we take the language, legends and traditions of this people - for example, the famous epic "Ural-Batyr" - then it is easy to make sure that this place name has not only existed in them since ancient times, but has been maintained from generation to generation.

Nature and climate

The natural landscape of the Ural Mountains is incredibly beautiful and multifaceted. Here you can not only look at the mountains themselves, but also go down into numerous caves, swim in the waters of local lakes, get a portion of thrills while rafting on turbulent rivers. Moreover, each tourist chooses for himself how to travel. Some people like independent trips with a backpack on their shoulders, others prefer the more comfortable conditions of a sightseeing bus or the interior of a personal car.

Not less diverse is the animal world"Earth Belt". The dominant position in the local fauna is occupied by forest animals, the habitat of which is coniferous, broad-leaved or mixed forests. So, squirrels live in coniferous forests, the basis of their diet is spruce seeds, and in winter these pretty animals with a fluffy tail feed on pre-stocked pine nuts and dried mushrooms. The marten is widespread in local forests, the existence of which is difficult to imagine without the already mentioned squirrel, for which this predator hunts.

But the real wealth of these places is the fur trade animal, the fame of which extends far beyond the region, for example, the sable that lives in the forests of the Northern Urals. True, it differs from the dark Siberian sable in a less beautiful reddish skin. Uncontrolled hunting for a valuable furry animal is prohibited at the legislative level. Without this ban, it would certainly have been completely destroyed by now.

The taiga forests of the Ural Mountains are also inhabited by the traditional Russian wolf, bear and elk. Roe deer are found in mixed forests. On the plains adjacent to the mountain ranges, the hare and the fox feel at ease. We did not make a reservation: they live precisely on the flat terrain, and the forest for them is just a shelter. And, of course, the crowns of trees are well inhabited by many species of birds.

As for the climate of the Ural Mountains, geographical position plays an important role in this regard. In the north, this mountain system goes beyond the Arctic Circle, but most of the mountains are located in temperate climate zone. If you move from north to south along the perimeter of the mountain system, you can see how the temperature indicators gradually increase, which is especially noticeable in summer period. If in the north during the warm season the thermometer shows from +10 to +12 degrees, then in the south - from 20 to 22 degrees above zero. However, in winter, the temperature difference between north and south is not so sharp. The average monthly temperature in January in the north is 20 degrees with a minus sign, in the south 16-18 degrees below zero.

Air masses moving from Atlantic Ocean, also has a significant impact on the climate of the Urals. And although as atmospheric flows move from the west towards the Urals, the air becomes less humid, you cannot call it 100% dry either. As a result, more precipitation - 600-800 millimeters per year - falls on the western slope, while on the eastern slope this figure varies between 400-500 mm. But the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains in winter fall under the power of a powerful Siberian anticyclone, while in the south, during the cold season, cloudy and cold weather sets in.

A tangible influence on local climate fluctuations is also exerted by such a factor as the topography of the mountain system. As you climb the mountain, you will feel that the weather is getting harsher. Different temperatures are felt even on different slopes, including those located in the neighborhood. Different areas of the Ural Mountains are also characterized by uneven amounts of precipitation.

Sights of the Ural Mountains

One of the most famous protected areas of the Ural Mountains is the Deer Streams park, located in the Sverdlovsk region. Curious tourists, especially those interested in ancient history, make a "pilgrimage" to the Pisanitsa rock located here, on the surface of which drawings made by ancient artists are applied. Of considerable interest are the caves and the Big Failure. Deer Streams has a fairly developed tourist infrastructure: special trails are equipped in the park, there are viewing platforms, not to mention places for recreation. There are also rope crossings.

If you are familiar with the work of the writer Pavel Bazhov, his famous "Malachite Box", then you will certainly be interested in visiting the natural park "Bazhovskie Places". Opportunities for proper rest and relaxation are simply magnificent. You can make walks on foot, as well as cycling and horseback riding. Walking along specially designed and thought-out routes, you will take in picturesque landscapes, climb Mount Markov Stone and visit Lake Talkov Stone. Thrill-seekers usually flock here in the summer to raft down mountain rivers in canoes and kayaks. Travelers come here in winter, enjoying snowmobiling.

If you appreciate the natural beauty of semi-precious stones - it is natural, not subject to processing - be sure to visit the Rezhevskaya reserve, which combines deposits of not only precious, but also semi-precious and ornamental stones. Traveling to the mining sites on your own is prohibited - you must be accompanied by an employee of the reserve, but this in no way affects the impressions of what you see. The Rezh River flows through the territory of Rezhevsky, it was formed as a result of the confluence of the Big Sap and Ayati - rivers originating in the Ural Mountains. Shaitan-stone, popular among travelers, is located on the right bank of the Rezhi. The Urals consider this stone to be the focus of mystical natural forces that help in various life situations. You can believe it or not, but the flow of tourists who come to the stone with various requests to higher powers does not dry out.

Of course, the Urals attract like a magnet fans of extreme tourism who enjoy visiting its caves, of which there are a huge number. The most famous are Shulgan-Tash, or Kapova, and the Kungur Ice Cave. The length of the latter is almost 6 km, of which only one and a half kilometers are accessible to tourists. On the territory of the ice cave Kungura there are 50 grottoes, over 60 lakes and countless stalactites and stalagmites. The temperature in the cave is always sub-zero, so for visits here, dress as you would for a winter walk. The visual effect of the splendor of its interior decoration is enhanced by special lighting. But in the Kapova cave, researchers discovered rock paintings, whose age is estimated at 14 or more thousand years. Approximately 200 works of ancient masters of the brush have become the property of our time, although there must have been more of them. Travelers can also admire the underground lakes and visit the grottoes, galleries and numerous halls located on three levels.

If the caves of the Ural Mountains create a winter atmosphere at any time of the year, then some sights are best visited in winter. One of them is the ice fountain, which is located in the Zyuratkul National Park and arose thanks to the efforts of geologists who drilled a well in this place. Moreover, this is not just a fountain in the usual “urban” sense for us, but a fountain groundwater. With the onset of winter, it freezes and turns into a voluminous icicle of a bizarre shape, which is also impressive with its 14-meter height.

Many Russians, in order to improve their health, go to foreign thermal springs, for example, to the Czech Karlovy Vary or the Gellert baths in Budapest. But why rush beyond the cordon if our native Ural is also rich in thermal springs? To go through full course healing procedures, it is enough to come to Tyumen. Hot springs here are rich in trace elements useful for human health, and the water temperature in them ranges from +36 to +45 degrees Celsius, depending on the season. We add that modern recreation centers are built on these sources. Mineral waters are also treated in the Ust-Kachka recreation complex, located not far from Perm and unique in the chemical composition of its waters. Summer recreation here can be combined with boating and catamarans.

Despite the fact that waterfalls are not so typical for the Ural Mountains, they are present here and attract the attention of tourists. Among them, one can single out the Plakun waterfall, located on the right bank of the Sylva River. It overthrows fresh water from a height exceeding 7 m. Its other name is Ilyinsky, it is given by local residents and visitors who consider this source to be holy. There is also a waterfall near Yekaterinburg, named for its roaring "temper" Grokhotun. Its peculiarity is that it is man-made. He throws his waters down from more than 5 meters high. When the summer heat sets in, visitors are happy to stand under its jets, cooling off and receiving hydromassage, and completely free of charge.

Video: South Ural

Major cities of the Urals

Millionth Yekaterinburg, the administrative center of the Sverdlovsk region, is called the capital of the Urals. It is also, unofficially, the third capital of Russia after Moscow and St. Petersburg and the third capital of Russian rock. This is a large industrial metropolis, especially charming in winter. He is generously covered with snow, under the cover of which he resembles a giant who has fallen asleep in a deep sleep, and you never know exactly when he will wake up. But when you get enough sleep, then, do not hesitate, it will definitely unfold to its full potential.

Yekaterinburg usually makes a strong impression on its guests - first of all, with many architectural sights. Among them are the famous Temple-on-the-Blood, erected on the site of the execution of the last Russian emperor and his family, the Sverdlovsk Rock Club, the building of the former District Court, museums various topics and even an unusual monument ... to an ordinary computer keyboard. The capital of the Urals is also famous for its shortest subway in the world, listed in the Guinness Book of Records: 7 stations account for only 9 km.

Chelyabinsk and Nizhny Tagil also gained wide popularity in Russia, and primarily thanks to the popular comedy show Our Russia. The characters of the program, beloved by the audience, are, of course, fictitious, but tourists are still interested in where to find Ivan Dulin, the world's first gay miller, and Vovan and Gena, Russian tourists who are unlucky and drink-loving, constantly getting into frankly tragicomic situations. One of the visiting cards of Chelyabinsk are two monuments: Love, executed in the form of an iron tree, and Lefty with a savvy flea. Impressive in the city is the panorama of local factories located above the Miass River. But in the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts you can see a painting by Raphael - the only one in our country that can be found outside the Hermitage.

Another city in the Urals that has become famous thanks to television is Perm. It is here that the “real boys” live, who became the heroes of the series of the same name. Perm claims to be the next cultural capital Russia and this idea are actively lobbied by the designer Artemy Lebedev, who works on the appearance of the city, and the gallery owner Marat Gelman, who specializes in contemporary art.

The real historical treasure of the Urals and all of Russia is also Orenburg, which is called the land of endless steppes. At one time, he survived the siege of the troops of Emelyan Pugachev, its streets and walls remember the visits of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko and the wedding of the first cosmonaut of the Earth Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin.

In Ufa, another city in the Urals, there is a symbolic sign "Kilometer Zero". The local post office is the very point from which the distance to other points of our planet is measured. Another well-known attraction of the capital of Bashkortostan is the Ufa bronze sign, which is a disk with a diameter of one and a half meters and weighing a whole ton. And in this city - at least, so the locals assure - there is the highest equestrian statue on the European continent. This is a monument to Salavat Yulaev, who is also called the Bashkir Bronze Horseman. The horse, on which this associate of Emelyan Pugacheva sits, towers over the Belaya River.

Ski resorts in the Urals

The most important ski resorts of the Urals are concentrated in three regions of our country: Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions, as well as in Bashkortostan. Zavyalikha, Bannoe and Abzakovo are the most famous of them. The first one is located near the city of Trekhgorny, the last two are located near Magnitogorsk. According to the results of the competition, which is held within the framework of the International Congress of the Ski Industry, Abzakovo was recognized as the best ski resort in the Russian Federation in the 2005-2006 season.

Whole placer ski resorts concentrated in the regions of the Middle and South Urals. Thrill-seekers and just curious tourists who want to try their hand at such an “adrenaline” sport as skiing come here almost all year round. Travelers here are waiting for good tracks for skiing, as well as for sledding and snowboarding.

In addition to skiing, descents along mountain rivers are very popular among travelers. Fans of such alloys, which also increase the level of adrenaline, go for thrills to Miass, Magnitogorsk, Asha or Kropchaevo. True, it will not be possible to quickly reach your destination, as you will have to travel by train or by car.

The holiday season in the Urals lasts on average from October-November to April. During this period, snowmobiling and quad biking are another popular pastime. In Zavyalikha, which has become one of the most popular tourist destinations, they even installed a special trampoline. On it, experienced athletes work out complex elements and tricks.

How to get there

Getting to all the major Ural cities will not be difficult, so the region of this majestic mountain system is one of the most convenient for domestic tourists. The flight from Moscow will take only three hours, and if you prefer to travel by train, the journey by rail will take a little over a day.

The main Ural city, as we have already said, is Yekaterinburg, located in the Middle Urals. Due to the fact that the Ural Mountains themselves are low, it was possible to lay several transport routes leading to Siberia from Central Russia. In particular, you can travel through the territory of this region along the famous railway artery - the Trans-Siberian Railway.

How the Ural Mountains were born

The Urals on Earth is a unique phenomenon.

And in its role as a planetary seam that once held two great continents together.

And the abundance of natural landscapes here, generously scattered throughout its space.

And climatic diversity.

Indeed, where else can you find such a region, where the head would be cooled by the age-old ice of the Northern Ocean, and the foot would be burned by the calcined sands of the desert? A land where, on the same June day, the never-setting sun shines over the blooming polar tundra and the forbs of alpine meadows spread luxuriously. Where you can hunt to your heart’s content in cedar forests or, after admiring the slender choirs of elegant birch pegs, stop at the Bashkir nomad camp, drink plenty of chilled koumiss, while watching how everything around vibrates in the sultry haze of the steppe ...

And now, from these poetic pictures of the Ural Territory, we will have to move on to more prosaic, but very necessary things for our story. It is interesting, I think, to understand for oneself how such an unusual natural creation appeared on the body of the planet, what forces erected it. Therefore, a small digression into the science that studies the Earth is inevitable - into geology.

What modern science defines the concept of "Ural"?

Strictly speaking, the Urals is a mountainous country with areas of two great plains adjacent to it from the west and east. Why geologists think so, we will discuss later. As mentioned earlier, the Ural mountainous country lies on the planet in a rather narrow strip, the width of which rarely exceeds one hundred and fifty kilometers, but it stretches from the Aral deserts to the Arctic Ocean for more than two and a half thousand kilometers. In this way, it is similar to many mountain ranges known on Earth - the Andes, for example. Only the mountains in the Urals, although often rocky, are much lower, less steep, more ordinary, or something, than their illustrious counterparts somewhere in the Alps or the Himalayas.

But if the Ural Mountains outwardly do not strike anything, then the content of their bowels is completely unique.

The Urals is world famous for the richness and diversity of its geological structure. This is an irrefutable truth. But it is necessary to realize the significance of this fact to the most subtle shade - the Urals may be the only place on Earth where specialists have found rocks formed in almost all periods of the planet's existence. And minerals, the appearance of which could be due to the existence here (of course, in different time) of all conceivable physical and chemical regimes both in the bowels of the Earth and on its surface. Some kind of utter mess of uneven-aged and diverse geological formations!

But that's not all.

The abundant list of geological formations of the Urals naturally included a uniquely extensive range of the richest deposits of almost all minerals known on our planet. Oil and diamonds. Iron and jasper with marble. Gas and malachite. bauxite and corundum. And ... and ... and ... The list is endless - after all, not everything is still open, and we still do not know all types of minerals.

All this - and the diversity that strikes the imagination of even sophisticated professionals, and the abundance of subsoil treasures, and their unprecedented uneven age - all this made the Urals a geological Mecca of the world community. It began from the time of Peter the Great, and has not ended to this day. “Everyone flashed before us, everyone was here…” Historians claim that the Russian Geological Committee, created by the tsar’s order more than a hundred years ago, was and was established mainly so that pundits could finally decide on this natural turmoil, called the Urals…

Only ... only a huge number of studies did not simplify the solution of the problem, for the sake of which academic luminaries came to the Urals. The tasks of understanding - how did all this come together here ?!

To list all the created hypotheses for the formation of the Urals is not a task for a brief essay. An extensive monograph is needed here. After all, the contradictory nature of a thousand times certified and rechecked observations has formed an incredible kaleidoscope of facts. The researchers had to logically link the obvious reality of finding the most heterogeneous deposits literally next to each other. And the siliceous platy fragments of the formations of the bottom of the ocean, which raged here three hundred to four hundred million years ago, now crushing underfoot. And boulder ridges brought deep into the ancient continent by glacial massifs hundreds of thousands of years ago. And outcrops of rocks of the granite or gabbro series, now being destroyed by winds and the sun, but which could form only at many kilometers deep on the earth, in the gloomy crucible of thousand-degree temperatures and thousands of atmospheric pressures prevailing there. And sandy spits of river deposits that washed here more than one million tons of sand and pebbles from collapsing mountains ...

So to this day, all this allows dozens of the most diverse assumptions to exist simultaneously on an equal footing about how the Earth lived within the Urals throughout its entire billion-year history. To this day, the decoding of its true history is relevant and hardest problem geologists.

True, today scientists have decided at least on the criterion by which they share the hypotheses of the formation of the Ural mountainous country.

This criterion is cosmogonic.

He finally made it possible to group all points of view according to their relation to the original substance of the planet Earth.

Proponents of one approach agree that all celestial bodies visible from the Earth - including planets - were formed as a result of convergence, compaction of the previously scattered cosmic proto-substance. It was either the same as the meteorites that are now falling on our planet, or it was a lump of fiery liquid melt. The creators of the hypotheses created on this basis include the philosopher Kant, the famous mathematician and astronomer Laplace, and the outstanding Soviet researcher Otto Yulievich Schmidt. By the way, in Soviet schools, hypotheses from this series were studied mainly. And they are not so easy to dispute - meteorites continue to regularly pierce the Earth to this day, increasing its mass. And that even today the earth's core is liquid, probably not a single geologist doubts. Yes and the law gravity hitherto regularly determines the course of the stars and planets.

Proponents of a different approach argue that all planets (the Earth, of course, is no exception for them) are fragments of protomatter formed as a result of its explosive expansion, that is, in their opinion, there is a process of decompacting the matter of the Universe. The great Lomonosov did not deny such a view; many leading geologists and cosmologists of the world and our country now adhere to it ...

And their conviction is understandable. Astronomers have found that going to the Earth, the light from all visible stars is shifted to the red part of the spectrum. And there is only one satisfactory explanation for this - all the stars scatter from a certain center. This is a consequence of the decompression of the matter of the cosmos.

According to the latest estimates, our planet has existed as a separate celestial body for about four and a half billion years. So: in the Urals, rocks were found whose age is defined as at least three billion years old. And the whole “tragedy” for supporters of hypotheses is that this established fact can be easily explained from the positions of both points of view ...

How did the Urals live from the birth of the planet to the present day? Naturally, there are also two different pictures. Supporters of the “shrinking” Earth believe that all this time the Urals behaved like an oscillating string (of course, slowly oscillating and, of course, a huge string), - it either rose to the heavens, grinning at the rocky peaks of the mountains, then descended, bending towards the earth’s center, and then - over the entire space of the depression - it was flooded with oceanic swells. Naturally, these oscillations were not so simple, consistent and unidirectional. During them, there were also chips, and breaks in the earth's firmament, and the crushing of its individual sections in the corrugation of folds, and the formation of cracks of different depths. Water rushed from above and below into the gaping cracks, streams of red-hot lava burst out of the bowels of the earth, and clouds of volcanic ash covered the sky and the sun, belching from the vents of fire-breathing volcanoes. There are many deposits of this type in the Urals.

Globe of Martin Beheim (1492)

During the rise of sections of the Urals, ruins of crushed stone, pebbles, and sand usually form on them. During subsidence, the rivers carried the destroyed material into the oceans and seas, filling their coastal zones with clay, silt, and sand. Dying microorganisms created kilometers of limestone and other typically oceanic geological formations in the seas...

And all these breeds are in abundance in the Urals, which, according to the supporters of the first approach, is quite enough to recognize it as true.

Supporters of the "separating" universe believe that the Earth expanded in leaps and bounds. The picture of the formation of the Urals is drawn by him like this. At the next significant expansion of the body of our planet, it shuddered, cracked, and huge continental blocks, broken by the expanding substance of the earth's interior, bursting them, slowly, as if in an ice drift, crawled across the face of the planet. (By the way, it has been established that all the continents are still doing this, each moving in its own direction at a speed of up to several centimeters per year.) The space between the continents began to quickly fill up with puffing gases, the molten substance of the deep bowels. From there, huge masses of salty waters of the future oceans and seas, formed during the same process of decompression, also splashed onto the earth's surface. So it was in the places of modern oceans.

The Ural was formed in this way. The fragments of the ancient continents, moving away from each other along the roundness of our planet, on the other hand, inevitably had to approach some other fragment, also from the previously intact piece of land. This is how Europe, which had broken away from something, and Asia, which had broken off from somewhere, began to draw closer. When colliding, the edges of the approaching fragments began to crumble, crumple, and prick. Some pieces of the approaching continents were squeezed out onto the surface of the Earth, some were crushed inward, crumpled into folds. From gigantic pressure, something melted, something delami- nated , something completely changed its original appearance. A monstrous hodgepodge of the most heterogeneous formations was formed, which geologists inclined to humor dubbed the "broken plate." The squeezed blocks of rocks formed along the line of contact of the materials of the chain of the Ural ridges.

The described, according to the authors of this idea, happened quite a long time ago, more than one hundred million years ago. But one should not think that this was the last act of expansion of our planet. Geologists believe that the faults of the earth's crust within the Urals have occurred more than once since then. One of the latest events of this kind, they consider the formation of a split in the Southern Urals, stretching in a line from Bredy through Troitsk to Kopeisk. Here, according to enthusiasts of the idea, there is the birth of such a fissure of the earth's firmament, which in a couple of hundred million years can grow to the size of the Atlantic Ocean. She is just at the very beginning of this glorious journey. The next stage they see is the formation of a giant basin like Baikal - somewhere in a hundred thousand years, then the sprawling shores of the emerging sea (like the Red Sea) - in another two or three hundred thousand years, and then a direct path to the new Great Ocean. It would be interesting to see...

The places of collisions of the continents are also riddled with numerous cracks, becoming easily permeable to ore-bearing solutions.

From the standpoint of these approaches, the abundance and richness of minerals in the Urals is easily explained...

No matter how they appear on the body of the planet, but the Ural Mountains for the last few tens of millions of years have invariably risen on the border of two continents, open in winter and summer to all winds, rains, snows, calcined by the sun, frozen by frosty winters. All natural elements contributed to the destruction of the once majestic ranges. The tops of the mountains gradually collapsed, crumbled into countless fragments of small and large boulders, became lower, rounder. So they gradually turned into what we are seeing today - into a community of several closely attached to each other, not too high and not too rocky chains of mountain ranges, mostly elongated almost strictly from south to north (or vice versa). It should be noted that in the south and north of the Ural mountainous country, its mountains are both higher and more rocky. In the central part of it, they are significantly lowered, in some places they are just high, portly hills.

And one more feature in the structure of the Ural Mountains can be noticed by a traveler crossing them from west to east. In the latitudinal direction, the mountainous country is asymmetric. It passes into the Russian Plain as if smoothly, as a series of gradually lowering western foothills. Its transition to the West Siberian lowland is more abrupt. In a significant part of the Urals, it looks like this: mountains, mountains, mountains, a cliff - and immediately a low, swampy Trans-Urals.

The modern climatic zones of the Urals were formed relatively recently, in the last couple of hundred thousand years, almost immediately before the settlement of the Urals by humans. At that time, the most distinct traces of cooling appeared on the planet. They are quite fully traced throughout the Ural Mountains, and manifested themselves in the change of vegetation and species composition of the animal world. The cooling of the planet led to its glaciation. But an amusing detail: if in the European part of our country the tongues of glaciers penetrated to the latitude of modern Dnepropetrovsk, then in the Urals, even at the time of the deepest glaciation, they did not penetrate south of the upper reaches of the Pechora.

Judging by fossil vegetation, the climate in the Urals was quite favorable until the last ice age. Here - almost along the entire length - then hop hornbeam (a tree of the Mediterranean climate, found in the Pechora River basin), oaks, lindens, hornbeams, and hazel grew. Shrubs were plentiful, and many spores and grass pollen were found. But during the period of glaciation, there was no trace left of the free forest-steppe woodland with vast open spaces. It was replaced by taiga coniferous forests, and luxurious herbs in large areas were replaced by quinoa and wormwood.

In pre-glacial times, the level of the World Ocean was one hundred and fifty to two hundred meters lower than today. On the shelves of the modern northern seas in our time, many kilometers of once-deep valleys have been discovered, dug then in the earth's firmament by the Pechora and Ob. And Kama's bed lay one hundred and fifty meters below its current level. The peaks of the Ural Mountains were on average 200-500 meters higher modern level. And since the mountains were higher, then the rivers that originated in them flowed faster. In general, mighty streams flowed down from the Urals then. Evidence of their power is now the placers of boulders, which they carried from the mountains far to the plain. Such boulders - up to one and a half meters in diameter - can often be found walking around Khanty-Mansiysk.

And the Ural rivers were much more watery.

Today, near the Cherry Mountains, the small river Khmelevka flows. Such a nondescript, meek Cinderella. And it has been established for sure that once it was a very, very large river, it flowed along the western slopes of the Potanin and Cherry mountains, absorbing the valley of the current Gorkaya river, and flowed into the current lakes Big and Small Kochan and Ara-Kul. Then these lakes were one huge whole - the sea, and now mirrors of its waters have been preserved only in the deepest places of the ancient basin.

Apparently, it is not for nothing that the time of melting of the glaciers of the era of the largest glaciation of the Urals was called by specialists “the time of great waters”.

In general, periods of glaciation seriously affected the formation of the modern appearance of the Urals. And not only the Urals. Let me introduce you to one hydrographic incident that happened at that time.

We have already mentioned above that the ice sheets on the Russian Plain reached the bend of the Dnieper near modern Dnepropetrovsk and to the latitude of the city of Ivdel in the Urals. The glaciers completely blocked and redrawn the hitherto familiar structure of river flows. So, the rivers of the Pechora basin began to flow into the Kama - through Vyatka. The glacier is an insurmountable wall under the pond and the waters of the ancient large river, which once flowed in the area between the present-day cities of Yuryevets and Vasilsursk. It flowed to the north and flowed into the Pra-Unzha, which then belonged to the Don basin. The dammed waters, constantly replenished by the melting glacier, overflowed the bowl of the reservoir that had arisen and, pouring out through the height of the watershed near present-day Kazan, poured into the streams of the Kama. Gradually, they completely cut through this watershed, forming a completely worthy river bed. This is how the great river Volga appeared.

Considering the further process of the formation of the Volga basin, the geologist G. F. Mirchink came to the conclusion that he “... is, in essence, the history of the strengthening of the power of the Kama. The tributaries of the Kama, gradually growing in power and number, created the modern Volga. Historically, in the geological sense of the word, it would be more correct to consider the Volga a tributary of the Kama ... "

Isn't it deeply symbolic that the streams of the Ural river Kama modestly and inconspicuously turned into the great Russian river Volga?

Is it not from such a hydrogeological fact that the tradition began, according to which all the abundant power of the Urals unobtrusively, quietly, but weightily began to be personified by the power of Russia ...

Since the time of the first great glaciation of the Urals, all of its main climatic and landscape zones have appeared to this day - tundra (bald), mountain-taiga, taiga-plain, forest-steppe and steppe.

This is how everything in the Urals had developed by the time a person appeared here.

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Part I. Ural peoples: initial information on ethnic

The length of the Ural Mountains from south to north is 2 thousand kilometers, and from west to east from 50 to 150 kilometers. In ancient times, the mountains of the Urals were called Riphean, and until the 18th century they were called “belt” (translated from Turkic, “Ural” means belt). Since ancient times, the Urals has been considered a natural border separating two parts of the world - and. The Ural Mountains are relatively low: only a few peaks reach a height of 1.5 thousand meters above sea level, and the highest of them (Mount Narodnaya) is 1895 meters.

The area occupied by the Urals is close to 400,000 km2, and if we count all the foothills, then to 1,100,000 km2. The main ridge is lower than the parallel ridges accompanying it. The western slope of its canopy, and the eastern steep. Most of the parallel ranges are located on the western side, with more high peaks in the south than the main ridge. In many places, the Ural does not give the impression of a significant mountain range due to its gradual rise, especially if it is approached from the west. All along there is not a single peak with permanent snow, even in the far north. In relation to the Urals, it can be divided into several parts: Polar, Subpolar, Northern, Middle and Southern.

Slope Peoples. One of the highest points of the Ural Mountains

Polar Ural

The northernmost part of the Urals consists of stony placers (rocks and remnants). The flora and fauna are quite scarce. Even mosses and lichens do not create a continuous cover. The most significant peaks are the mountains: Payer (1472 meters) and Konstantinov Kamen (492 meters).

Subpolar Urals

This part of the Urals is characterized greatest heights ridges. Here, traces of glaciation are visible quite clearly. Even the names of the mountains speak eloquently of their pointed peaks (Blade Peak, Saber Mountain). The highest point of the Ural Mountains (Mount Narodnaya) is also located here. Stone peaks and the mountain in the lower part of the slope are replaced here. The southern border of this part of the Urals is located at 64° north latitude.

Northern Ural

The mountains here take on the character of a real range, quite high, rocky and completely treeless. Then the ridge takes a southwestern direction. Further to the southwest, the ridge narrows, and the slopes cover it. To the south is a mountain junction with one of the highest points of the entire Urals - Mount Telposiz (1617 meters). Further south, the heights of individual peaks drop to 1000 meters, and then even lower. In general, the average height of the Northern Urals is about 900 meters. Numerous rivers originate on its slopes, forming tributaries of the Pechora and Kama in the west, and the Ob in the east.

Ural mountains

Middle Ural

The Middle Urals starts from Mount Yurma, located at the source of the Ufa River. It, too, for the most part consists of two parallel ranges, the western one being lower, but forming a dividing line between Europe and Asia, and the eastern one being higher. Its most elevated peaks are as follows: Denezhkin stone (1492 meters), Konzhakovsky stone (1569 meters). Further south, the heights decrease, and the width of the ridge also becomes smaller. In the Ural region, in its northern part, it is low (nowhere does it exceed 700 meters), while its slopes here are very gentle. Further south, the ridge gradually rises (up to 850 meters). Numerous spurs (branches of the ridge) separate from the west, reaching as far as the Kama and the Volga River, while the eastern spurs quickly drop and merge with the West Siberian lowland.

Southern Urals

The southern part of the Urals consists of the main, but lower ridge and the parallel ridges accompanying it. The western slope of its canopy, and the eastern steep and precipitous. To the west of the main ridge there is a series of meridional ridges with a general direction from northeast to southwest. The highest point is Mount Yamantau (1640 meters). In general, the farther from the central part of the Ural ridge to the west, the lower the heights and the transition to the slightly undulating terrain of the Urals takes place very gradually. On the contrary, on the eastern side of the Urals, already at a short distance from it, the terrain almost completely loses its mountainous character and presents a completely flat surface. The rivers of this part of the Urals are different in nature, depending on which slope they originate from.

The Ural Mountains are located between various tectonic structures (the Russian Platform and the West Siberian Plate), which explains their formation. The Urals are separated from the Russian Urals by the Cis-Ural trough, which consists of sedimentary and continental climates. Western Siberia. reach the western slope of the Urals, trying to overcome it, rise higher and cool. As a result, more precipitation falls in the western part of the Urals than in the eastern part (approximately 1.5-2 times). The temperature regime also has its own characteristics. In the western part of the Urals, winters are more snowy and, accordingly, milder. In the east, snow falls less, and frosts reach 45-50°C.

There are quite a large number of rivers in the Urals, the largest of which flow from east to west. There are also about 6 thousand in this area.

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Name

In ancient sources, the Urals are partly associated with the Riphean and more often with the Hyperborean mountains. According to Ptolemy, the Ural Mountains consist of the Rimnus mountains (Rimninus - the Yaik or Ufa river; Middle Urals), Noros, "Noros" - the Southern Urals, from which the Daiks (Ural?) River flows and the northern part - the Hyperborean Riphean Mountains - clearly a watershed between the basins of the Caspian, the Black Sea and the Baltic (Sarmatian Ocean), etc. Russian pioneers called it Stone, under the name Ural these mountains were first mentioned in Russian sources at the end of the 17th century. The name Ural was introduced by V. Tatishchev from the Mansi "ur" (mountain). According to another version, this word is of Turkic origin.

Geological structure

The Ural Mountains were formed in the late Paleozoic during the era of intensive mountain building (Hercynian folding). The formation of the Ural mountain system began in the late Devonian (about 350 million years ago) and ended in the Triassic (about 200 million years ago).

Is integral part Ural-Mongolian folded geosynclinal belt. Within the Urals, deformed and often metamorphosed rocks of predominantly Paleozoic age come to the surface. The strata of sedimentary and volcanic rocks are usually strongly folded, disturbed by ruptures, but in general they form meridional bands, which determine the linearity and zonality of the structures of the Urals. From west to east stand out:

Cis-Ural marginal foredeep with relatively gentle sedimentation in the western side and more complex in the eastern side;
the zone of the western slope of the Urals with the development of intensely crumpled and thrust-disturbed sedimentary strata of the Lower and Middle Paleozoic;
the Central Ural uplift, where among the sedimentary strata of the Paleozoic and Upper Precambrian, older crystalline rocks of the edge of the East European Platform outcrop in places;
a system of troughs-synclinoria of the eastern slope (the largest are Magnitogorsk and Tagil), made mainly by Middle Paleozoic volcanic strata and marine, often deep-sea sediments, as well as deep-seated igneous rocks (gabbroids, granitoids, less often alkaline intrusions) that break through them - the so-called. greenstone belt of the Urals;
Ural-Tobolsk anticlinorium with outcrops of older metamorphic rocks and wide development of granitoids;
East Ural synclinorium, in many respects similar to Tagil-Magnitogorsk.

At the base of the first three zones, according to geophysical data, an ancient, Early Precambrian, basement is confidently traced, composed mainly of metamorphic and igneous rocks and formed as a result of several epochs of folding. The oldest, presumably Archean, rocks come to the surface in the Taratash ledge on the western slope of the Southern Urals. Pre-Ordovician rocks in the basement of the synclinories of the eastern slope of the Urals are unknown. It is assumed that the Paleozoic volcanic strata of synclinoria are based on thick plates of hypermafic and gabbroids, which in some places come to the surface in the massifs of the Platinum-bearing belt and other related belts; these plates, possibly, are outcasts of the ancient oceanic bed of the Ural geosyncline. In the east, in the Ural-Tobolsk anticlinorium, outcrops of Precambrian rocks are rather problematic.

The Paleozoic deposits of the western slope of the Urals are represented by limestones, dolomites, sandstones, formed in conditions of predominantly shallow seas. To the east, deeper sediments of the continental slope are traced in a discontinuous band. Even further east, within the eastern slope of the Urals, the Paleozoic (Ordovician, Silurian) section begins with altered volcanic rocks of basalt composition and jasper, comparable to the rocks of the bottom of modern oceans. In places above the section, there are thick, also altered spilite-natro-liparitic strata with deposits of copper pyrite ores. Younger deposits of the Devonian and partly Silurian are represented mainly by andesite-basalt, andesite-dacitic volcanic rocks and greywackes, corresponding to the stage in the development of the eastern slope of the Urals, when the oceanic Earth's crust was replaced by a transitional bark. Carboniferous deposits (limestones, grey-wackes, acidic and alkaline volcanics) are associated with the latest, continental stage of development of the eastern slope of the Urals. At the same stage, the main mass of Paleozoic, essentially potassium, granites of the Urals, which formed pegmatite veins with rare valuable minerals, also intruded. In the Late Carboniferous-Permian, sedimentation on the eastern slope of the Urals almost stopped and a folded mountain structure formed here; on the western slope at that time, the Cis-Ural marginal foredeep was formed, filled with a thick (up to 4-5 km) strata of detrital rocks that were carried down from the Urals - molasse. Triassic deposits have been preserved in a number of depressions-grabens, the occurrence of which in the north and east of the Urals was preceded by basalt (trap) magmatism. Younger strata of Mesozoic and Cenozoic platform deposits gently overlap folded structures along the periphery of the Urals.

It is assumed that the Paleozoic structure of the Urals was laid down in the Late Cambrian - Ordovician as a result of the splitting of the Late Precambrian continent and the expansion of its fragments, as a result of which a geosynclinal depression was formed with crust and oceanic-type sediments in its inner part. Subsequently, the expansion was replaced by compression, and the oceanic basin began to gradually close and "overgrow" with the newly formed continental crust; the nature of magmatism and sedimentation changed accordingly. The modern structure of the Urals bears traces of the strongest compression, accompanied by a strong transverse contraction of the geosynclinal depression and the formation of gentle scaly overthrusts - ridges.

Minerals

The Urals is a treasure trove of various minerals. Of the 55 types of the most important minerals that were developed in the USSR, 48 are represented in the Urals. For the eastern regions of the Urals, the most characteristic deposits are copper pyrite ores (Gaiskoye, Sibayskoye, Degtyarskoye deposits, Kirovgradskaya and Krasnouralskaya groups of deposits), skarn-magnetite (Goroblagodatskoye, Vysokogorskoye, Magnitogorskoye deposits), titanium-magnetite (Kachkanarskoye, Pervouralskoye), oxide nickel ores (Orsko-Khalilovskoe deposits group) and chromite ores (deposits of the Kempirsai massif), confined mainly to the greenstone belt of the Urals, coal deposits (Chelyabinsk coal basin), placers and primary deposits of gold (Kochkarskoe, Berezovskoe) and platinum (Isovskie). The largest deposits of bauxite (North Ural bauxite-bearing region) and asbestos (Bazhenovskoye) are located here. On the western slope of the Urals and in the Urals there are deposits of coal (Pechora coal basin, Kizel coal basin), oil and gas (Volga-Ural oil and gas region, Orenburg gas condensate field), potassium salts (Verkhnekamsk basin). Especially the Urals is famous for its "gems" - precious, semi-precious and ornamental stones (emerald, amethyst, aquamarine, jasper, rhodonite, malachite, etc.). The best jewelry diamonds in the USSR were mined in the Urals.

The depths of the mountains contain more than two hundred different minerals. For example, stocks of "non-melting ice" - rock crystal in Narodnaya Mountain. The bowls of the St. Petersburg Hermitage are made from Ural malachite and jasper.

Geographic aspects

The conditional border between Europe and Asia runs along the eastern foot of the Ural Mountains.

Geographically, the Ural Mountains are divided into five parts:

Central or Middle Urals,

In the north, the Pai-Khoi mountain system can be considered a continuation of the Ural Range, in the south - Mugodzhary.

Peaks

Highest Peaks:

Subpolar Urals - Mount Narodnaya (1895 m above sea level).
South Ural - Mount Yaman-Tau (1640 m above sea level).
Northern Ural - Mount Telposiz (1617 m above sea level).
Polar Ural - Mount Payer (1499 m above sea level).
Middle Ural - Mount Oslyanka (1119 m above sea level).

Notes

Sources

3rd Edition Large Soviet encyclopedia, article "Ural"

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