The West Siberian Plain is one of thethe greatest plains of the world. From north to south it stretches for two and a half thousand kilometers, from west to east - a little less than two thousand. Its natural boundaries are: in the north - the seas of the Arctic Ocean, in the south - the Kazakh melkosopochnik, in the west - the Urals and in the east - the Yenisei. The area of the plain is slightly less than three million square kilometers.
There are many depositsvarious minerals. But the main ones are hydrocarbons. The West Siberian Plain is the largest oil and gas bearing region of the Russian Federation and one of the largest in the world.
Large area and relative uniformityrelief caused the West Siberian Plain to include a large number of natural and climatic zones, with a clear distribution from the north to the south. In areas adjacent to the Arctic Ocean, the dominant type of landscape is the tundra with extensive wetlands. To the south the character of the terrain is gradually changing. Tundra is replaced by forest-tundra with islands of low trees, to the south - taiga, consisting of dark coniferous trees, south of the belt of deciduous forests. Approximately at the fifty-fifth parallel, forest massifs are diluted with steppe and fields, and on the border with Kazakhstan there is almost no forest, with the exception of the eastern plains.
Natural conditions even at one latitude hereslightly different. This is due to the fact that the West Siberian Plain, whose climate depends on the presence of a natural barrier (the Urals), which protects from warm western winds, lies in the transition from a moderately continental climate to a sharply continental climate. And if the difference between the prevailing summer and winter temperatures in the regions adjacent to the Urals is less pronounced, then the left bank of the Yenisei is already an area where a full-fledged continental climate reigns.
There are no big differences in heights, but stillThere are small elevations, lowlands and swamps, which are particularly rich in the West Siberian Plain. The relief, it seems, consists of elements (Vasyugan plain, Kulunda wound, Baraba lowland, etc.), competing among themselves - who is lower. And only in the north are Siberian Uvaly -
Separately, it should be said about the rivers of the West Siberianplains. Almost the entire territory is occupied by the Ob basin with the main tributary of the Irtysh. The eastern part of the plain enters the Yenisei basin. Water resources are abundant. But because of the flat nature of the river and the absence of elevations in the heights of large hydroelectric power stations, there is practically none, except for Novosibirsk, located in the upper reaches. Despite the huge potential, the construction of the hydroelectric power station on the Ob is lower than Novosibirsk, since in this case a vast territory will be flooded.
