Sunday, May 1, 2011

Ural Landscapes!


The Polar region of the Urals has become a glacial landscape over the past few hundred thousand years.  The glacial movement of the polar region can be seen through large deposits of glacial till and erratic stones.  The large cirques of these frozen mountains contain large glaciers.  Large arĂȘte’s can be seen in the polar Urals, the arĂȘtes were created when multiple glacial forms created adjacent cirques and parabola valleys; this leaves a sharp rock edge.  Many large glacial lakes are represented in the polar landscapes of the north; the large lakes were created by retreated glaciers of millions of years ago.

Erratics from large ancient glaciers in the polar/sub-polar region of the Ural Mountains From Uraltravel.com

Glacial till depositing from large glacial scouring of the landscape.  From Google images.

Glacial lakes in the Polar Urals. From Google images.

Large Cirque in the Polar region of the Urals.  Contains one of many small glaciers in northern Russia
 
from
http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/HIS241/Notes/Geography/Urals.html
This satellite photo shows the random location of the Ural Mountains, and helps to explain different regions landscapes, the Polar North and southern Urals have distinct differences.
Large parabola valley in the polar region of the Ural Mountains from Google images. Aretes and large glacial lakes can also be seen.

Large Arete created by two or more Cirques or parabola valleys. From Mountian.ru.

The southern portion of the Urals, specifically the western slope has large Karst regions riddled with large dolines (sink-holes, underground rivers). This ancient mountain range used to have coastal regions millions of years ago creating large areas of sandstone and limestone.

The southwest region is primarily sedimentary limestone and dolomite and allows for chemical weathering of the rock.  Thousands and thousands of years of weathering created large caves throughout the region.  These large caves are created from underground streams that carve out large sections of the sedimentary rock.  Much of the rivers in this region have dissolved loads filled with limestone sediments.


This diagram demonstrates the process in which the caves and dolines of the Urals are created
 From Bing Images
Ignateva Cave, From wiki images. Created by chemical weathering of the limestone.


A large cave in the karst region of the Urals Mountains; this cave is large enough for people to explore.  These large caves are created by water induced chemical weather of the rock.  From Uraltravel.com