Sayan Mountains
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Position of the Sayan Mountains
East Sayan with the Munku Sardyk in the background
The Sayan Mountains, being a part of the South Siberian mountains in Asia to Russia and Mongolia.
It consists of the lower West Sayan ( max. 3121 m; Kyzyl taiga), which lies exclusively in Russia, and the higher Eastern Sayan ( max. 3492 m; Munku Sardyk ), which extends to the Lake Baikal and Mongolia. The southeastern foothills of Ostsajans, to which also the crystal clear lake Chöwsgöl Nuur borders, end in the Mongolian Chöwsgöl aimag ( province).
In the north, bordering the high mountains of the Middle Siberian Plateau in the east to the Angara and Baikal, in the south it's all about the Tuvan basin in the Tannu - Ola Mountains above, in the west it borders the Altai and in the northwest it goes into the West Siberian lowland over.
Within the Westsajans stems from the Abakan, in Sayan spring Irkut, Big Yenisei, Kan., Oka, Kisir and Uda. The Westsajan is broken approximately in the middle of the Yenisei River in south-north direction. Here the water power is harnessed through the Sayano - Schuschensker reservoir and the Krasnoyarsk Reservoir.
South of the Sayan Mountains lies the Autonomous Republic of Tuva. To the north lie the Republic of Khakassia and Krasnoyarsk region. Between Khakassia and Tuva runs an important mountain road over the Westsajan that in Sajanski Pass ( 2206 m) reaches its highest point.
The Ice Age in the Eastern Sayan and southern Trans-Baikal mountains in Southern Siberia
In today only small cirque glaciers having area glacial glacier flowed located from west of Lake Baikal 3492 m high Munku - Sardyk massif and of the 12.1 thousand km ² completely glaciated granite - gneiss plateau (2300 m above sea level. M. ) of the East Sayan mountains and the east subsequent 2600 - 3110 m high peaks along the Tunkinskaya - Galina valley to a 30 km thick trunk glacier. Its east to the Baikal lake drained towards the glacier tongue ended in 500 m ( 51 ° 48'28 .98 " N 103 ° 0'29 .86" E). The Khamar - Daban mountains were covered by a large area, the Talrelief filling up the ice cap. From their valley heads, eg from the top Slujanka Valley ( 51 ° 32'N / 103 ° 37'E ), but also by parallel valleys such as the Snirsdaja valley outlet glaciers flowed north to Lake Baikal. The Snirsdaja Valley outlet glaciers calved in about 400 m above sea level. M. in Lake Baikal ( 51 ° 27'N / 104 ° 51'E ). The würmeiszeitliche equilibrium line (ELA ) was in those mountains between 1450 m and 1250 m. This corresponds to a lowering of 1500 m over the current level. From this it would be - under the condition of similar rainfall pattern - a glacial decrease of the annual mean temperature 7.5 to 9 ° C for the last ice age than today.