West Siberian Plain
The West Siberian Lowland (also West Siberian Plain, Russian Западно - Сибирская низменность, Sapadno - Sibirskaja nismennost and called Западно Сибирская, Sapadno Sibirskaja ) is one of the seven major regions of Siberia and one of the eight major Russian landscapes. It is about 2.5 million km ², which is about seven times the size of Germany.
Geographical location
The sprawling West Siberian Lowland lies between the Ural Mountains in the west and the central Siberian mountains to the east. In the north of the lowlands bordering on the Yamal Peninsula in the Kara Sea. In this direction, it is also - without clearly defined or directly apparent natural boundaries - seamlessly into the North Siberian Lowland on to which is angliedert the Taimyr Peninsula in the north. In the southeast border on various Südsibirische Mountains and the Southwest, the Kazakh threshold.
Landscape
Is determined the swampy landscape of the West Siberian lowlands in the south by extensive boreal forests, which give way to the north first in the taiga and in the forest-tundra and tundra. In these northern regions no tall plants may be due to permafrost and low water content in the soil ( like trees ) develop, but it prevail mosses, shrubs and ferns before.
Watercourses
The three longest rivers in the Western Siberian lowlands are:
- Irtysh
- Yenisei
- Whether
Towns
Among the villages of the West Siberian lowlands, which lie mainly in its southern regions or at its edges include ( in alphabetical order ):
- Barnaul
- Khanty-Mansiysk
- Dudinka
- Iwanowka
- Yekaterinburg (formerly Sverdlovsk )
- Kurgan
- Nizhnevartovsk
- Norilsk