The Ural Mountains run from the Kara Sea island of Novlaya Zemlya, off the Arctic north coast of Russia, to Kazakhstan, right through the centre of Russia. They were formed 250 to 300 million years ago with the collision of the Laurussia and Kazakhstania plates over some 90 million years. They are composed of many deformed and metamorphosed Paleozoic rocks. They contain large amounts of economically valuable ores and minerals.
The eastern regions are rich in chalcopyrite, nickel, gold, platinum, chromites and magnetite ores. The Western Urals contain deposits of coal, oil, natural gas and potassium salts. The specialty of the Urals is precious and semi-precious stones such as emerald, amethyst, aquamarine, jasper, rhodonite, malachite and diamond. They are the basis of the industrial development of Russia and are the Russian Treasure Chest. So they are of great interest to geologists.
Perm is famous for its copper, Yekaterinburg for its iron, and Beryozovsky for its gold. The mountains have been flattened by glaciers into hills and valleys rich in water and covered by dense taiga forests rich in mushrooms at this time of year.
Cheers
Ian
Spoken like a true blue rock-hound. :)
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