1. I can locate:
Ural Mountains
Volga
Caspian Sea
Moscow
Siberia
Lake Baikal
Bering Strait
Caucasus
Baltic Sea
Arctic Ocean
2. I can Analyze the affects of Russia’s size
3. I can Identify Russia’s natural resources
Hydroelectric power
Taiga
4. I can List Russia’s major climates and their affects on Russia’s population
Permafrost
Siberia
Russia and the Republics occupy nearly one-sixth of the earth’s land surface.
Stretching across parts of Europe and Asia, Russia is a huge land of plains
divided and bordered by mountains and plateaus. The Urals are old, worn-down
mountains that mark the boundary between European and Asian parts of Russia.
In the south the Caucasus Mountains stretch across the land between the Black
and Caspian seas.
Mountain ranges also form a rugged natural boundary between Russia and China.
The North European Plain covers
most of European Russia. The
southern part of the plain has rich
soil, and about 75 percent of the
Russian population lives there.
The Ural Mountains separate the
North European Plain from the
West Siberian Plain, which covers
almost one million square miles.
Because the plain tilts northward,
its rivers flow toward the Arctic
Ocean, taking water away and
making the land more arid and less
desirable.
Russia has the longest continuous
coastline of any country, at 23,400
miles. The coastline touches the
Arctic and Pacific Oceans and the
Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas.
Most of Russia’s ports are frozen
for at least part of the year.
Lake Baikal, in southern Siberia, is a freshwater lake. It is the deepest lake
in the world (More than a mile deep). This lake holds nearly 20 percent of
the world’s fresh water. Though Lake Baikal has some pollution, most of it
is remarkably clean.
The Caspian Sea is really a saltwater lake. It is the largest inland sea in the
world. The Black Sea is Russia’s warm-water outlet to the Mediterranean Sea.
The Volga is the fourth-longest river in Russia and the longest river in Europe.
Draining much of Russia’s North European Plain, the Volga River and its canals
link the Moscow area to the Caspian, Black, and Baltic Seas.
Siberian rivers flow north to the Arctic Ocean. Blocked by ice,
meltwaters often flood the land and create vast swamps.
Russia has huge mineral
resources. It is especially rich in
mineral fuels, such as oil,
natural gas, and coal. Russia’s
rivers make it a leading
producer of hydroelectric
power.
A rich, fertile “Black Earth Belt”
stretches from Ukraine to
southwestern Russia, supplying
the country with grains, sugar
beets, and other produce.
About one-fifth of the world’s
forested land is in Siberia.
Russian forests supply much of
the world’s timber.
Fish is a staple food in Russia
and also an important export.
The coldest temperature ever recorded in Russia
was in Oimekon. The temperature was -90ºF. The
same temperature was recorded on February 7,
1892, in Verkhoyansk, another Siberian location.
High Latitude Climates
Much of Russia lies with in
the higher latitudes near the
arctic circle. Russia’s high
latitude climates feature
extremely cold winters and
short summers.
The tundra, a vast, treeless
plain, covers about 10 percent
of Russia. The subarctic lies
just south of the tundra.
The slightly warm subarctic
air can hold more moisture.
The subarctic has snow for up
to 250 days of the year. The
largest forest on the earth, the
Taiga, is found in the
Subarctic region. It is
composed primarily of
coniferous trees. Many furbearing animals live there,
including the sable, fox, and
ermine.
Most of Russia has a harsh climate with long, cold winters and short, relatively
cool summers. A major influence on Russian climates is Continentality. This
refers to the effect on the climate of being far from the moderating influence of
the sea. Because of its enormous size, much of the region is hundreds of miles
away from surrounding oceans. Continentality affects the amount of precipitation
a region gets as well as its temperatures.
Most of the North European Plain and some of southern Siberia have a humid
continental climate, with long, snowy, relatively mild winters. This area has
mixed coniferous-deciduous forests.
The steppe (Semi-Arid) climate region has dry summers and long, cold,
dry winters. Its rich soil enables a variety of grasses and plants to
flourish
Most of Russia’s population
lives west of the Ural
Mountains, but more than 32
million people make their
homes in Siberia. Siberia is a
vast expansion of fridged and
under populated land in
southeast Russia.
Distance from the ocean also
results in extreme
temperatures. In Siberia,
average monthly
temperatures rarely get higher
than 50°F and can drop below
–90°F.
The long stretches of cold
weather in the region have
affected daily life. For
example, Siberians use their
frozen rivers as roads for part
of the year.
The climate of Siberia presents
unique challenges to its inhabitants.
Scientists have recorded the most
variable temperatures on earth in
Siberia.
Temperatures in the region are so
consistently low that the region is
covered by a layer of permanently
frozen subsoil called permafrost.
This frozen layer can reach depths
of up to 1,500 feet. Warmer weather
melts ice and snow and leaves pools
of water. These pools become
breeding grounds for mosquitoes
and black flies. Soon, huge, black
clouds of insects are plaguing
residents.
Siberia’s climate also affects
construction. Permafrost makes the
ground iron hard. However, heated
buildings thaw the permafrost. As
the ground thaws, buildings sink,
tilt, and fall over.
But sometimes, the climate
helps the Russians. In the
spring of 1812, the French
leader Napoleon Bonaparte
decided to extend his control
over Russia. When Napoleon
arrived in Moscow it was
September, and the Russian
winter was coming. The
citizens of Moscow had
burned the city, so that
Napoleon’s army would find
no shelter. Napoleon
retreated from Moscow.
Russia’s cold climate was
helpful in World War II
because Russian soldiers,
who were used to the cold,
fought well against the
German soldiers, who were
unprepared for a brutal
winter.
At the end of the 1800s, travel through Siberia was dangerous and slow. Russia’s
czar ordered the building of a railroad from Moscow east to Vladivostok. The
distance to be covered was more than 5,700 miles. Faster travel was one goal, but
Russian officials also wanted to populate the region so that they could profit from
its resources. The Trans-Siberian Railroad was completed in 1904.
By the 1990s, 40 percent of
Russia’s land was “ecologically
stressed”–heavily polluted. This
damage resulted from Soviet-era
disregard for the effects of
industrialization on the
environment. Russia has one of
the world’s largest supplies of
freshwater, but much of it is
polluted with industrial waste.
Russia’s soil has been damaged by
toxic waste dumps, oil spills, and
pesticides sprayed on crops.
Industries and fossil fuel
emissions have polluted the air.
Chernobyl is not the only nuclear accident that has occurred in the world. At least
six accidents have occurred in and around nuclear facilities in the United States.
The most serious and best known occurred at the Three Mile Island facility in
Middletown, Pennsylvania, in 1979. In 1999, a nuclear accident in Japan exposed
people to high levels of radiation.
Nuclear waste poses a great danger to Russia’s population. Between 1949
and 1987, the Soviet Union set off more than 600 nuclear explosions. The
Soviets dumped some nuclear materials into the Baltic and Bering Seas.
At Chernobyl, a town in Ukraine, a 1986 fire in a nuclear reactor released tons of
radioactive particles into the air. The wind carried this radiation over great
distances, contaminating the environment in other countries. Eight thousand
people eventually died of radiation poisoning. Many more have been made
seriously ill.
Twenty-eight nuclear reactors still operate in Russia, providing much of the
country’s electricity. Making these reactors safe and secure in case of
another disastrous fire is a concern of the international community.
Pollution (cont.)