URAL MOUNTAINS

also called The Urals, Russian Uralsky Khrebet, or Ural, mountain range in west-central Russia, extending for about 1,300 miles (2,100 km) from the Kara Sea in the north to the Ural River in the south. The Urals' eastern slopes form part of the traditional physiographic boundary between Europe and Asia. The north-south trend of the Urals divides western (European) Russia from Siberia to the east. The mountains may be divided into five major sections from north to south. The northernmost Polar Urals, extending in a 240-mile (390-kilometre) arc from northeast toward the southeast, are typically alpine. The next section southward is the highest segment of the range, the Nether-Polar Urals, rising to 6,217 feet (1,895 m) at Mount Narodnaya. Both of these sections are strewn with glaciers. The Northern Urals have peaks rising to between 3,000 and 5,000 feet (900 and 1,500 m). The summits, often flattened, are the remnants of ancient peneplains uplifted by recent tectonic movements. The lower Central Urals rarely exceed 1,600 feet (490 m), although the highest peak, Mount Sredny Baseg, rises above 3,000 feet. The Southern Urals continue southwestward, forming several parallel ridges and lying generally at an elevation of less than 4,000 feet (1,220 m). The Urals are one of the richest mineral-bearing areas in the world. More than 1,000 types of minerals are known to occur, many of which were first discovered there, such as uralite, ilmenite, and the element ruthenium. They include almost every commercially useful mineral, with many occurring in very large deposits, including iron, copper, chromium, and bauxite. The great number of iron-ore deposits in the Urals include magnetite, hematite, limonite, and natural ferroalloys with titanium, chromium, and vanadium. Aside from copper and bauxite, the Urals' other nonferrous ores include lead, zinc, and beryllium, and the precious metals (gold, silver, and above all, platinum) are widespread. Many minerals used in the chemical industrysalts, potassium, magnesium, and arsenicare also mined. On the southwestern flank of the Urals lies the Volga-Ural (Second Baku) oil field. The Urals' bituminous coal and lignite deposits are extensive but of poor quality. A powerful industrial region developed around these mineral deposits. Large-scale industrialization beginning in the 1930s made the Urals the second largest concentration of heavy industry (after the Donets Basin) in the Soviet Union. The Urals also remain a principal site of mining and metallurgy in Russia, producing much of the nation's iron and steel and nonferrous metals. This base has in turn given rise to engineering industries producing heavy machinery, tractors, rolling stock, and many other goods. An important chemical industry has developed. The Ural Mountains. also called The Urals, Russian Uralsky Khrebet, or Ural, mountain range forming a rugged spine in west-central Russia and the major part of the traditional physiographic boundary between Europe and Asia. Extending some 1,550 miles (2,500 kilometres) from the bend of the Ural River in the south to the low, severely eroded Pay-Khoy Ridge, which forms a 250-mile (400-kilometre) fingerlike extension to the northern tip of the Urals proper, the mountains constitute the major portion of the Uralian orogenic belt, which stretches 2,175 miles from the Aral Sea to the northernmost tip of Novaya Zemlya. The Mughalzhar Hills, themselves part of the Uralian orogenic belt, are a broad, arrowhead-shaped southern extension in northwestern Kazakstan that form the divide between the Caspian and Aral basins. The northsouth course of the Urals is relatively narrow, varying from about 20 to 90 miles in width, but it cuts across the vast latitudinal landscape regions of the Eurasian landmass, from Arctic waste to semidesert; the Urals also are part of the Ural Economic Region, a highly developed industrial complex closely tied to the mineral-rich Siberian region, and are the home of peoples with roots reaching deep into history. Additional reading Sources on the Urals in Western languages are scarce. I.V. Komar and A.G. Chikishev (eds.), Ural i Priural'e (1968), is a comprehensive survey of relief, geology, climate, drainage, soils, flora, and fauna of the region, with data on natural resources, economic development, and preservation of the environment. A.A. Makunina, Landshafty Urala (1974), deals specifically with the geomorphology of the region. N.P. Arkhipova and E.V. Iastrebov, Kak byli otkryty Ural'skie gory (1971), is the history of the discovery and development of the Ural mountain region. B. Ryabinin, Across the Urals, trans. from Russian (1973), is a descriptive work based on travels in the area. M.T. Iovchuk and L.N. Kogan (eds.), The Cultural Life of the Soviet Worker: A Sociological Study (1975), offers a glimpse of working-class life in this highly developed industrial region. Yevgeny V. Yastrebov