The mountains lie within theUral geographical region and significantly overlap with theUral Federal District and theUral economic region. Their resources include metal ores, coal, precious and semi-precious stones. Since the 18th century, the mountains have contributed significantly to the mineral sector of theRussian economy. The region is one of the largest centers of metallurgy and heavy industry production in Russia.[4]
As attested bySigismund von Herberstein, in the 16th century, Russians called the Ural 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 centuries during theRussian conquest of Siberia, 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 borrowed from eitherTurkic "stone belt"[5] (Bashkir, where the same name is used for the range), orOb-Ugric.[6] From the 13th century inBashkortostan, there has been alegend about a hero named Ural who sacrificed his life for the sake of his people who then poured a stone pile over his grave, which later turned into the Ural Mountains.[7][8][9] Possibilities include Bashkirүр "elevation; upland" andMansiур ала "mountain peak, top of the mountain",[10]V.N. Tatischev believes that thisoronym is set to "belt" and associates it with the Turkic verb oralu- "gird".[10] I.G. Dobrodomov suggests a transition fromAral to Ural explained on the basis of ancientBulgar–Chuvash dialects. Geographer E.V. Hawks believes that the name goes back to the Bashkir folkloreUral-Batyr.[10] TheEvenk geographical termera "mountain" has also been theorized.[10] (cf also Ewenkī ürǝ-l (pl.) "mountains") Finno-Ugrist scholars consider Ural deriving from theOstyak wordurr meaning "chain of mountains".[11]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'.[12]Indigenous peoples of the Urals have various namings for the mountain range:KomiIz,MansiNyor,KhantyKev,NenetsNgarka pe.
As merchants from the Middle East traded with theBashkirs and other people living on the western slopes of the Ural as far north asGreat Perm, since the 10th century, medievalmideastern geographers had been aware of the existence of the mountain range in its entirety, stretching as far as the Arctic Ocean in the north. The first Russian mention of the mountains to the east of theEast European Plain is provided by thePrimary Chronicle, where it describes theNovgorodian expedition to the upper reaches of thePechora in the year 1096. During the next few centuries, the Novgorodians engaged infur trading with the local population and collected tribute fromYugra andGreat Perm, slowly expanding southwards. The city-state of Novgorod established two trade routes to theOb River, both starting from the town ofUstyug.[13] The rivers,Chusovaya andBelaya, were first mentioned in the chronicles of 1396 and 1468, respectively. In 1430, the town ofSolikamsk (Kama Salt) was founded on theKama at the foothills of the Ural, where salt wasproduced in open pans.Ivan III, the grand prince of Moscow, captured Perm, Pechora and Yugra from the declining Novgorod Republic in 1472. Withthe excursions of 1483 and 1499–1500 across the Ural, Moscow managed to subjugate Yugra completely.[13] The Russians received tribute, but contact with the tribes ceased after they left.[14]
Nevertheless, around the early 16th century, Polish geographer,Maciej of Miechów, in his influentialTractatus 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, which were popular during theRenaissance. Only after Sigismund von Herberstein in hisNotes on Muscovite Affairs (1549) had reported, following Russian sources, that there are mountains behind the Pechora and identified them with theRiphean Mountains andHyperboreans of ancient authors, did the existence of the Ural, or at least of its northern part, become firmly established in theWestern geography. The Middle and Southern Ural were still largely unavailable and unknown to the Russian or Western European geographers.
In the 1550s, after theTsardom of Russia had defeated theKhanate 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 foundedUfa. The upper reaches of the Kama and Chusovaya in the Middle Ural, still unexplored, as well as parts of Transuralia still held by the hostileSiberian Khanate, were granted to theStroganovs by several decrees of the tsar in 1558–1574. The Stroganovs land provided the staging ground forYermak'sincursion into Siberia. Yermak crossed the Ural from the Chusovaya to theTagil around 1581. In 1597, Babinov's road was built across the Ural from Solikamsk to the valley of theTura, where the town ofVerkhoturye (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 ofKungur was founded at the western foothills of the Middle Ural. During the 17th century, the first deposits ofiron andcopper ores,mica,gemstones and other minerals were discovered in the Ural.
Iron and coppersmeltingworks emerged. In particular, theGumyoshevsky mine was established in 1702 at an ancient copper deposit known sinceBronze Age — so-called "legendary"Copper Mountain which also producedmalachite. Mining intensified particularly quickly during the reign ofPeter I of Russia. In 1720–1722, he commissionedVasily Tatishchev to oversee and develop the mining and smelting works in the Ural. Tatishchev proposed a new copper smelting factory inYegoshikha, which would eventually become the core of the city ofPerm and a new iron smelting factory on theIset, which would become the largest in the world at the time of construction and give birth to the city ofYekaterinburg. Both factories were actually founded by Tatishchev's successor,Georg Wilhelm de Gennin, in 1723. Tatishchev returned to the Ural on the order ofEmpress 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 theSiberian 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 atBeryozovskoye 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.[2][7]
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 (geologistAlexander Karpinsky, botanistPorfiry Krylov and zoologistLeonid Sabaneyev), the United Kingdom (geologist SirRoderick Murchison), France (paleontologistÉdouard de Verneuil), and Germany (naturalistAlexander von Humboldt, geologistAlexander Keyserling).[2][15] In 1845, Murchison, who had according toEncyclopædia Britannica "compiled the first geologic map of the Ural in 1841",[2] publishedThe Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains with de Verneuil and Keyserling.[15][16]
The first railway across the Urals had been built by 1878 and linked Perm to Yekaterinburg viaChusovoy,Kushva andNizhny Tagil. In 1890, a railway linked Ufa andChelyabinsk viaZlatoust. In 1896, this section became a part of theTrans-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.[17]
Wooded Ural Mountains
During theSoviet industrialization in the 1930s, the city ofMagnitogorsk was founded in the South-Eastern Ural as a center of iron smelting andsteelmaking. During theGerman invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941–1942, the mountainsbecame 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 gianttank factories were established at theUralmash in Sverdlovsk (as Yekaterinburg used to be known),Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, andChelyabinsk Tractor Plant in Chelyabinsk. After the war, in 1947–1948, Chum –Labytnangi railway, built with the forced labor ofGulag inmates,crossed the Polar Ural.
The Ural Mountains extend about 2,500 km (1,600 mi) from theKara Sea to theKazakh 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 Europe and Asia. Its highest peak is Mount Narodnaya, approximately 1,895 m (6,217 ft) in elevation.[2] Transverse faults divide the mountain chain into seven major units, each of which has its own typical pattern of mountain ridges. From north to south, these are the Pay-Khoy, Zapolyarnyy, Pripolyarnyy, Polyarnyy, Severnyy, Sredniy, Yuzhnny Ural and Mugodzhary. The average altitudes of the Urals are around 1,000–1,300 m (3,300–4,300 ft), the highest point being Narodnaya peak in the Pripolyarnyy Ural which reaches a height of 1,894 metres (6,214 ft).[3]
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.
ThePolar Urals extend for about 385 kilometers (239 mi) from Mount Konstantinov Kamen in the north to the river Khulga 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) atMount Payer 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.[2][7]
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)) andManaraga (1,662 m (5,453 ft)). They extend for more than 225 km (140 mi) south to theShchugor. The many ridges are sawtooth shaped and dissected by river valleys. Both Polar and Nether-Polar Urals are typically Alpine; they bear traces ofPleistocene glaciation, along with permafrost and extensive modern glaciation, including 143 extant glaciers.[2][7]
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 riverUsa. 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.[2][7]
The Central Ural is 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 riverUfa.[7]
The relief of the Southern Ural is more complex, with numerous valleys and parallel ridges directed south-west and meridionally. The range includes theIlmensky Mountains separated from the main ridges by theMiass. 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 theIremel mountain ridge (Bolshoy Iremel and Maly Iremel) andNurgush. The Southern Urals extend some 550 km (340 mi) up to the sharp westward bend of the river Ural and terminate in theGuberlin Mountains and finally in the wideMughalzhar Hills.[2]
Mountain formation near Saranpaul, Nether-Polar Urals
The western slope of the Ural Mountains has predominantlykarst topography, especially in theSylva basin, which is a tributary of theChusovaya. It is composed of severely eroded sedimentary rocks (sandstones and limestones) that are about 350 million years old. There are manycaves,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.[7] Most high mountains consist of weather-resistant rocks such asquartzite,schist andgabbro that are between 395 and 570 million years old. The river valleys are underlain by limestone.[2]
Many rivers originate in the Ural Mountains. The western slopes south of the border between theKomi Republic and Perm Krai and the eastern slopes south of approximately 54°30'N drain into theCaspian Sea via the Kama and Ural basins. The tributaries of the Kama include theVishera, 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 theIlych,Shchugor, and theUsa, and via theOb basin in the east, which includes theTobol,Tavda, Iset, Tura andSevernaya 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.[2][7]
The mountains contain a number of deep lakes.[28] 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.[7] 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.[2][7]
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 and 20 °C (50 and 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 theSiberian High.[2][7]
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 withzigzag andmountain clovers,Serratula gmelinii,dropwort,meadow-grass andBromus inermis, reaching the height of 60–80 centimetres (24–31 in). 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 containwillow,poplar andcaragana shrubs.[7]
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, namelySiberian fir,Siberian pine,Scots pine,Siberian spruce,Norway spruce andSiberian larch, as well as bysilver anddowny 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 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), in the Polar Urals thetree line is at 250–400 metres (820–1,310 ft). The low polar forests 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 asEnglish oak,Norway maple and elm.[7] TheVirgin Komi Forests in the northern Urals are recognized as aWorld Heritage site.
The forests of Urals are inhabited by animals typical of Eurosiberia, such as elk, brown bear, fox, wolf,wolverine,lynx, squirrel,Siberian chipmunk,flying squirrel,reindeer andsable (north only). The fauna of Polar Urals also includes species like Arctic Fox and lemmings. Because of the easy accessibility of the mountains there are no specifically mountainous species. In the Central Urals, one can see a rare mixture of sable and pine marten named kidus. In the Southern Urals,badger andblack polecat are common. Reptiles and amphibians live mostly in the Southern and Central Ural and are represented by thecommon viper,lizards andgrass snakes.Bird species of Northern, Middle and South Urals are represented byWestern Capercaillie,black grouse,hazel grouse,spotted nutcracker,Siberian Jay,Common andOriental cuckoos. Unlike mammals, the highest peaks and plateaus of Northern and Southern Urals are inhabited by some mountainous or tundra avian species, likeGolden Plover,Dotterel,Ptarmigan andWillow Grouse, in Polar Urals also by Rough-legged Buzzard and Snowy Owl.[2][7]
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.[2] There are ninestrict nature reserves in the Urals: theIlmen, the oldest one, mineralogical reserve founded in 1920 in Chelyabinsk Oblast,Pechora-Ilych in the Komi Republic,Bashkir and its former branchShulgan-Tash in Bashkortostan,Visim inSverdlovsk Oblast,Southern Ural in Bashkortostan,Basegi in Perm Krai,Vishera in Perm Krai andDenezhkin Kamen in Sverdlovsk Oblast.
The area has also been severely damaged by theplutonium-producing facilityMayak, opened in Chelyabinsk-40 (later called Chelyabinsk-65,Ozyorsk), in the Southern Ural, after World War II.[2] Its plants went into operation in 1948 and, for the first ten years, dumped unfiltered radioactive waste into the riverTecha andLake Karachay.[2][18][19] In 1990, efforts were underway to contain the radiation in one of the lakes, which was estimated at the time to expose visitors to 500millirem per day.[19] 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).[20] 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.[2] The1957 accident expelled 20 millioncuries of radioactive material, 90% of which settled into the land immediately around the facility.[21] Although some reactors of Mayak were shut down in 1987 and 1990,[19] the facility keeps producing plutonium.[29]
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 jewellerFabergé. As Russians in other regions gather mushrooms or berries, Uralians gather mineral specimens and gems.Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak (1852–1912) andPavel Bazhov (1879–1950), as well asAleksey Ivanov and Olga Slavnikova, post-Soviet writers, have written of the region.[30]
The region served as a military stronghold duringPeter the Great'sGreat Northern War with Sweden, during Stalin's rule when theMagnitogorsk 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 theCold War. Extreme levels of air, water, and radiological contamination andpollution by industrial wastes resulted. Population exodus followed, 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.[30]
^abBrown, D.; Echtler, H. (2005). "The Urals". In Selley, R. C.; Cocks, L. R. M.;Plimer, I. R. (eds.).Encyclopedia of Geology. Vol. 2. Elsevier. pp. 86–95.ISBN978-0126363807.
Robert B. Hayes, "Some Mathematical and Geophysical Considerations in Radioisotope Dating Applications",Nuclear Technology 197 (2017): 209–218,doi:10.13182/NT16-98.
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