The geology of Russia, the world's largest country, which extends over much of northern Eurasia, consists of several stable cratons and sedimentary platforms bounded by orogenic (mountain) belts.
The European part of Russia is on the East European craton, at the heart of which is a complex of igneous and metamorphic rocks dating back to the Precambrian. The craton is bounded on the east by the long tract of compressed and highly deformed rock that constitutes the Ural orogen. The area between the Ural Mountains and the Yenisei River is the young West Siberian Plain. East of the Yenisei River is the ancient Central Siberian Plateau, extending to the Lena River.
The orogens within Russia belong to the Baltic Shield, the Urals, the Altai Mountains, the Ural-Mongolian epipaleozoic orogen and the northwestern part of the Pacific orogeny. The country's highest mountains, the Caucasus, are confined to younger orogens.
Read more about Geology Of Russia: East European Craton, Caucasus Mountains, Caspian Basin, Ural Orogen, West Siberian Basin, Yenisey Fold Belt, Siberian Craton, Verhoyansk-Chukotka Collision Zone, Central Asian Orogenic Belt, Baikal-Stanovoy Region, Okhotsk-Chukotka Volcanic Belt, See Also
Famous quotes containing the word russia:
“In Russia there is an emigration of intelligence: émigrés cross the frontier in order to read and to write good books. But in doing so they contribute to making their fatherland, abandoned by spirit, into the gaping jaws of Asia that would like to swallow our little Europe.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)