Geography and Natural Resources
The region is crossed by rivers belonging to the Volga basin (Kama, Visher, Chusovaya and Samara), Ob basin (Tobol, Iset, Tura and Tavda) and the Ural River basin. Their potential hydropower resources are estimated at 3.3 million kilowatts. By 2010, there are only two dams and associated reservoirs, both on the Kama River: Botkin Reservoir and Kama Reservoir. The climate is temperate continental in the western and continental in the eastern part of the region. More than 40% of the area is covered by taiga forests having the timber reserves of 3.5 billion cubic meters. The southern part is dominated by the steppe, which is largely cultivated. The area is exceptionally rich in various ores and minerals, such as valuable chalcopyrite, nickel oxide, chromite, magnetite, bauxite, potassium salts, manganese, aluminium, gold, platinum, as well as coal, oil and natural gas. The area is famous for semi-precious stones, such as emerald, amethyst, aquamarine, jasper, rhodonite, malachite and diamond.
Read more about this topic: Ural Economic Region
Famous quotes containing the words geography and, geography, natural and/or resources:
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)
“The California fever is not likely to take us off.... There is neither romance nor glory in digging for gold after the manner of the pictures in the geography of diamond washing in Brazil.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“As a natural process, of the same character as the development of a tree from its seed, or of a fowl from its egg, evolution excludes creation and all other kinds of supernatural intervention.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Somehow we have been taught to believe that the experiences of girls and women are not important in the study and understanding of human behavior. If we know men, then we know all of humankind. These prevalent cultural attitudes totally deny the uniqueness of the female experience, limiting the development of girls and women and depriving a needy world of the gifts, talents, and resources our daughters have to offer.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)