West Siberian Plain - Geography

Geography

West Siberian Plain is located east of Ural Mountains mostly in the territory of Russia. It covers an area of more than 975,000 sq.mi. It has been described as the world's largest unbroken lowland—more than 50 percent is less than 330 feet (100 m) above sea level—and covers an area of about 2.6–2.7 million km² which is about one third of Siberia, extending from north to south for 1490 mi (2,400 km), from the Arctic Ocean to the foothills of the Altay Mountains, and from west to east for 1,180 mi (1,900 km) from the Yenisei River to the Ural Mountains.

The plain has eight distinct vegetation regions: tundra, forest-tundra, northern taiga, middle taiga, southern taiga, sub-taiga forest, forest-steppe, and steppe. The number of animal species in the West Siberian Plain ranges from at least 107 in the tundra to 278 or more in the forest-steppe region. The long Yenisey river flows broadly south to north, a distance of 2,195 mi., where it completes its journey, discharging more than 5 million gallons of water per second. Together with its tributary Angara, the two rivers flow 3,435 mi. The valley it has formed acts as a rough dividing line between the West Siberian Plain and the Central Siberian Plateau. Glacial deposits extend as far south as the Ob-Irtysh confluence, forming occasional low hills and ridges, but otherwise the plain is exceedingly flat and featureless.

Winters on the West Siberian Plain are harsh and long. The climate of most of the plains is either subarctic or continental. Two of the larger cities on the plain are Surgut and Nizhnevartovsk.