The Kondakov Plateau (; ) is a mountain

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. ...

in the

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...

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. The town of

Chokurdakh Chokurdakh (; , ''Çokuurdaax'') is an types of inhabited localities in Russia, urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Allaikhovsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia. As of the Russian Census (2010), 2010 C ...

is located on the other bank of the Indigirka, facing the plateau. The nearest airport is

Chokurdakh Airport Chokurdakh Airport (sometimes written Chokurdah Airport, Cokurdah Airport) is an airport in Yakutia, Russia located 1 km north of Chokurdakh. It is a major airfield handling small transport aircraft. Google Earth Google Earth is a web ...

. The Shandrin

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...

was discovered in 1974 at the feet of a steep slope in the eastern side of the Kondakov Plateau by

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

B. S. Rusanov of the

Yakutsk Yakutsk ( ) is the capital and largest city of Sakha, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of Russia's most rapidly growing regional cities, with a population of 355,443 at the ...

Institute of Geology.Shandrinsky mammoth
/ref>

Geography

The Kondakov Plateau is located in eastern Yakutia, rising above the right banks of the lower course of the

Indigirka The Indigirka (; ) is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana to the west and the Kolyma to the east. It is long. The area of its basin is . History The isolated village of Russkoye Ustye, located on the delta of the Indigi ...

and gradually decreasing in elevation to the east. Slopes are generally smooth and gentle and the average height of the plateau surface is between and . There are slightly higher ridges cutting across the plateau area, the Bonga-Taga ridge in the north and the Mokholukan in the south. The highest point is high Punga Khaya located in the western part.Кондаковское месторождение, Аллаиховский район (улус), Восточная Якутия, Якутия, Россия - webmineral.ru
/ref> The plateau is limited by the

Yana-Indigirka Lowland The Yana-Indigirka Lowland (; ) is a large, low alluvial plain located in northern Siberia, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia. Administratively most of the territory of the lowland is part of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). There are inhabited ...

to the west, with the delta of the Indigirka to the north. To the south it is bound by the

Ulakhan-Sis Range The Ulakhan-Sis Range (; ) is a mountain range in the Sakha Republic, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia.

and by the

Kolyma Lowland The Kolyma Lowland () is a lowland plain in the northeastern parts of Sakha Republic in the basin of the Alazeya, Bolshaya Chukoch'ya and lower reaches of the Kolyma rivers. The lowland is formed by fluvio-lacustrine loam soil about 120 m thick ...

to the east.

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

Hydrography

The Kondakov Plateau is crossed by rivers Shandrin to the east and the

Sundrun The Sundrun () is a river in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) of the Russian Federation. It is long, and has a drainage basin of . Course It has its sources in the Ulakhan-Sis Range and flows roughly northeastwards across the Kondakov Plateau. Le ...

with some of its upper course tributaries, as well as by the

Bolshaya Ercha The Bolshaya Ercha () is a river in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russia. It is a tributary of the Indigirka. The river has a length of and a drainage basin area of . The river flows north of the Arctic Circle, across desolate territories of the ...

, a tributary of the Indigirka. The Malaya Ercha —the largest tributary of the Bolshaya Ercha, the Keremesit, as well as the Okhotnya and Barn-Yuryakh —tributaries of the Sakhartymay, have their sources in the plateau.Topographic map - Chokurdakh
/ref> Ulakhan-Sis Range ONC C-7

Flora and fauna

Permafrost Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below ...

prevails in the area of the Kondakov Plateau. The surface of the uplands is markedly dissected by river valleys in which there are forests of

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, where they are found in lowland forests in the high la ...

and forest tundra, especially in the southern part. Its higher elevations are covered with

mountain tundra Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine tundra gets ...

vegetation.Кондаковское плоскогорье

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

The Kondakov Plateau area is part of the migration corridor of the

reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...

population, which includes the adjoining

Suor Uyata The Suor Uyata (; ) is a mountain range in the Sakha Republic, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia. The village of Andryushkino, a small inhabited locality of the Lower Kolyma District, is located to the SSE.Google Earth Kigilyakhs, rock fo ...

to the southeast, and the forest tundra of the

Rossokha River The Rassokha (, also Россоха; ) is a river in the northeastern part of Yakutia, Russia. It is the major tributary of the Alazeya.Google Earth Geography The river is long. The area of its basin is . The Rassokha is formed by the conflu ...

basin to the east.

Climate

The plateau has a harsh

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...

. The average temperature is . The coldest temperatures, down to , have been recorded in February. In summer the average July temperature in the valleys does not exceed .

Geology

Geologically the plateau is composed 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 ...

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility. Although its permeabil ...

s and

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock generally derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock, like shale. It shows pronounced ''schistosity'' (named for the rock). This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a l ...

s of the Upper

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

Andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...

s and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, 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 planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

s are present in some exposed crust parts of the plateau, where the local type of

agate Agate ( ) is a banded variety of chalcedony. Agate stones are characterized by alternating bands of different colored chalcedony and sometimes include macroscopic quartz. They are common in nature and can be found globally in a large number of d ...

with a parallel-layered pattern can also be found.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Physiogeography of the Russian Far East
Plateaus of the Sakha Republic