The Ural Mountains (/ˈjʊərəl/; Russian: Ура́льские го́ры, tr.

 Uralskiye
gory, IPA: [ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈgorɨ]; Bashkir: Урал тауҙары, Ural tauźarı) or simply the Urals, are
a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from
the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan.[1] The mountain
range forms part of the conventional boundary between the continents
of Europe and Asia. Vaygach Island and the islands of Novaya Zemlya form a further
continuation of the chain to the north into the Arctic Ocean.

The mountains lie within the Ural geographical region and significantly overlap

with the Ural Federal District and with the Ural economic region. They have rich resources,
including metal ores, coal, and precious and semi-precious stones. Since the 18th century the
mountains have contributed significantly to the mineral sector of the Russian economy.

Contents

 1Etymology
 2History
 3Geography and topography
o 3.1Polar Ural
o 3.2Nether-polar Ural
o 3.3Northern Ural
o 3.4Middle Ural
o 3.5Southern Ural

 4Geology
 5Rivers and lakes
 6Climate
 7Flora
 8Fauna
 9Ecology
 10Cultural significance
 11See also
  12References
 13External links

Etymology[edit]

As attested by Sigismund von Herberstein, in the 16th century Russians called the
range by a variety of names derived from the Russian words for rock (stone) and belt. The
modern Russian name for the Urals (Урал, Ural), first appearing in the 16th–17th century
when the Russian conquest of Siberia was in its heroic phase, was initially applied to its
southern parts and gained currency as the name of the entire range during the 18th century. It
might have been a borrowing from either Turkic "stone belt"[2] (Bashkir, where the same name
is used for the range), or Ob-Ugric.[3] From the 13th century, in Bashkortostan there has been
a legend about a hero named Ural. He sacrificed his life for the sake of his people and they
poured a stone pile over his grave, which later turned into the Ural Mountains.[4][5]
[6]
 Possibilities include Bashkir үр "elevation; upland" and Mansi ур ала "mountain peak, top
of the mountain",[7] V.N. Tatischev believes that this oronym is set to "belt" and associates it
with the Turkic verb oralu- "gird".[7] I.G. Dobrodomov suggests a transition from Aral to Ural
explained on the basis of ancient Bulgar-Chuvash dialects. Geographer E.V. Hawks believes
that the name goes back to the Bashkir folklore Ural-Batyr.[7] The Evenk geographical
term era "mountain" has also been theorized.[7] Finno-Ugrist scholars consider Ural deriving
from the Ostyak word urr meaning "chain of mountains".[8] Turkologists, on the other hand,
have achieved majority support for their assertion that 'ural' in Tatar means a belt, and recall
that an earlier name for the range was 'stone belt'.[9]

History[edit]

Main article: History of human settlement in the Ural Mountains

 As Middle-Eastern merchants traded with the Bashkirs and other people living on
the western slopes of the Ural as far north as Great Perm, since at least the 10th century
medieval mideastern geographers had been aware of the existence of the mountain range in its
entirety, stretching as far as to the Arctic Ocean in the north. The first Russian mention of the
mountains to the east of the East European Plain is provided by the Primary Chronicle, when
it describes the Novgorodian expedition to the upper reaches of the Pechora in 1096. During
the next few centuries Novgorodians engaged in fur trading with the local population and
collected tribute from Yugra and Great Perm, slowly expanding southwards. The
rivers Chusovaya and Belaya were first mentioned in the chronicles of 1396 and 1468,
respectively. In 1430 the town of Solikamsk (Kama Salt) was founded on the Kama at the
foothills of the Ural, where salt was produced in open pans. Ivan III of Moscow captured
Perm, Pechora and Yugra from the declining Novgorod Republic in 1472. With the
excursions of 1483 and 1499–1500 across the Ural Moscow managed to subjugate Yugra
completely.
 A fragment of von Herberstein's map

Nevertheless, around that time early 16th century Polish geographer Maciej of

Miechów in his influential Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis (1517) argued that there were no
mountains in Eastern Europe at all, challenging the point of view of some authors of Classical
antiquity, popular during the Renaissance. Only after Sigismund von Herberstein in his Notes
on Muscovite Affairs (1549) had reported, following Russian sources, that there are
mountains behind the Pechora and identified them with the Riphean
Mountains and Hyperboreans of ancient authors, did the existence of the Ural, or at least of its
northern part, become firmly established in the Western geography. The Middle and Southern
Ural were still largely unavailable and unknown to the Russian or Western European
geographers.

Verkhoturye in 1910

In the 1550s, after the Tsardom of Russia had defeated the Khanate of Kazan and

proceeded to gradually annex the lands of the Bashkirs, the Russians finally reached the
southern part of the mountain chain. In 1574 they founded Ufa. The upper reaches of the
Kama and Chusovaya in the Middle Ural, still unexplored, as well as parts of Transuralia still
held by the hostile Siberian Khanate, were granted to the Stroganovs by several decrees of the
tsar in 1558–1574. The Stroganovs' land provided the staging ground for Yermak's incursion
into Siberia. Yermak crossed the Ural from the Chusovaya to the Tagil around 1581. In 1597
Babinov's road was built across the Ural from Solikamsk to the valley of the Tura, where the
town of Verkhoturye (Upper Tura) was founded in 1598. Customs was established in
Verkhoturye shortly thereafter and the road was made the only legal connection between
European Russia and Siberia for a long time. In 1648 the town of Kungur was founded at the
western foothills of the Middle Ural. During the 17th century the first deposits
of iron and copper ores, mica, gemstones and other minerals were discovered in the Ural.

Iron and copper smelting works emerged. They multiplied particularly quickly

during the reign of Peter I of Russia. In 1720–1722 he commissioned Vasily Tatishchev to
oversee and develop the mining and smelting works in the Ural. Tatishchev proposed a new
copper smelting factory in Yegoshikha, which would eventually become the core of the city
of Perm and a new iron smelting factory on the Iset, which would become the largest in the
world at the time of construction and give birth to the city of Yekaterinburg. Both factories
were actually founded by Tatishchev's successor, Georg Wilhelm de Gennin, in 1723.
Tatishchev returned to the Ural on the order of Empress Anna to succeed de Gennin in 1734–
1737. Transportation of the output of the smelting works to the markets of European Russia
necessitated the construction of the Siberian Route from Yekaterinburg across the Ural to
Kungur and Yegoshikha (Perm) and further to Moscow, which was completed in 1763 and
rendered Babinov's road obsolete. In 1745 gold was discovered in the Ural
at Beryozovskoye and later at other deposits. It has been mined since 1747.

The first ample geographic survey of the Ural Mountains was completed in the
early 18th century by the Russian historian and geographer Vasily Tatishchev under the
orders of Peter I. Earlier, in the 17th century, rich ore deposits were discovered in the
mountains and their systematic extraction began in the early 18th century, eventually turning
the region into the largest mineral base of Russia.[1][4]

One of the first scientific descriptions of the mountains was published in 1770–71.
Over the next century, the region was studied by scientists from a number of countries,
including Russia (geologist Alexander Karpinsky, botanist Porfiry Krylov and
zoologist Leonid Sabaneyev), the United Kingdom (geologist Sir Roderick Murchison),
France (paleontologist Édouard de Verneuil), and Germany (naturalist Alexander von
Humboldt, geologist Alexander Keyserling).[1][10] In 1845, Murchison, who had according
to Encyclopædia Britannica "compiled the first geologic map of the Ural in 1841",
[1]
 published The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains with de Verneuil and
Keyserling.[10][11]
 The first railway across the Ural had been built by 1878 and linked Perm to
Yekaterinburg via Chusovoy, Kushva and Nizhny Tagil. In 1890 a railway linked Ufa
and Chelyabinsk via Zlatoust. In 1896 this section became a part of the Trans-Siberian
Railway. In 1909 yet another railway connecting Perm and Yekaterinburg passed through
Kungur by the way of the Siberian Route. It has eventually replaced the Ufa – Chelyabinsk
section as the main trunk of the Trans-Siberian railway.

The highest peak of the Ural, Mount Narodnaya, (elevation 1,895 m (6,217 ft))

was identified in 1927.[12]

Wooded Ural Mountains

During the Soviet industrialization in the 1930s the city of Magnitogorsk was

founded in the South-Eastern Ural as a center of iron smelting and steelmaking. During
the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941–1942, the mountains became a key element
in Nazi planning for the territories which they expected to conquer in the USSR. Faced with
the threat of having a significant part of the Soviet territories occupied by the enemy, the
government evacuated many of the industrial enterprises of European Russia and Ukraine to
the eastern foothills of the Ural, considered a safe place out of reach of the German bombers
and troops. Three giant tank factories were established at the Uralmash in Sverdlovsk (as
Yekaterinburg used to be known), Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, and Chelyabinsk Tractor
Plant in Chelyabinsk. After the war, in 1947–1948, Chum – Labytnangi railway, built with the
forced labor of Gulag inmates, crossed the Polar Ural.

Mayak, 150 km southeast of Yekaterinburg, was a center of the Soviet nuclear

industry[1][13][14][15] and site of the Kyshtym disaster.[14][16]

Geography and topography[edit]

Map including the Ural Mountains

 The Ural Mountains extend about 2,500 km (1,600 mi) from the Kara Sea to
the Kazakh Steppe along the border of Kazakhstan. Vaygach Island and the island of Novaya
Zemlya form a further continuation of the chain on the north. Geographically this range marks
the northern part of the border between the continents of Europe and Asia. Its highest peak is
Mount Narodnaya, approximately 1,895 m (6,217 ft) in elevation.[1]

Yugyd Va National Park

By topography and other natural features, the Urals are divided, from north to
south, into the Polar (or Arctic), Nether-Polar (or Sub-Arctic), Northern, Central and Southern
parts.

Polar Ural[edit]

The Polar Urals extend for about 385 kilometers (239 mi) from Mount
Konstantinov Kamen in the north to the Khulga River in the south; they have an area of about
25,000 km2 (9,700 sq mi) and a strongly dissected relief. The maximum height is 1,499 m
(4,918 ft) at Payer Mountain and the average height is 1,000 to 1,100 m (3,300 to 3,600 ft).

The mountains of the Polar Ural have exposed rock with sharp ridges, though
flattened or rounded tops are also found.[1][4]

Nether-polar Ural[edit]

Ural Mountains in summer

The Nether-Polar Ural are higher, and up to 150 km (93 mi) wider than the Polar
Urals. They include the highest peaks of the range: Mount Narodnaya (1,895 m
(6,217 ft)), Mount Karpinsky (1,878 m (6,161 ft)) and Manaraga (1,662 m (5,453 ft)). They
extend for more than 225 km (140 mi) south to the Shchugor River. The many ridges are
sawtooth shaped and dissected by river valleys. Both Polar and Nether-Polar Urals are
typically Alpine; they bear traces of Pleistocene glaciation, along with permafrost and
extensive modern glaciation, including 143 extant glaciers.[1][4]

Northern Ural[edit]

The Northern Ural consist of a series of parallel ridges up to 1,000–1,200 m

(3,300–3,900 ft) in height and longitudinal hollows. They are elongated from north to south
and stretch for about 560 km (350 mi) from the Usa River. Most of the tops are flattened, but
those of the highest mountains, such as Telposiz, 1,617 m (5,305 ft) and Konzhakovsky
Stone, 1,569 m (5,148 ft) have a dissected topography. Intensive weathering has produced
vast areas of eroded stone on the mountain slopes and summits of the northern areas.[1][4]

Middle Ural[edit]

The Central Ural are the lowest part of the Ural, with smooth mountain tops, the
highest mountain being 994 m (3,261 ft) (Basegi); they extend south from the Ufa River.[4]

Southern Ural[edit]
Main article: Southern Ural

The relief of the Southern Ural is more complex, with numerous valleys and
parallel ridges directed south-west and meridionally. The range includes the Ilmensky
Mountains separated from the main ridges by the Miass River. The maximum height is
1,640 m (5,380 ft) (Mount Yamantau) and the width reaches 250 km (160 mi). Other notable
peaks lie along the Iremel mountain ridge (Bolshoy Iremel and Maly Iremel). The Southern
Urals extend some 550 km (340 mi) up to the sharp westward bend of the Ural River and
terminate in the wide Mughalzhar Hills.[1]

Mountain Rocks in Big Entry

formation near a river, Nether-Polar Iremel Mountain to Ignateva Cave,
Saranpaul, Nether-
 Polar Urals Urals South Urals

Geology[edit]

See also: Middle-Urals Ring Structure

A mine in the Ural Mountains, early colour photograph by Sergey Prokudin-

Gorsky, 1910

The Urals are among the world's oldest extant mountain ranges. For its age of 250
to 300 million years, the elevation of the mountains is unusually high. They formed during
the Uralian orogeny due to the collision of the eastern edge of the
supercontinent Laurussia with the young and rheologically weak continent of Kazakhstania,
which now underlies much of Kazakhstan and West Siberia west of the Irtysh, and
intervening island arcs. The collision lasted nearly 90 million years in the late Carboniferous –
early Triassic.[17][18][19][20] Unlike the other major orogens of
the Paleozoic (Appalachians, Caledonides, Variscides), the Urals have not undergone post-
orogenic extensional collapse and are unusually well preserved for their age, being underlaid
by a pronounced crustal root.[21][22] East and south of the Urals much of the orogen is buried
beneath later Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments.[17] The adjacent Pay-Khoy Ridge to the north
and Novaya Zemlya are not a part of the Uralian orogen and formed later.

Many deformed and metamorphosed rocks, mostly of Paleozoic age, surface

within the Urals. The sedimentary and volcanic layers are folded and faulted. The sediments
to the west of the Ural Mountains are formed of limestone, dolomite and sandstone left from
ancient shallow seas. The eastern side is dominated by basalts.[4]
 Wooded Ural Mountains in winter

The western slope of the Ural Mountains has predominantly karst topography,

especially in the Sylva River basin, which is a tributary of the Chusovaya River. It is
composed of severely eroded sedimentary rocks (sandstones and limestones) that are about
350 million years old. There are many caves, sinkholes and underground streams. The karst
topography is much less developed on the eastern slopes. The eastern slopes are relatively
flat, with some hills and rocky outcrops and contain alternating volcanic and sedimentary
layers dated to the middle Paleozoic Era.[4] Most high mountains consist of weather-resistant
rocks such as quartzite, schist and gabbro that are between 570 and 395 million years old. The
river valleys are underlain by limestone.[1]

The Ural Mountains contain about 48 species of economically valuable ores and

economically valuable minerals. Eastern regions are rich in chalcopyrite, nickel
oxide, gold, platinum, chromite and magnetite ores, as well as in coal (Chelyabinsk
Oblast), bauxite, talc, fireclay and abrasives. The Western Urals contain deposits of coal, oil,
natural gas (Ishimbay and Krasnokamsk areas) and potassium salts. Both slopes are rich
in bituminous coal and lignite, and the largest deposit of bituminous coal is in the north
(Pechora field). The specialty of the Urals is precious and semi-precious stones, such
as emerald, amethyst, aquamarine, jasper, rhodonite, malachite and diamond. Some of the
deposits, such as the magnetite ores at Magnitogorsk, are already nearly depleted.[1][4]

Minerals from the Ural Mountains

 Quar
Andradite Beryl Platinum
tz

Rivers and lakes[edit]

Chusovaya River

Many rivers originate in the Ural Mountains. The western slopes south of the
border between the Komi Republic and Perm Krai and the eastern slopes south of
approximately 54°30'N drain into the Caspian Sea via the Kama and Ural River basins. The
tributaries of the Kama include the Vishera, Chusovaya, and Belaya and originate on both the
eastern and western slopes. The rest of the Urals drain into the Arctic Ocean, mainly via the
Pechora basin in the west, which includes the Ilych, Shchugor, and the Usa, and via
the Ob basin in the east, which includes the Tobol, Tavda, Iset, Tura and Severnaya Sosva.
The rivers are frozen for more than half the year. Generally, the western rivers have higher
flow volume than the eastern ones, especially in the Northern and Nether-Polar regions.
Rivers are slower in the Southern Urals. This is because of low precipitation and the relatively
warm climate resulting in less snow and more evaporation.[1][4]
 The mountains contain a number of deep lakes.[23] The eastern slopes of the
Southern and Central Urals have most of these, among the largest of which are the Uvildy,
Itkul, Turgoyak, and Tavatuy lakes.[4] The lakes found on the western slopes are less
numerous and also smaller. Lake Bolshoye Shchuchye, the deepest lake in the Polar Urals, is
136 meters (446 ft) deep. Other lakes, too, are found in the glacial valleys of this region. Spas
and sanatoriums have been built to take advantage of the medicinal muds found in some of
the mountain lakes.[1][4]

Climate[edit]

The climate of the Urals is continental. The mountain ridges, elongated from north
to south, effectively absorb sunlight thereby increasing the temperature. The areas west of the
Ural Mountains are 1–2 °C (1.8–3.6 °F) warmer in winter than the eastern regions because the
former are warmed by Atlantic winds whereas the eastern slopes are chilled by Siberian air
masses. The average January temperatures increase in the western areas from −20 °C (−4 °F)
in the Polar to −15 °C (5 °F) in the Southern Urals and the corresponding temperatures in July
are 10 °C (50 °F) and 20 °C (68 °F). The western areas also receive more rainfall than the
eastern ones by 150–300 mm (5.9–11.8 in) per year. This is because the mountains trap
clouds from the Atlantic Ocean. The highest precipitation, approximately 1,000 mm (39 in), is
in the Northern Urals with up to 1,000 cm (390 in) snow. The eastern areas receive from 500–
600 mm (20–24 in) in the north to 300–400 mm (12–16 in) in the south. Maximum
precipitation occurs in the summer: the winter is dry because of the Siberian High.[1][4]

Flora[edit]

Cloudberry

The landscapes of the Urals vary with both latitude and longitude and are
dominated by forests and steppes. The southern area of the Mughalzhar Hills is a semidesert.
Steppes lie mostly in the southern and especially south-eastern Urals. Meadow steppes have
developed on the lower parts of mountain slopes and are covered with zigzag and mountain
clovers, Serratula gmelinii, dropwort, meadow-grass and Bromus inermis, reaching the height
of 60–80 cm. Much of the land is cultivated. To the south, the meadow steppes become more
sparse, dry and low. The steep gravelly slopes of the mountains and hills of the eastern slopes
of the Southern Urals are mostly covered with rocky steppes. River valleys
contain willow, poplar and caragana shrubs.[4]

Forest landscapes of the Urals are diverse, especially in the southern part. The
western areas are dominated by dark coniferous taiga forests which change to mixed and
deciduous forests in the south. The eastern mountain slopes have light coniferous taiga
forests. The Northern Urals are dominated by conifers, namely Siberian fir, Siberian
pine, Scots pine, Siberian spruce, Norway spruce and Siberian larch, as well as
by silver and downy birches. The forests are much sparser in the Polar Urals. Whereas in
other parts of the Ural Mountains they grow up to an altitude of 1000 m, in the Polar Urals
the tree line is at 250–400 m. The polar forests are low and are mixed with swamps, lichens,
bogs and shrubs. Dwarf birch, mosses and berries (blueberry, cloudberry, black crowberry,
etc.) are abundant. The forests of the Southern Urals are the most diverse in composition:
here, together with coniferous forests are also abundant broadleaf tree species such as English
oak, Norway maple and elm.[4] The Virgin Komi Forests in the northern Urals are recognized
as a World Heritage site.

Fauna[edit]

The Ural forests are inhabited by animals typical of Siberia, such as elk, brown
bear, fox, wolf, wolverine, lynx, squirrel, and sable (north only). Because of the easy
accessibility of the mountains there are no specifically mountainous species. In the Middle
Urals, one can see a rare mixture of sable and pine marten named kidus. In the Southern
Urals, badger and black polecat are common. Reptiles and amphibians live mostly in the
Southern and Central Ural and are represented by the common viper, lizards and grass snakes.
Bird species are represented by capercaillie, black grouse, hazel grouse, spotted nutcracker,
and cuckoos. In summers, the South and Middle Urals are visited by songbirds, such
as nightingale and redstart.[1][4]

The steppes of the Southern Urals are dominated by hares and rodents such
as hamsters, susliks, and jerboa. There are many birds of prey such as lesser
kestrel and buzzards. The animals of the Polar Urals are few and are characteristic of
the tundra; they include Arctic fox, lemming, and reindeer. The birds of these areas
include rough-legged buzzard, snowy owl, tundra partridge, and rock ptarmigan.[1][4]

Wolverine Polecat

Ecology[edit]

The continuous and intensive economic development of the last centuries has
affected the fauna, and wildlife is much diminished around all industrial centers. During
World War II, hundreds of factories were evacuated from Western Russia before the German
occupation, flooding the Urals with industry. The conservation measures include establishing
national wildlife parks.[1] There are nine strict nature reserves in the Urals: the Ilmen, the
oldest one, mineralogical reserve founded in 1920 in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Pechora-Ilych in the
Komi Republic, Bashkir and its former branch Shulgan-Tash in Bashkortostan, Visim in
Sverdlovsk Oblast, Southern Ural in Bashkortostan, Basegi in Perm Krai, Vishera in Perm
Krai and Denezhkin Kamen in Sverdlovsk Oblast.

The area has also been severely damaged by the plutonium-producing

facility Mayak opened in Chelyabinsk-40 (later called Chelyabinsk-65, Ozyorsk), in the
Southern Ural, after World War II.[1] Its plants went into operation in 1948 and, for the first
ten years, dumped unfiltered radioactive waste into the Techa River and Lake Karachay.[1][13]
[14]
 In 1990, efforts were underway to contain the radiation in one of the lakes, which was
estimated at the time to expose visitors to 500 millirem per day.[14] As of 2006, 500 mrem in
the natural environment was the upper limit of exposure considered safe for a member of the
general public in an entire year (though workplace exposure over a year could exceed that by
a factor of 10).[15] Over 23,000 km2 (8,900 sq mi) of land were contaminated in 1957 from a
storage tank explosion, only one of several serious accidents that further polluted the region.
[1]
 The 1957 accident expelled 20 million curies of radioactive material, 90% of which settled
into the land immediately around the facility.[16] Although some reactors of Mayak were shut
down in 1987 and 1990,[14] the facility keeps producing plutonium.[24]

Cultural significance[edit]

The Urals have been viewed by Russians as a "treasure box" of mineral resources,
which were the basis for its extensive industrial development. In addition to iron and copper
the Urals were a source of gold, malachite, alexandrite, and other gems such as those used by
the court jeweller Fabergé. As Russians in other regions gather mushrooms or berries,
Uralians gather mineral specimens and gems. Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak (1852–1912) Pavel
Bazhov (1879–1950), as well as Aleksey Ivanov and Olga Slavnikova, post-Soviet writers,
have written of the region.[25]

The region served as a military stronghold during Peter the Great's Great Northern

War with Sweden, during Stalin's rule when the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Complex was
built and Russian industry relocated to the Urals during the Nazi advance at the beginning of
World War II, and as the center of the Soviet nuclear industry during the Cold War. Extreme
levels of air, water, and radiological contamination and pollution by industrial wastes resulted.
Population exodus resulted, and economic depression at the time of the collapse of the Soviet
Union, but in post-Soviet times additional mineral exploration, particularly in the northern
Urals, has been productive and the region has attracted industrial investment.[25]