The Polar Urals (russian: Полярный Урал) are a mountain range in the western part of the
Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
The Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YaNAO; russian: Яма́ло-Не́нецкий автоно́мный о́круг (ЯНАО), ; yrk, Ямалы-Ненёцие автономной ӈокрук, ) or Yamalia (russian: Ямалия) is a fe ...
and the northeastern part of
Komi,
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia
North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographic ...
. The border between Europe and Asia runs along the main ridge of the Polar Urals.
[ Google Earth] The
Salekhard–Igarka Railway stretch of the
Northern Railway runs along the valley of the
Sob in the mountains.
Geography
The Polar Urals are a subrange of the
Urals
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
. They stretch roughly from SW to NE for forming the northern section of the long Ural chain.
The range runs from the area of the sources of the
Khulga river of the
Ob basin in the south, to the Konstantinov Kamen mountain rising above
Baydaratskaya Bay of the
Kara Sea
The Kara Sea (russian: Ка́рское мо́ре, ''Karskoye more'') is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipela ...
at the northern end. The predominant elevations of the ridges range between and , with individual peaks rising slightly higher. The highest peak is high
Payer Mountain, located in the middle part.
The mountains display traces of massive ancient glaciation in
U-shaped valley
U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...
s,
cirque
A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landf ...
s and
moraine
A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris ( regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice sh ...
s. Some small
glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...
s remain, such as the Geographical Institute Glacier and the Dolgushin Glacier. The
Usa, a tributary of the
Pechora with its tributaries Elets, Kechpel, among others, the
Kara, as well as numerous left tributaries of the Ob such as the
Synya, Voykar, Sob, Longot-Yugan and
Shchuchya, have their sources in the range. There are many lakes in the mountain area, the largest and deepest of which are
Khadata-Yugan-Lor (Хадатаёганлор) and the Shchuchye (pike) lakes.
[Урал (географич.)](_blank)
''Great Soviet Encyclopedia
The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) 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 ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...
'' in 30 vols. — Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov
Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov (born Alexander Michael Prochoroff, russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Про́хоров; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was an Australian-born Soviet-Russian physicist known ...
. - 3rd ed. - M. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.(in Russian)
Flora
The slopes in the southern parts of the Polar Urals up to a height between and are covered with sparse coniferous forests of
larch
Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains furt ...
and
spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ( taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the sub ...
with some
birch
A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...
. On the slopes of the higher elevations and in the northern parts there is
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 ...
with
moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta ('' sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and ...
and
lichen as well as vast rocky and stony desolate areas.
See also
*
List of mountains and hills of Russia
This is a list of mountains and hills of Russia.
List by elevation
Over 5000 meters
4000 to 4999 meters
3000 to 3999 meters
2000 to 2999 meters
1000 to 1999 meters
Under 1000 metres
See also
*Highest points of Russian Federal s ...
References
External links
*
Mountain ranges of Russia
Mountains of the Komi Republic
Landforms of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
Ural Mountains
{{YamaloNenetsAutonomousOkrug-geo-stub