Caucasus Mountains briefly. The Caucasus Mountains are the highest in Europe: description, photo, video, Caucasus Mountains on the map

The Caucasus Mountains are located on the isthmus between the Caspian and Black Seas. The Caucasus is separated from the East European Plain by the Kuma-Manych depression. The territory of the Caucasus can be divided into several parts: Ciscaucasia, Greater Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Only the Ciscaucasia and the northern part of the Greater Caucasus are located on the territory of the Russian Federation. The last two parts together are called the North Caucasus. However, for Russia this part of the territory is the southernmost. Here, along the crest of the Main Ridge, lies the state border of the Russian Federation, beyond which lie Georgia and Azerbaijan. The entire system of the Caucasus ridge occupies an area of ​​approximately 2600 m2, with its northern slope occupying about 1450 m2, while the southern slope is only about 1150 m2.

The North Caucasus Mountains are relatively young. Their relief was created by different tectonic structures. In the southern part there are folded block mountains and foothills of the Greater Caucasus. They were formed when deep trough zones were filled with sedimentary and volcanic rocks, which later underwent folding. Tectonic processes here were accompanied by significant bends, stretches, ruptures and fractures of the earth's layers. As a result, large amounts of magma poured onto the surface (this led to the formation of significant ore deposits). The uplifts that occurred here in the Neogene and Quaternary periods led to the elevation of the surface and the type of relief that exists today. The rise of the central part of the Greater Caucasus was accompanied by the subsidence of strata along the edges of the resulting ridge. Thus, the Terek-Caspian trough was formed in the east, and the Indal-Kuban trough in the west.

The Greater Caucasus is often presented as a single ridge. In fact, this is a whole system of various ridges, which can be divided into several parts. The Western Caucasus is located from the Black Sea coast to Mount Elbrus, then (from Elbrus to Kazbek) the Central Caucasus follows, and to the east from Kazbek to the Caspian Sea - the Eastern Caucasus. In addition, in the longitudinal direction two ridges can be distinguished: Vodorazdelny (sometimes called the main one) and Bokovaya. On the northern slope of the Caucasus there are the Skalisty and Pastbishchny ridges, as well as the Black Mountains. They were formed as a result of interlayering of layers composed of sedimentary rocks of different hardness. One slope of the ridge here is gentle, while the other ends quite abruptly. As you move away from the axial zone, the height of the mountain ranges decreases.

The chain of the Western Caucasus begins at the Taman Peninsula. At the very beginning, it’s more likely not even mountains, but hills. They begin to rise to the east. The highest parts of the North Caucasus are covered with snow caps and glaciers. The highest peaks of the Western Caucasus are Mount Fisht (2870 meters) and Oshten (2810 meters). The highest part of the Greater Caucasus mountain system is the Central Caucasus. Even some passes at this point reach a height of 3 thousand meters, and the lowest of them (Krestovy) lies at an altitude of 2380 meters. The highest peaks of the Caucasus are also located here. For example, the height of Mount Kazbek is 5033 meters, and the double-headed extinct volcano Elbrus is the highest peak in Russia.

The relief here is highly dissected: sharp ridges, steep slopes and rocky peaks predominate. The eastern part of the Greater Caucasus consists mainly of the numerous ridges of Dagestan (translated, the name of this region means “mountainous country”). There are complex branching ridges with steep slopes and deep canyon-like river valleys. However, the height of the peaks here is less than in the central part of the mountain system, but they still exceed a height of 4 thousand meters. The rise of the Caucasus Mountains continues in our time. Quite frequent earthquakes in this region of Russia are associated with this. To the north of the Central Caucasus, where the magma rising through cracks did not spill out to the surface, low, so-called island mountains formed. The largest of them are Beshtau (1400 meters) and Mashuk (993 meters). At their base there are numerous springs of mineral waters.

The so-called Ciscaucasia is occupied by the Kuban and Terek-Kuma lowlands. They are separated from each other by the Stavropol Upland, whose height is 700-800 meters. The Stavropol Upland is dissected by wide and deeply incised valleys, gullies and ravines. At the base of this area lies a young slab. Its structure consists of Neogene formations, covered with limestone deposits - loess and loess-like loams, and in the eastern part also marine sediments of the Quaternary period. The climate in this area is quite favorable. Quite high mountains serve as a good barrier to cold air penetrating here. The proximity of the long cooling sea also has an effect. The Greater Caucasus is the border between two climatic zones - subtropical and temperate. On Russian territory the climate is still moderate, but the above factors contribute to rather high temperatures.

Caucasus Mountains As a result, winters in the Ciscaucasia are quite warm (the average temperature in January is about -5°C). This is facilitated by warm air masses coming from the Atlantic Ocean. On the Black Sea coast, temperatures rarely drop below zero (the average January temperature is 3°C). In mountainous areas the temperature is naturally lower. Thus, the average temperature on the plain in summer is about 25°C, and in the upper reaches of the mountains - 0°C. Precipitation falls into this area mainly due to cyclones arriving from the west, as a result of which its amount gradually decreases to the east.

Most precipitation falls on the southwestern slopes of the Greater Caucasus. Their number on the Kuban Plain is approximately 7 times lower. Glaciation has developed in the mountains of the North Caucasus, the area of ​​which ranks first among all regions of Russia. The rivers flowing here are fed by water formed by the melting of glaciers. The largest Caucasian rivers are the Kuban and Terek, as well as their numerous tributaries. Mountain rivers, as usual, are fast-flowing, and in their lower reaches there are wetlands overgrown with reeds and reeds.

Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences I. SHCHERBA

Following in the footsteps of the past

The phrase “Greater Caucasus” is usually associated with the idea of ​​sparkling snowy peaks and alpine meadows. And it seems that it has always been this way, but this is not true.

Walking through the upper Kislovodsk park and admiring the view of the vast pre-Elbrus plateau, an attentive person cannot help but notice the cliffs along the paths. The rocks that make up these cliffs are abundantly saturated with shells of marine mollusks, and therefore, the sea once splashed on the site of the Caucasus Mountains. But this was more than 10 million years ago.

It is not even archaeologists, but paleontologists who operate with such time categories: they determine the age of a rock depending on whose fossilized remains (dinosaurs, mammoths or, for example, trilobites) are found in it. Time is divided into geological eras - Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, as well as periods - Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, Quaternary, each of which has its own epochs and centuries. It is this relative chronology that geologists use, although the absolute age of the rock is also known - it is determined by the decay of the radioactive elements it contains.

By analyzing the distribution of rocks that make up the mountains, foothills and intermountain valleys, it is possible to reconstruct the entire paleography of this area over millions of years. Such an excursion into the depths of centuries allows us to trace both temporal and territorial changes in both sedimentary rocks and tectonic structures, and fauna, different groups of which are characterized by different ecological niches.

It turns out that only 12 million years ago (Chokrak time, the middle of the second from bottom Cenozoic era), on the site of the present southern slope of the Greater Caucasus, there was a deep-sea trough, left over from an even more ancient marginal sea. The Greater Caucasus Sea was part of the Tethys paleoocean - this name was given to it by geologists after the ancient Greek goddess of the water elements. This ocean once stretched from the modern shores of the Atlantic Ocean to Indochina - through the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and Central Asia and the Himalayas - and separated two large continents - Eurasia in the north and Gondwana in the south.

Over the past 250 million years, the continents have gradually moved closer to each other, thereby reducing the amount of water between them. And as a result, by the middle of the Jurassic period (about 165 million years ago), the marginal sea of ​​the Greater Caucasus was cut off from the Tethys Ocean with the help of one of these fragments - the Transcaucasian. It was an island arc consisting of fragments of pre-existing mountains (partially with volcanoes) and located within the current Transcaucasia and the eastern part of the Black Sea. The sea itself, paradoxically, was absent there, but, on the contrary, there was some rise of land, periodically washed away by water. And this was just then (Paleozoic and the beginning of the Mesozoic), when in place of the Greater Caucasus there was a deep sea.

The axial deep-sea trough of this sea stretched along the southern slope of the modern mountains and went in the east through the Caspian Sea to the western Kopetdag, and in the west to the southern coast of Crimea. The northern shore of the Tethys Ocean was located somewhere near Ankara and Lake Sevan. But at the end of the Cretaceous period (65-70 million years ago), the island arc that separated them split and moved to the Lesser Caucasus region. A deep-sea East Black Sea depression emerged, stretching east into Adjara and southern Georgia - all the way to Tbilisi.

The axial and highest zone of the modern Greater Caucasus belonged to the steep continental (Eurasian) slope of the marginal sea. Its slope was apparently approximately the same as that of modern continental slopes (3-6 o), which is why sediments brought from the continent in the form of sand and clay did not linger on it and were carried away to the foot. However, they occasionally survived in narrow underwater canyons, and in the southeastern Caucasus - abeam the Absheron Peninsula - they can still be observed here and there.

In flatter areas, on the contrary: along with calmly settling silts (so-called “banal” sediments), other rocks brought by turbidity and mud-stone flows were periodically deposited. The results of the rhythmic alternation of both can be seen, for example, over the beach at the southern end of Anapa Bay. Located above a narrow strip of this beach, the cliff consists of thin (less than half a meter) layers of dark clays, interspersed with thicker (up to two meters) layers of sandstones with irregular - tangled and twisted, sometimes torn - bedding, caused by their deposition from a moving mud mass.

In the era of active tectonic movements, accompanied by earthquakes, ancient landslides were also frequent, the consequences of which - in their most beautiful form - can still be observed when descending from the Cross Pass along the Zhinvali Reservoir.

At the beginning of the Paleogene (about 60 million years ago), single-celled animal foraminifera with a sandy shell settled at the foot of the continental slope of the marginal sea of ​​the Greater Caucasus. It is precisely these representatives of a large group of foraminifera that usually inhabit areas of hydrogen sulfide contamination - mainly at a depth of at least two kilometers. The discovery of their remains in the corresponding layers allows, firstly, to determine the depth of this part of the basin, and secondly, to assert that at the beginning of the Paleogene the basin was contaminated with hydrogen sulfide (similar to the modern Black Sea). However, episodes of hydrogen sulfide contamination were repeated in the Greater Caucasus basin more than once; it reached its greatest extent 20-30 million years ago, when it captured not only the basin, but also the shelves.

During the Paleogene, the intensive rapprochement of Eurasia and Afro-Arabia continued, the entire space between them was subject to gradual compression, and the sediments of the former seas were crushed into folds.

Land barriers were formed along the borders of the continents, and the outlines of the ocean became very close to the modern contours of the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. And yet, small shelf seas (including former marginal ones) remained covering significant areas of the present land. Even 12 million years ago, the Greater Caucasus Marginal Sea was partially preserved, and its width was four times greater than the modern width of the southern slope of the mountains. The depth of this sea in the axial part reached 500 m, and its shallowest part (a shelf with a depth not exceeding 200 m) was located in the area of ​​the northern slope of the Greater Caucasus. The northern border of the sea extended almost to the strip of lakes that now stretches between the Azov and Caspian seas, forming the so-called Kuma-Manych depression.

From the Russian Plain, the Don and the Paleo-Northern Donets flowed into the sea, bringing huge amounts of sand and clay into it. Carried by underwater currents along the bottom, they settled along its steep ledges in the form of cones, and it was these cones that eventually became oil reservoirs in the North Caucasus. And, in particular, the huge Grozny field.

In the south, the Greater Caucasus basin was limited at that time by the Lesser Caucasus and Talysh mountains, which gave it the appearance of being inside a continental sea. Between these mountains, which began to grow 30 million years ago, there was a narrow strait, and through it the basin was connected to the shelf seas of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.

The most significant uplift, and even with a dissected relief, was located at that time on the North Caucasus shelf - south of modern Stavropol. Merging with the small islands of the Sub-Caucasian archipelago, this uplift formed something like a transverse bridge inside the basin. Apparently, the aardvark pigs that came from Africa then took advantage of it: their remains were recently discovered south of Stavropol.

And about 5 million years ago, mountain growth began in the Greater Caucasus, and it was initially most intense within the former shelf. It was the central part of the Greater Caucasus (the region of Elbrus, Kazbek), which was included in mountain formation earlier than others, and became the highest in this region. But even then, the Greater Caucasus rose like an island among the seas and lakes that washed it - some of them were still discovered by primitive man.

The Caucasus Mountains, born in the collision of the Eurasian and Arabian plates, are like a symbol of the mentality of the peoples living next to them. Proud and tall, they stand as a miraculous wall between the Asian and European parts of our continent on land. Humanity has not yet decided whether to classify them as Europe or Asia.

Height of the Caucasus Mountains: 5642 m (Greater Caucasus) and 3724 m (Lesser Caucasus).

Length of the Greater Caucasus: 1100 km. small - 600 km.

See the geographical location of the Caucasus Mountains or where they are located and how they are located on the map. To enlarge the map of the Caucasus mountains, just click on it.

The Caucasian ranges, not crossed by rivers, are called watersheds. The Caucasus mountain system, the same age as the Alps, with a thirty-million-year history, is firmly inscribed in the memory of mankind through biblical lines and Greek myths. It was on one of the mountains of the system that the dove released from Noah’s Ark found a twig, on the top of Ararat. The legendary Prometheus, who gave fire to people, was chained to one of the Caucasian rocks.

The Caucasus is divided into two parts, which are called the Greater and Lesser Caucasus. The first extends from Taman almost to Baku and consists of the Western, Central and Eastern Caucasus. One and a half thousand square kilometers of ice, the highest point of Eurasia - Elbrus (the top of the Caucasus Mountains), Iron Mountain, and six mountain peaks five thousand kilometers high - this is what the Greater Caucasus is.

The Lesser Caucasus is a mountain range near the Black Sea, with peaks up to four kilometers high.

The Caucasus Mountains are located between the Caspian and Black Sea coasts and at the same time on the territory of several countries. These are Russia, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The climate of the Caucasus is varied: from typically maritime in Abkhazia, it changes to sharply continental in Armenia.

The Caucasus is inhabited by unique animals - chamois, mountain goats, wild boars; in particularly remote and inaccessible places you can find a leopard or bear.

Alpine meadow grasses, coniferous forests climbing up from the foothills, wild rivers, lakes, waterfalls, mineral water springs, clean air.

It is thanks to this successful combination of values ​​for human health that there are a huge number of sanatorium and resort establishments in the region.

Rock climbing lovers are attracted by the royal Elbrus and its neighbors - Shkhara, Kazbek, Dzhangitau, Dykhtau and Koshnantau. Among the snows of the Caucasus there is a place for skiers and snowboarders, lovers of hiking and thrills, rafting enthusiasts, as well as all those who value their health. The Caucasus offers health paths, Norwegian walking, rock climbing, river rafting, skiing and many other types of active recreation.

Once you have visited the mountains sung by the “genius of Lermontov”, you will remember them for the rest of your life.

Video: Wildlife of Russia 4 of 6 Caucasus Mountains.

Video: Hiking in the Caucasus Mountains.

Caucasus Mountains– the great divide between Europe and Asia. The Caucasus is a narrow strip of land between the Black and Caspian seas. It amazes with the incredible diversity of climate, flora and fauna.

The pride of the Caucasus is its mountains! Without mountains, the Caucasus is not the Caucasus. The mountains are unique, majestic and inaccessible. The Caucasus is amazingly beautiful. He's so different. You can look at the mountains for hours.

The Greater Caucasus mountain range is home to many pastures, forests, and amazing natural wonders. More than 2 thousand glaciers descend through narrow gorges. A chain of large mountains stretches from northwest to southeast for almost one and a half thousand kilometers. The main peaks exceed 5 thousand meters and significantly influence the weather in the regions. The clouds that form over the Black Sea rain, hitting the mountain peaks of the Caucasus. On one side of the ridge there is a harsh landscape, and on the other there is lush vegetation. Here you can find more than 6 and a half thousand plant species, a quarter of which cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

There are many legends about the origin of the Caucasus Mountains:

A long time ago, when the earth was still very young, a huge plain stretched on the site of the modern territory of the Caucasus. The huge Nart heroes lived here in peace and love. They were kind and prudent, they greeted day and night with joy, they knew neither evil, nor envy, nor deceit. The ruler of this people was the gray-haired giant Elbrus, and he had a beautiful son Beshtau, and his son had a charming bride, the beautiful Mashuki. But they had an evil envious person - Korshun. And he decided to harm the sledges. He prepared a terrible potion in which he mixed the teeth of a wolf, the tongue of a boar and the eyes of a snake. At a big celebration, he added a potion to all the Narts' drinks. And having drunk it, they acquired the greed of a boar, the anger of a wolf and the cunning of a snake. And from that time on the happy and carefree life of the Narts ended. The father decided to take his young bride away from his son and, sending him on a hunt, wanted to forcefully marry Mashuki. But Mashuki resisted Elbrus. And in a fierce battle she lost her wedding ring. He saw Beshtau’s ring and hurried to help the bride. And a terrible life-and-death battle ensued, and half of the Narts fought on the side of Elbrus, and the other half on the side of Beshtau. And the battle lasted for several days and nights, and all the sledges died. Elbrus chopped his son into five parts, and the son, delivering the final blow, dismembered his father’s gray head into two halves. Mashuki came out onto the battlefield after the battle and did not see a single living soul. She approached her lover and plunged a dagger into her heart. Thus the life of a great and old people stopped.

And in this place the Caucasian mountains now rise: the helmet from the head of Beshtau - Mount Zheleznaya, the ring of Mashuki - Mount Koltso, five peaks - Mount Beshtau, nearby - Mount Mashuk and far, far from the others - the gray-haired or simply snow-covered handsome Elbrus.

The Caucasus Mountains are the result of the convergence of two plates

Let's look at one of the narrowest places of this grandiose mountain belt. At its northern outskirts, in the Ciscaucasia, there are flat areas that belong to a strong plate called the Scythian. Further to the south are the sublatitudinal (that is, stretching approximately from west to east) mountains of the Greater Caucasus up to 5 km high, the narrow depressions of Transcaucasia - the Rioni and Kura lowlands - and also the sublatitudinal, but convex to the north, mountain ranges of the Lesser Caucasus in Georgia and Armenia , Eastern Turkey and Western Iran (up to 5 km high).

To the south are the plains of Northern Arabia, which, like the plains of the Ciscaucasia, belong to the very strong, monolithic Arabian lithospheric plate.

Therefore, the Scythian and Arabian plates- these are like two parts of a giant vice that are slowly approaching, crushing everything that is between them. It is curious that directly opposite the northern, relatively narrow end of the Arabian Plate, in Eastern Turkey and Western Iran, there are the highest mountains compared to the mountains located to the west and east. They rise precisely in the place where the Arabian Plate, like a kind of hard wedge, most strongly compressed the pliable sediments.

Geographical position. On the huge isthmus between the Black and Caspian seas, from the Taman to the Absheron peninsula, there are the majestic mountains of the Greater Caucasus.

North Caucasus- This is the southernmost part of Russian territory. The border of the Russian Federation with the countries of Transcaucasia runs along the ridges of the Main, or Watershed, Caucasian Range.

The Caucasus is separated from the Russian Plain by the Kuma-Manych depression, on the site of which a sea strait existed in the Middle Quaternary.

The North Caucasus is an area located on the border of the temperate and subtropical zones.

The epithet “the best” is often applied to the nature of this territory. Latitudinal zonality is replaced here by vertical zonality. For a resident of the plains, the Caucasus Mountains are a vivid example of the “multi-storey™” of nature.

Remember where the southernmost point of Russia is located and what it is called.

Features of the nature of the North Caucasus. The Caucasus is a young mountain structure formed during the period of Alpine folding. The Caucasus includes: Ciscaucasia, Greater Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Only the Ciscaucasia and the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus belong to Russia.

Rice. 92. Orographic scheme of the Caucasus

The Greater Caucasus is often presented as a single ridge. In fact, it is a system of mountain ranges. From the Black Sea coast to Mount Elbrus is the Western Caucasus, from Elbrus to Kazbek is the Central Caucasus, east of Kazbek to the Caspian Sea is the Eastern Caucasus. In the longitudinal direction, an axial zone is distinguished, occupied by the Vodorazdelny (Main) and Bokovy ridges.

The northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus form the Skalisty and Pastbishchny ridges. They have a cuesta structure - these are ridges in which one slope is gentle and the other is steep. The reason for the formation of a quest is the interlayering of layers composed of rocks of different hardness.

The chains of the Western Caucasus begin near the Taman Peninsula. At first, these are not even mountains, but hills with soft outlines. They increase when moving to the east. Mountains Fisht (2867 m) and Oshten (2808 m) - the highest parts of the Western Caucasus - are covered with snowfields and glaciers.

The highest and grandest part of the entire mountain system is the Central Caucasus. Here even the passes reach an altitude of 3000 m; only one pass - the Cross Pass on the Georgian Military Road - lies at an altitude of 2379 m.

The highest peaks in the Central Caucasus are the double-headed Elbrus, an extinct volcano, the highest peak in Russia (5642 m), and Kazbek (5033 m).

The eastern part of the Greater Caucasus is mainly the numerous ridges of mountainous Dagestan (translated as the Country of Mountains).

Rice. 93. Mount Elbrus

Various tectonic structures took part in the structure of the North Caucasus. In the south there are folded block mountains and foothills of the Greater Caucasus. It is part of the alpine geosynclinal zone.

Oscillations of the earth's crust were accompanied by bending of the earth's layers, their stretching, faults, and ruptures. Through the cracks that formed, magma poured out to the surface from great depths, which led to the formation of numerous ore deposits.

Uplifts in recent geological periods - Neogene and Quaternary - turned the Greater Caucasus into a high-mountainous country. The rise in the axial part of the Greater Caucasus was accompanied by an intense subsidence of earth layers along the edges of the emerging mountain range. This led to the formation of foothill troughs: in the west of the Indolo-Kuban and in the east of the Terek-Caspian.

The complex history of the geological development of the region is the reason for the richness of the subsoil of the Caucasus in various minerals. The main wealth of the Ciscaucasia is oil and gas deposits. In the central part of the Greater Caucasus, polymetallic ores, tungsten, copper, mercury, and molybdenum are mined.

In the mountains and foothills of the North Caucasus, many mineral springs were discovered, near which resorts were created that have long gained worldwide fame - Kislovodsk, Mineralnye Vody, Pyatigorsk, Essentuki, Zheleznovodsk, Matsesta. The sources are varied in chemical composition, temperature and are extremely useful.

Rice. 94. Geological structure of the North Caucasus

The geographical location of the North Caucasus in the south of the temperate zone determines its mild, warm climate, transitional from temperate to subtropical. The parallel of 45° N runs here. sh., that is, this territory is equidistant from both the equator and the pole. This situation determines the amount of solar heat received: in summer 17-18 kcal per square centimeter, which is 1.5 times more than the average European part of Russia receives. With the exception of the highlands, the climate in the North Caucasus is mild and warm; on the plains, the average July temperature everywhere exceeds 20°C, and summer lasts from 4.5 to 5.5 months. Average January temperatures range from -10 to +6°C, and winter lasts only two to three months. In the North Caucasus there is the city of Sochi, which has the warmest winter in Russia with a January temperature of +6.1°C.

Using the map, determine whether in the foothills of the North Caucasus there are any obstacles to the path of arctic or tropical air masses. What atmospheric fronts pass near this area? Analyze on maps how precipitation is distributed in the North Caucasus, explain the reasons for this distribution.

The abundance of heat and light allows the vegetation of the North Caucasus to develop in the north of the region for seven months, in the Ciscaucasia - eight, and on the Black Sea coast, south of Gelendzhik - up to 11 months. This means that with the appropriate selection of crops, you can get two harvests a year.

The North Caucasus is distinguished by a very complex circulation of various air masses. Various air masses can penetrate this area.

The main source of moisture for the North Caucasus is the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, the western regions of the North Caucasus are characterized by high rainfall. The annual precipitation in the foothill areas in the west is 380-520 mm, and in the east, in the Caspian region, it is 220-250 mm. Therefore, in the east of the region there are often droughts and hot winds. At the same time, they are often accompanied by dusty, or black, storms. Storms occur in the spring, when the top layers of parched soil, still loosely held together by newly emerged plants, are blown away by strong winds. Dust rises in clouds into the air, obscuring the sky and the sun.

Measures to combat black storms include properly planned forest shelterbelts and advanced agricultural technology. However, until now, due to black storms, several tens of thousands of hectares have to be reseeded (re-seeded), from which the most fertile layer of soil is blown away during dust storms.

Highland climate very different from the plains and foothills. The first main difference is that much more precipitation falls in the mountains: at an altitude of 2000 m - 2500-2600 mm per year. This is due to the fact that mountains trap air masses and force them to rise. At the same time, the air cools and gives up its moisture.

The second difference in the climate of the highlands is the decrease in the duration of the warm season due to the decrease in air temperature with height. Already at an altitude of 2700 m on the northern slopes and at an altitude of 3800 m in the Central Caucasus there is a snow line, or the border of “eternal ice”. At altitudes above 4000 m, even in July, positive temperatures are very rare.

Remember by what amount the air temperature decreases when rising for every 100 m. Calculate how much the air cools when rising to a height of 4000 m, if its temperature at the surface of the earth is +20 ° C. What happens to the moisture in the air?

In the mountains of the Western Caucasus, due to the abundance of precipitation during the winter, a four to five meter layer of snow accumulates, and in the mountain valleys, where it is blown away by the wind, up to 10-12 m. The abundance of snow in winter leads to the formation of snow avalanches. Sometimes one awkward movement, even a sharp sound, is enough for a thousand-ton mass of snow to fly down a steep ledge, destroying everything in its path.

Explain why there are practically no avalanches in the mountains of the Eastern Caucasus.

Think about what differences will be observed in the change in altitudinal zones on the western and eastern slopes.

The third difference in the high-mountain climate is its amazing diversity from place to place due to the height of the mountains, slope exposure, proximity or distance from the sea.

The fourth difference is the uniqueness of atmospheric circulation. Cooled air from the highlands rushes down through relatively narrow intermountain valleys. When descending for every 100 m, the air warms up by about 1°C. Descending from an altitude of 2500 m, it heats up by 25°C and becomes warm, even hot. This is how a local wind is formed - the foehn. Hairdryers are especially frequent in the spring, when the intensity of the general circulation of air masses sharply increases. Unlike a foehn, when masses of dense cold air invade, bora is formed (from the Greek boreas - north, north wind), a strong cold downward wind. Flowing through low ridges into an area with warmer rarefied air, it heats up relatively little and “falls” at a high speed along the leeward slope. Bora is observed mainly in winter, where the mountain range borders the sea or a large body of water. The Novorossiysk forest is widely known (Fig. 95). And yet, the leading factor in climate formation in the mountains, which greatly influences all other components of nature, is altitude, leading to vertical zonation of both climate and natural zones.

Rice. 95. Scheme of formation of the Novorossiysk forest

The rivers of the North Caucasus are numerous and, like the relief and climate, are clearly divided into lowland and mountainous. There are especially numerous turbulent mountain rivers, the main source of food for which is snow and glaciers during the melting period. The largest rivers are the Kuban and Terek with their numerous tributaries, as well as the Bolshoy Yegorlyk and Kalaus, which originate in the Stavropol Upland. In the lower reaches of the Kuban and Terek there are floodplains - vast wetlands covered with reeds and reeds.

Rice. 96. Altitudinal zone of the Greater Caucasus

The wealth of the Caucasus is its fertile soils. In the western part of Ciscaucasia, chernozems predominate, and in the eastern, drier part, chestnut soils predominate. The soils of the Black Sea coast are intensively used for gardens, berry fields, and vineyards. The world's northernmost tea plantations are located in the Sochi region.

In the Greater Caucasus Mountains, altitudinal zonation is clearly expressed. The lower belt is occupied by broad-leaved forests with a predominance of oak. Above are beech forests, which with height transform first into mixed and then into spruce-fir forests. The upper border of the forest is at an altitude of 2000-2200 m. Behind it, on mountain meadow soils, there are lush subalpine meadows with thickets of Caucasian rhododendron. They pass into short-grass alpine meadows, followed by the highest mountain belt of snowfields and glaciers.

Questions and tasks

1. Using the example of the North Caucasus, show the influence of the geographical location of the territory on the features of its nature.
2. Tell us about the formation of the modern relief of the Greater Caucasus.
3. On the contour map, indicate the main geographical objects of the area and mineral deposits.
4. Describe the climate of the Greater Caucasus, explain how the climate of the foothills differs from the high-mountain regions.