The Chukotka Mountains () or Chukotka Upland (), is a mountainous area in the

Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Chukotka ( ; ), officially the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, is the easternmost federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia. It is an Autonomous okrugs of Russia, autonomous okrug situated in the Russian Far East, and shares a border wi ...

Far Eastern Federal District The Far Eastern Federal District ( rus, Дальневосточный федеральный округ, p=dəlʲnʲɪvɐˈstot͡ɕnɨj fʲɪdʲɪˈralʲnɨj ˈokrʊk) is the largest and the least populated federal districts of Russia, federa ...

, Russia.Chukchi Highlands
/ Great Russian Encyclopedia; in 35 vol.] / Ch. ed. Yu.S. Osipov . - M .:

Great Russian Encyclopedia The ''Great Russian Encyclopedia'' (''GRE''; , БРЭ, transliterated as ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya entsiklopediya'' or academically as ''Bol'šaja rossijskaja ènciklopedija'') is a universal Russian encyclopedia, completed in 36 volumes, publishe ...

, 2004—2017. The

ridge A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated geomorphologic landform, structural feature, or a combination of both separated from the surrounding terrain by steep sides. The sides of a ridge slope away from a narrow top, the crest or ridgecrest, wi ...

s of this system are largely barren and desolate. About half of their area is above the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

. The climate is one of the harshest in the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, with minimum absolute temperatures reaching -73°С. Traditionally

Chukchi people The Chukchi, or Chukchee (, ''ḷygʺoravètḷʹèt, o'ravètḷʹèt''), are a Siberian ethnic group native to the Chukchi Peninsula, the shores of the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea region of the Arctic Ocean all within modern Russia. They s ...

lived only in few intermontane areas, such as the Amguema valley that cuts across the vast mountain zone.

Geography

The Chukotka Mountains are one of the two main mountain regions of Chukotka. They rise west and east of the

isthmus An isthmus (; : isthmuses or isthmi) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea count ...

area of the

Chukchi Peninsula The Chukchi Peninsula (also Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula; , ''Chukotskiy poluostrov'', short form , ''Chukotka''), at about 66° N 172° W, is the easternmost peninsula of Asia. Its eastern end is at Cape Dezhnev near the village ...

, in the central Chukotka region, bounded by the Anadyr Highlands in the southwest. They are composed of mountains of middle height displaying alpine relief, as well as low mountains. They stretch in roughly WNW/ESE direction for , between the head of Chaun Bay and the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...

shore. The ranges of the northern area consist of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

with

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

intrusion In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

s, while those of the southern part are made up of

volcanic rock Volcanic rocks (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) are rocks formed from lava erupted from a volcano. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic rock is artificial, and in nature volcanic rocks grade into hypabyssal and me ...

s. The highest peak is Mount Iskhodnaya (Исходная) in the Chantal Range. which is highWielka Encyklopedia Gór i Alpinizmu, tom 2 Góry Azji, Katowice: Wydawnictwo STAPIS, 2005, . — or according to other sources.

Hydrography

Among the rivers that have their source in the mountains, the following deserve mention: the Amguema River with its tributaries Ekityki and Chantalveergyn, the Palyavaam, Pegtymel and Tanyurer of the

Chukchi Sea The Chukchi Sea (, ), sometimes referred to as the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea or the Sea of Chukotsk, is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, ...

side, as well as the Kanchalan and the Belaya River tributaries Bolshoi Pykarvaam and Bolshaya Osinovaya of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

side. The largest lakes in the mountain area are Ekityki, Ervynaygytgyn, Yanranaygytgyn, Ioni, Pychgynmygytgyn, Medvezhye, Achchyon and Koolen.Chukotka Autonomous Okrug - Water of Russia
/ref> There are 47 small glaciers in the ranges of the highlands, with a total area of .

Subranges

The system of the Chukotka Mountains comprises a number of subranges, including the following: *

Shelag Range The Shelag Range, Shelag Ridge () is a range of mountains in far Russian Far East, North-eastern Russia. Administratively the range is part of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Federal subjects of Russia, Russian Federation. The area of the ran ...

, highest point — the northwesternmost, reaching up to Cape Shelagsky. * Ichuveem Range, highest point . * Ekvyvatap Range, highest point . * Pegtymel Range, highest point . * Palyavaam Range, highest point . * Chantal Range, highest point . * Ekityk Range, highest point . * Pekulney Range, highest point . * Iskaten Range, highest point . * Ghenkanyi Range, highest point — the easternmost, near the Bering Sea.

Climate

The climate of the Chukotka Mountains area is severe, with short cool summers and very cold 8-month long winters where

blizzard A blizzard is a severe Winter storm, snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow th ...

s are common owing to the influence of both the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

and the Aleutian Low. The valley areas have a continental climate while the mountain ranges are under the influence of an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

, which is felt more in the lower altitude mountains and less in the medium-high ones.

Flora and fauna

The lower slopes of the mountains have

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

vegetation, often marshy in the intermontane basins, while the higher altitudes are Arctic desert. Rivers are abundant in fish.A.P. Gorkin. ''Encyclopedia "Geography".'' - ACT: Rosman, 2008 p. 1374 - (in Russian)

References

External links

*
Geography of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113152114/https://nashdv.ru/files/chukot/geog_ch.html , date=2021-11-13

East Siberian Mountains