Kuznetsk Depression (russian: Кузнецкая котловина, ''Kuznetskaya kotlovina'') is located among mountains of South-Central

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...

, including: Kuznetsk Alatau to the Northeast, Salair Ridge to the Southwest, and

Mountainous Shoria Gornaya Shoria, Mountainous Shoria, or Mountain Shoria (, ''Gornaya Shoriya'', cjs, Тағлығ Шор, ''Tağlığ Şor'') is a territory in southern Siberia, Russia, east of the Altay Mountains. It is the southern part of Kemerovo Oblast. The ...

to the South. It is within

Kemerovo Oblast Kemerovo Oblast — Kuzbass (russian: Ке́меровская о́бласть — Кузба́сс, translit=Kemerovskaya oblast — Kuzbass, ), also known simply as Kemerovo Oblast (russian: Ке́меровская о́бласть, label=non ...

Geography

The depression has

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...

s up to ,. It has an area of 70,000 km², with a length of and width of . It is split by a network of river valleys. The major rivers are the Tom River and

Inya River The Inya (russian: Иня́, ) is a river in Kemerovo and Novosibirsk Oblasts of Russia. It is a right tributary of the Ob. It is long, with a drainage basin of . By the Inya lie the towns of Leninsk-Kuznetsky and Toguchin.Ob River } The Ob ( rus, Обь, p=opʲ: Ob') is a major river in Russia. It is in western Siberia; and together with Irtysh forms the world's seventh-longest river system, at . It forms at the confluence of the Biya and Katun which have their origins ...

. The central section has several

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

mountain ridges with heights of . They include Taradanov's Ridge, Saltymakov's Ridge, and the Karakan Mountains.

Economy

The Kuznetsk Depression contains the famous

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

-mining

Kuznetsk Basin The Kuznetsk Basin (russian: Кузнецкий угольный бассейн, Кузбасс; often abbreviated as Kuzbass or Kuzbas) in southwestern Siberia, Russia, is one of the largest coal mining areas in Russia, covering an area of aroun ...

. The main cities in it are

Kemerovo Kemerovo ( rus, Ке́мерово, p=ˈkʲemʲɪrəvə) is an industrial city and the administrative center of Kemerovo Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Iskitimka and Tom Rivers, in the major coal mining region of the Kuznetsk ...

, Novokuznetsk, and Prokopyevsk.

References

Depressions of Russia Landforms of Kemerovo Oblast Geography of Central Asia {{Siberia-geo-stub

Geography

Economy

See also

References