Basic landforms. Minerals of Eurasia.
Cartographic images appeared long before writing and accompanied mankind from the beginning of its inception. Until now, the oldest known geographical map was considered to be inscribed on a clay tablet more than 2000 years BC. e. in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) depicting the relief and settlements of this territory.
The modern relief of Eurasia was laid down in the Mesozoic, but the modern surface was formed under the influence of tectonic movements in the Neogene-Anthropogen. These were arch-block uplifts of mountains, highlands and lowering of depressions. The uplifts rejuvenated and often revived the mountainous terrain. The intensity of the latest tectonic movements has led to the predominance of mountains in Eurasia.
The average height of the mainland is 840m. The most powerful mountain systems are the Himalayas, Karakoram, Hindu Kush, Tien Shan, with peaks over 7-8 thousand meters.
The Western Asian highlands, the Pamirs, and Tibet are raised to a considerable height. Rejuvenation in the course of the latest uplifts was experienced by the middle mountains of the Urals, Central Europe, etc. and in lesser degree- vast plateaus and plateaus - the Central Siberian Plateau, the Dean, etc.
An important role in the relief of Eurasia is also played by rift structures - the Rhine graben, the basins of Baikal, the Dead Sea, etc.
The latest subsidence has led to the flooding of many outskirts of the mainland and the isolation of the archipelagos adjacent to Eurasia (the Far East, British Isles, the Mediterranean basin, etc.). The seas have attacked different parts of Eurasia more than once in the past. Their deposits formed the sea plains, which were subsequently dissected by glacial, river and lake waters.
The most extensive plains of Eurasia are East European (Russian), Central European, West Siberian, Turan, Indo-Gangetic. In many regions of Eurasia, sloping and socle plains are common. Ancient glaciation had a significant impact on the relief of the northern and mountainous regions of Eurasia. Eurasia contains the world's largest area of Pleistocene glacial and hydroglacial deposits. Modern glaciation is developed in many highlands of Asia (Himalayas, Karakoram, Tibet, Kunlun, Pamir, Tien Shan, etc.), in the Alps and Scandinavia, and especially powerful - on the islands of the Arctic and in Iceland. In Eurasia, more extensive than anywhere else in the world, underground glaciation is widespread - permafrost rocks and wedge ice. In the areas of limestone and gypsum, karst processes are developed. The arid regions of Asia are characterized by desert forms and relief types.
Working with the physical map of Eurasia and the structure map earth's crust let's try to establish the relationship between the structure of the earth's crust and the distribution of the main landforms. Based on their comparison, we will enter the results in the table:
| The structure of the earth's crust | landform | Name of the main landforms |
| Ancient Platforms: | ||
| Eastern European | Plain | the East European Plain |
| Siberian | Plateau | Central Siberian Plateau |
| Indian | Plateau | Dean |
| Chinese-Korean | Plain | Great Plain of China |
| Folded areas: | ||
| A) areas of ancient folding; | Plains | West Siberian Plain |
| uplands | Tibet | |
| mid-altitude mountains | Ural, Scandinavian mountains | |
| B) Areas of new folding | High mountains | Altai, Tien Shan |
| High mountains | Pyrenees, Alps, Caucasus, |
|
| mid-altitude mountains | Apennines, Carpathians | |
| uplands | Pamir, Iranian Highlands |
Analyzing the table, we can conclude that the ancient platforms mainly correspond to plains and plateaus. Folded areas - mountains of various heights.
Volcanism is widely developed in folded areas: Vesuvius (Apennine Peninsula), Etna (Island of Sicily), Krakatau (Sonda Islands), Klyuchevskaya Sopka (Kamchatka Peninsula), Fujiyama (Japanese Islands).
Using the maps of the atlas, we determine the height of the main landforms of Eurasia and distribute them in height:
Consider the main mountain systems:
Pyrenees. In the language of the local Basques, the word "piren" means "mountain". Stretch from west to east for 400 km. The mountains are impenetrable.
Alps - from the word "alp", "alb", which means "high mountain". The Alpine mountains were formed as a result of the collision of the Eurasian plate with the African. The convergence rate is about 8 mm per year. The Alps continue to grow at a rate of 1.5 mm per year. From time to time earthquakes happen here, but not very strong ones.
Carpathians - the deepest earthquakes on Earth occur here. The depth of the focus reaches 150 km.
Caucasus - young, growing mountains, formed as a result of the collision of the Eurasian and Arabian plates. There are many volcanoes here, still recently active: Ararat, Aragats.
The Himalayas are the "home of the snows", the highest mountains in the world. Top of the Himalayas - "Chomolungma" (Everest) - "mother of the gods". They were formed during the collision of the Eurasian and Indian plates (speed about 5 cm per year).
Altai means "golden mountains" in Mongolian.
Tien Shan - "heavenly mountains".
Minerals of Eurasia:
Oil and gas fields (Volga-Ural oil and gas region, fields in Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, underwater fields of the North Sea); a number of oil fields are confined to the Neogene deposits of foothill and intermountain troughs - Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, etc. Large deposits in Transcaucasia, on the West Siberian Plain, on the Cheleken Peninsula, Nebit-Dag, etc.; the areas adjacent to the coast of the Persian Gulf contain about 1/2 of the total oil reserves of foreign countries ( Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, South-West. Iran). In addition, oil is produced in China, Indonesia, India, Brunei. There are deposits of combustible gas in Uzbekistan, on the West Siberian Plain in the countries of the Near and Middle East.
Deposits of hard and brown coal are being developed - Donetsk, Lvov-Volyn, Moscow, Pechersk, Upper Silesian, Ruhr, Welsh basins, Karaganda basin, Mangyshlak peninsula, Caspian lowland, Sakhalin, Siberia (Kuznetsk, Minusinsk, Tunguska basin), eastern parts of China, Korea and the eastern regions of the Hindustan peninsula.
Powerful deposits of iron ore are being developed in the Urals, Ukraine, the Kola Peninsula, deposits in Sweden are of great importance. A large deposit of manganese ores is located in the Nikopol region. There are deposits in Kazakhstan, in the Angaro-Ilimsk region of the Siberian platform, within the Aldan shield; in China, in North Korea and in India.
Bauxite deposits are known in the Urals and in the regions of the East European Platform, India, Burma, and Indonesia.
Non-ferrous metal ores are distributed mainly in the Hercynide belt (Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, in the Upper Silesian basin of Poland). In India and Transcaucasia there are the largest deposits of manganese. In the northwestern part of Kazakhstan, in Turkey, the Philippines and Iran there are deposits of chromium ores. The region of Norilsk is rich in nickel, Kazakhstan, the North of Siberia, Japan are rich in copper ores; in areas Far East, Eastern Siberia, Burma, Thailand, the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia have deposits of tin.
Deposits of rock and potassium salts are widespread among the Devonian and Permian deposits of Ukraine, Belarus, the Caspian and Cis-Urals.
Rich deposits of apatite-nepheline ores are being developed on the Kola Peninsula.
Large salt-bearing deposits of Permian and Triassic age are confined to the territories of Denmark, Germany, Poland, and France. Salt deposits are found in the Cambrian deposits of the Siberian Platform, Pakistan, and southern Iran, as well as in Permian deposits Caspian lowland.
Diamond deposits explored and developed in Yaku
Other materials
- Origin and development of mountains, their geological structure, relief and landscapes
Mira - Baikal. important keeper fresh water - continental ice. AT Pacific Ocean Amur, Huang He, Yangtze flow into. The Yangtze is the longest river in Eurasia (5800 m). It overflows during the monsoon rains. As it flows into the sea, the Yangtze forms a large delta. For a considerable distance, the Yangtze is a navigable river. ...
Time and, probably, its formation is not finished yet. The relationship of minerals with the geological structure and tectonics. Minerals reveal an even closer connection than the relief with the history of the geological development of the territory. Ore minerals formed from magma that penetrated into ...
The following areas: the use of soils cut during overburden work, leveling the surface by backfilling ravines, reclamation of dumps; creation of forest sanitary protection zones. CLIMATE AND CLIMATE RESOURCES OF RUSSIA Influence of geographical location on climate. Great length...
Accounted for 20% of world oil production; search and exploitation of alluvial minerals (cassiterite, titanomagnetite, diamonds, gold, etc.) are also conducted. The origin of the shelf is usually associated with eustatic fluctuations in the water level of the World Ocean, due to global climate change...
The uplifts of the last folding for a given territory are building blocks corresponding zones, or belts. In explaining the origin of tectonic structures and mountain topography, a great future belongs to the concept of global lithospheric plates, or the theory of global plate tectonics. This...
Three or four or more thousand meters and can be explained by a change in the basis of erosion as a result of vertical uplifts, i.e., tectonic reasons. Mineral resources in a number of regions of Asia are still poorly explored. However, it is already known that it is rich in ores of iron, manganese, chromium, molybdenum, ...
The Antarctic Ridge is occupied by lava covers or covered with volcanogenic sediments. Volcanism is of great importance for the formation of the topography of the bottom of the oceans. Island arcs, giant oceanic volcanic chains, many ridges and peaks of mid-ocean ridges, single underwater...
The interaction of internal and external forces is the main reason for the diversity of the relief. The relief of the Earth is constantly changing as a result of the simultaneous influence of internal and external forces on it. Internal forces are manifested in the processes of movement of the lithosphere, the intrusion of mantle matter into the earth's crust or its ...
Such mountains are: Altai, Sayan, Verkhoyansk Range, Appalachians in North America and many others. The revived mountains differ from the folded ones both in internal structure and in appearance- morphology. The slopes of these mountains are often steep, the valleys, like the watersheds, are wide and flat. Layers of mountain...
These factors form the geopolitical model of the modern world and, therefore, belong to the subject of geopolitics. 2. The main laws of geopolitics 2.1 The law of fundamental dualism The main law that most attracts the attention of researchers in this science, according to prominent ...
prerequisites for its origin. Moreover, it was actually applied and developed. The main concept of geopolitics is geographical determinism, which originates in antiquity and develops throughout the history of scientific thought. 2. Geopolitical position of Russia in the CIS...
Relief of Asia
The Meso-Cenozoic tectonic movements of the earth's crust, which manifested themselves very actively both in geosynclines and on platforms, greatly changed the structural plan of Asia and largely smoothed out the differences in relief that are usually observed between land areas of ancient and young consolidation. They manifested themselves most strongly in the Alpine-Himalayan belt, where the highest ridges of the world arose; slightly weaker, but also very active in the northern part of Central Asia, Northeast and East China and Indochina, and much less brightly in areas of the ancient Precambrian platforms of Arabia and Hindustan. In addition to the formation of large endogenous megaforms of relief, they largely predetermined the direction of exogenous processes of relief formation, as they created sharp differences in the continental climate and runoff conditions between the internal and marginal (southern and eastern) oceanic regions of Asia. Cenozoic folding and mountain building, actively manifested in various parts land, further complicated the structure and orography of Asia and created a geomorphologically unique belt of island arcs off the eastern coast of the Eurasian continent. Depending on the features of the geological structure and landforms, which are due to both endogenous and exogenous processes, eleven large morphostructural regions can be distinguished within foreign Asia. In the south and southwest of the mainland, the plateaus and plateaus of the Arabian and Hindustan peninsulas are isolated, imprinting in the relief the processes of prolonged denudation under the conditions of the ancient Precambrian platform structure. In the north, they are adjoined by narrow flat accumulative lowlands formed in the foothill troughs of the Alpine-Himalayan folded belt: Mesopotamian and Indo-Gangetic. To the north of them there is a wide belt of internal highlands formed by the cores of ancient Hercynian structures, and alpine folded arcs bordering them. This belt is characterized by sharp geomorphological differences between the marginal mountain ranges, which reach a considerable height and condense atmospheric moisture in an amount sufficient for the development of erosional forms, and lower drainless internal basins, occupied mainly by deserts, with their characteristic special denudation-accumulative relief forms. This belt includes the relatively low Front Asian highlands and the highest Tibetan highlands in the world. Among the mountain arcs framing the internal highlands of Asia, the Himalayan mountains stand out for their great length and especially significant height, representing an important geographical boundary between Tibet and Central Asia proper in the north and the Indo-Gangetic lowland in the south.
To the north of the Tibetan Plateau lie the mountains and plains of Central Asia Proper. This territory is formed mainly by the most stable ancient folded structures of Asia, sections of the Precambrian platform, Caledonides and Hercynides. This explains the predominance of vast plains and plateaus here. At the same time, active young movements of the earth's crust created in some places high fold-block ridges, which predetermined the peculiar cellular structure of the surface, and determined the significant height of the territory. The sharp continentality of the climate, remoteness from the ocean limit the development of runoff and the removal of destruction products outside the region. This explains the widespread development here, as in the regions of the interior highlands, of peculiar denudation and accumulative landforms. The mountains and plains of East and Southeast mainland Asia stretch from the borders with Russia in Northeast China to the Indochinese lowlands in the south, inclusive. The combination of vast low plains formed on ancient stable massifs and medium-altitude and low mountains, corresponding to parts of the platform activated in the Mesozoic, determines the great complexity of this vast structural-morphological region.
Among other parts of the world, Asia is distinguished by the most contrasting relief in height. Here are the highest mountain ranges on Earth and the greatest plateaus, vast lowlands and the deepest continental depressions. Such a relief is the result of a long history of the development of the Eurasian land.
The oldest parts of the Asian land, as well as on other continents, are represented by Precambrian platforms. But unlike other continents that formed around one ancient platform core, there are several such cores in Asia. In the north - this is the Siberian, in the east - the Chinese platform. In the south of Asia, the Hindustan and Arabian platforms are also distinguished, which are "alien". These are parts of ancient Gondwana, later joined the Eurasian lithospheric plate.
Unlike the stable European one, the ancient Asian platforms are more mobile. They experienced vertical tectonic movements along deep faults. As a result, the plains formed on these platforms are elevated. The Central Siberian Plateau is the highest among similar types plains. The relatively flat plains of the Arabian Peninsula and the Hindustan Peninsula have raised edges. The Great Chinese Plain is characterized by a dissected relief.
In the Paleozoic, an area of folding arose between the Siberian and Chinese platforms. A giant mountain belt was formed here, which gradually "soldered" the individual platforms into a single whole. Unlike the European mountains of Asia, they formed during all periods of mountain building. The oldest of them are located in the Baikal region. That is why the period of their formation was called Baikal. Mountains were formed in both the Caledonian and Hercynian periods. For a long time they were destroyed. However, their fate was not the same. Most of them, after the destruction, were reborn again, that is, tectonic forces formed new mountains. Thus, the mountain systems of the Tien Shan, Altai, Sayan, etc. arose. The Paleozoic folded structures of Western Siberia and Western Kazakhstan, as well as the territories south of the Aral Sea, on the contrary, were subject to intensive subsidence and formed the folded foundation of young Paleozoic platforms - West Siberian and Turan. They are really young: even before the eyes of a primitive man, the sea lapped at this place. Its sedimentary deposits formed large lowlands - the West Siberian and Turan.
Some of the Paleozoic structures, for example, in the east of Kazakhstan, did not experience further folding and uplift. Over time, they collapsed and turned into a hilly area. This is exactly the Kazakh upland.
During the Mesozoic period of mountain building in eastern Asia from Chukotka to the Malay Peninsula, a folded belt of mountains of meridional strike was formed. An example of such mountains are the Chersky and Verkhoyansky, Sikhote-Alin ranges.
After the Mesozoic, the tectonic movements of the Cenozoic "started" to form the relief of the continent. (Which mountain structures in Europe belong to this period of mountain building?) Cenozoic folding manifested itself in the south and east of Asia. A giant folded belt arose, which connected the mountain structures of Europe and Asia (from the Pyrenees to the ridges on the islands of Sumatra and Java). Within Asia, the highest of these mountain structures are: the Caucasus, the Pamirs, the Hindu Kush, as well as the Himalayas with the highest peak in the world - Chomolungma.
The mountain ranges of this folded belt sometimes diverge in the form of a fan, as if covering more leveled areas of the surface - the highlands on the peninsula of Asia Minor, Armenian, Iranian. The structure of the Tibet highlands is peculiar, in the relief of which flat plains are combined with ridges. Its base is very ancient, but, having experienced uplifts along with the Himalayas, it reached a record height for the highlands (5000–7000 m).
In the Cenozoic time, not only the highest mountain structures were formed in the south of Asia. At the boundary of the platforms and the folded belt, the Mesopotamian and Indo-Gangetic lowlands formed in the troughs of the earth's crust. The depth of the troughs is evidenced by the fact that the thickness of river deposits here reaches 8–9 km.
The second giant belt of Cenozoic folding was formed in the east along the Pacific coast of Asia as a result of the collision of the Pacific and Eurasian lithospheric plates. It extends from Kamchatka to the Malay Archipelago. Mountain structures here can be traced not only on land, but also on islands stretching in a huge arc. It coincides with the Pacific Ring of Fire, so volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are frequent here. The peaks of the ridges rising above the sea are active (the highest is Klyuchevskaya Sopka, 4750 m) and extinct volcanoes.
Conclusions:
Asia is the largest part of the world. It is washed by the waters of the four oceans of the Earth.
The tectonic structure of Asia is very complex. Here, Precambrian and Paleozoic platforms, folded belts of different ages are distinguished: Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic.
The relief of Asia is very diverse: vast plains, the highest mountains and highlands of the world stretch here.
Read in the section
GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE OF THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH ASIA
H The title "South Asia" in this volume covers India, Pakistan, Nepal, Ceylon, Sikkim, Bhutan and the Maldives. Part of the Asian continent, which includes the territories of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan, is fenced from the north by the wall of the highest mountain system in the world - the Himalayas and Karakorum, from the northwest - by the Hindu Kush and the Balochistan highlands, from the northeast - by the Burmese-Assam mountains; from the southwest it is washed by the Arabian Sea, from the south by the Indian Ocean and from the southeast by the Bay of Bengal.
Relief
In physical and geographical terms, all this territory ri Thorium is usually divided into three main parts: the Himalayan-Hindukush mountain system with its southern spurs, the Deccan Plateau, which occupies most of peninsular India, and the plains of the great Indus and Ganges rivers lying between them.
The Himalayas proper consist of three parallel chains of different heights: the Greater Himalayas, the Lesser Himalayas and the Sivalik Mountains. The Great Himalayas stretch for almost 2.5 thousand km. Their average height is about 6 thousand meters above sea level. Even most of the passes lie above 5 thousand meters, and some peaks reach 8 thousand or more (Chomolungma, Kanchen-junga). The average height of the Lesser Himalayas is no more than 4 thousand meters, although some peaks exceed 5 thousand. The lower step of the Himalayas is made up of the Sivalik Mountains. Their height does not exceed 1000 m, but they rise steeply above the flat plain of the Ganges.
The extreme north of South Asia is a complex mountain junction where several spurs of the Himalayas converge with the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush. The Great Himalayas here abruptly break off to the Indus Valley by the solitary Nanga Parbat mountain range, with a peak exceeding 8 thousand meters. The majestic Karakoram, covered with eternal ice, dominates this mountainous country. Even its average height in this part is about 7 thousand meters. Here in the Karakoram is the second highest peak in the world - Chogori, or Godwin Osten (8611 m).
Typical landscape in the Himalayas
In the west, the southern spurs of the Hindu Kush, the Suleiman Mountains and the ridges of the Balochistan Highlands stretching in a southwestern direction have a height of 1.5-2, and sometimes 3 thousand m, they are cut in many places by deep river valleys, which have long served as natural passages through which India maintained links with its northern and western neighbors. The most important and most convenient has always been the Khyber Pass in the valley of the river. Kabul.
In the east of India, the spurs of the Himalayas turn sharply south to the junction with the Burmese mountains. The Naga, Patkoy and Arakan mountains form eastern border India. From the Naga Mountains to the west along the left bank of the Brahmaputra stretched the Assam Highlands, or the Assam Plateau, the central part of which is called the Khasi and Jaintya mountains, and the western part is the Garo mountains.
Most of peninsular India is made up of the Deccan Plateau, bounded on three sides by mountain ranges: in the west by the Western Ghats, in the east by the Eastern Ghats, and in the north by several chains of mountains running in a latitudinal direction and making up the Central Indian Highlands.
The Deccan Highlands are highly elevated in the western part; most of the rivers of peninsular India, originating in the Western Ghats, flow through the entire peninsula to the east and, breaking through the chain of the Eastern Ghats, flow into the Bay of Bengal.
Corner of the city in Rajasthan
The Western Ghats and the Elephant (Anamalay) and Cardamom Mountains that continue them stretch from the mouth of the river. Tapti in the north to the extreme southern point of India - Cape Komorin, i.e., almost 1.5 thousand km. Their average height is about 1.5 thousand meters. Between the mountains and the sea there remains a narrow coastal plain, in some places only a few kilometers wide, abounding in lagoons in the southern part, densely populated and convenient for cultivating a variety of tropical crops. This is the Malabar coast of India.
The Nilgiri mountain range up to 2 thousand meters high adjoins the southern tip of the Western Ghats, from which the Eastern Ghats stretch to the northeast parallel to the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
The Central Indian Highlands is made up of two parallel rows of mountain ranges, between which lies a deep valley of the river. Narbady. In its center is the Gondwana plateau and the Maykal mountain range, and in the east - the Chhota Nagpur plateau, gradually descending to the Bay of Bengal.
The Central Indian Highlands extends along the northern tropic, thus separating northern subtropical India from southern tropical India.
From the base of the Kathiyavar peninsula in a northeasterly direction through Jaipur (Rajasthan) almost to Delhi stretches the oldest of the mountain systems of India - Aravalli, which is here the watershed between the valley of the lower Indus and the basin of the middle Ganges.
In the southern part of Aravalli stands alone standing mountain Abu (1721 m). The entire ridge has an average height of a little over 500 m, but it gradually drops to the northeast, and before reaching Delhi, it breaks into chains of low hills.
To the west of the Aravalli Mountains, the almost waterless Thar Desert, or Indian Desert, stretches for hundreds of kilometers. Even groundwater in it is at a depth of 50-100 m or more. Therefore, life in the desert is possible only in small lowlands, where groundwater comes close to the surface. All the few settlements in this part of the country are located in such oases.
The territory of Ceylon is divided into three main parts, differing in their natural conditions. In the north, east and northeast of the country there is an arid region, in the south and southwest - a humid plain and in the interior - a highland with rich vegetation, surrounded by rolling plains descending to the coastal lowlands.
Nepal is located entirely (with the exception of the extreme southern regions) within the Himalayas. Between the Greater and Lesser Himalayas lie large valleys and basins, where most of the country's population is concentrated. Mountain ranges are intersected by numerous river valleys and deep gorges.
Soils
The soils of South Asia are very diverse. Their fertility is largely determined by climatic conditions and irrigation. Between the mountain barrier in the north and the Central Indian Highlands lies a vast lowland formed by the valleys of the Indus and the Ganges. It is a plain several hundred kilometers wide, stretching along the great Indian rivers. Even in the watershed part, this plain does not reach 300 m above sea level, and most of it lies below 100 m. The plain is covered with a layer of alluvium so thick that the underlying bedrock never comes to the surface. Therefore, its surface appears completely flat. The rivers of the plain, spreading widely during floods, continue to cover it with new layers of alluvium, which makes the soils here extraordinarily fertile. Groundwater is close to the surface, and rivers flowing in gently sloping low banks make it possible to irrigate the surrounding lands and grow two or even three crops a year on them.
Alluvial soils also cover the entire narrow coastal strip of peninsular India and especially the regions of river deltas. The central and western parts of the Deccan and the western half of the Central Indian Highlands are dominated by regura - black clay soils, in some places very rich in humus. These soils retain moisture well and, even in the absence of artificial irrigation, allow the cultivation of cotton (for example, in western India) and wheat (on the Malwa plateau).
In western Pakistan, serozems are the predominant soil type.
The south of India, most of the eastern half of the peninsula, as well as the Chhota Nagpur plateau and the Assam highlands are covered with lateritic soils and red soils. They grow broad-leaved tropical forests and many types of palm trees. In places of high moisture, rice is grown on these soils and tea is grown on the slopes of the mountains, especially in Assam.
Most fertile soils in Ceylon - alluvial, but they are found only in valleys; The most widespread types of soils are laterites and krasnozems.
In Nepal, alluvial soils occur only in the Kathmandu valley and along the rivers, and this is where agriculture is concentrated. On the slopes of the mountains, red earth and lateritic soils are also cultivated.
minerals
The countries of South Asia are rich in minerals, but these minerals are still poorly explored and are not being developed to an adequate degree.
The most advanced state in this respect is India. The deposits of iron ore here exceed those of any other country in the world and account for 1/4 of all world reserves. In terms of reserves of manganese ores, India ranks third in the world. Is in the bowels of this country
Typical Deccan Landscape (Andhra State)
also chromites, vanadium, bauxites, copper and lead ores, gold * India is very rich in mica deposits. From refractory and alloying materials necessary for the development of the metallurgical industry and energy enterprises, kyanite, quartzite, refractory clays, graphite, and asbestos are mined in India. Sands rich in ilmenite, zircon and monazite lie on the coast.
Deposits of gypsum, slate, building stone, limestone, etc. are developed from natural building materials.
India's energy resources are less explored and their reserves are smaller. Coal reserves are large, but it is no different high quality. Oil and natural gas mined in small quantities, and only in last years extensive exploration of their deposits began, carried out in large part with the help of Soviet specialists.
Pakistan is much poorer than India in terms of reserves and mining. Coal mining does not cover half of the needs of industry and transport, oil is also mined in small quantities, and exploration of its reserves is just beginning; of metal ores, only chromites occur in large quantities, while iron ores are poorly explored and insufficiently developed. There are more or less significant deposits of non-metallic minerals - gypsum, rock salt, potassium salts, sulfur, etc. The mineral reserves of Nepal are almost unexplored. It is known that there are deposits of iron and copper ore, zinc and gold, as well as coal and natural gases.
In Ceylon, minerals are explored very poorly. The development of iron ore (with a high iron content) has begun, monazite sands, graphite, natural Construction Materials. Out of stock natural fuel only peat deposits are known. The riches of Ceylon are placers of precious stones.
Climate Mountains protect the territory of India and Pakistan from cold continental winds. The bulk of precipitation in northern India and Pakistan is brought by the southwest and northeast monsoons. Per. With the exception of the high Himalayan regions and the far north and northwest, the temperature does not fall below zero.
In some mountainous areas, the average annual temperature does not exceed -2-15°, but in most of these countries it ranges from -24-28°. In summer the temperature rises to 45° and above. Yet on the whole temperature regime relatively stable.
In India, three seasons are usually distinguished: cool, hot and rainy. The first is the time of the dominance of the northeast winds, and the last - the southwest monsoon. Some authors single out a fourth, transitional season - from rainy to cool.
The length of each season is different different parts country, but still coincides with a certain time of the year. So, the cool season lasts from the second half of November to the beginning or middle of March. At this time, the land surface, especially in the northern regions, cools, and the masses of cooled air begin to move towards the sea, mainly along the valleys of the great rivers. At this time, clear dry weather prevails over most of the country, although in the upper part of the Gangetic plain there are occasional rains and even short showers caused by local cyclones.
In December-January, nighttime temperatures in Delhi, for example, fall below -f-10°, and in some places in Punjab and Rajasthan almost to 0°, but during the day it rarely stays below -f-15°. In tropical southern India, with the exception of high-mountainous regions, such as the Nilgiri Highlands, the temperature in January is above -f-20 °.
The cool season is the time of the most active and productive activity of the Indian peasants. A wide variety of work is going on in the fields, including harvesting some crops, plowing for spring crops, and maintaining the irrigation system.
As the sushi warms up Atmosphere pressure over it and the sea is balanced, the winds stop and the hot, dry season begins, lasting from the second half of March to early June. By the end of the season, in most of the country the temperature rises above 30°, and in some places reaches 45° or more. There comes a great dry land, when many rivers dry up, grasses burn out and trees shed their leaves. By the end of the period, the loss of livestock often begins, which lacks fodder, agricultural work stops and the activity of human activity decreases.
The southwest monsoon begins in the first half of June and ends at the end of September. But in Kerala and Bengal, for example, it begins at the end of May, and in some areas it continues until November.
In 10-12 days, masses of humid oceanic air spread over almost the entire country and heavy rains begin. The Western Ghats are the first obstacle to the monsoon. Here, on the western slopes, especially intense precipitation falls. Rushing further over the Deccan, the monsoon leaves him a small part of the moisture, but it is enough to water the Deccan rivers and fill the numerous natural and artificial reservoirs in the central part of the highlands. The main mass of moisture reaches the Ganges valley, and there, being detained and reflected by the wall of the Himalayas, it falls onto the slopes of the mountains, onto the entire Gangetic plain and into the Punjab. In places it rains almost continuously. However, more often showers occur intermittently from several hours to several days.
In July, and especially towards the end of the monsoon season, rivers and streams overflow widely, flooding vast areas and sometimes causing catastrophic floods in certain areas. Heat combined with high humidity reduces the production activity of the population,
although field work during this period is not interrupted. Moisture soaks everything. Wooden things swell and fall apart, iron rusts, leather things become moldy.
Jelam River in Srinagar
In most of the country, about 90% of annual precipitation falls during the monsoon period, but they are also distributed unevenly during this period. In Delhi, for example, almost 600 mm of precipitation falls, in Patna - more than 1000, and in Kolkata - 1200 mm; in Assam, especially in the Cherrapunji region - more than 12,000 mm of precipitation, i.e. more than anywhere else on the globe. But there are also such areas, for example, in western Rajasthan and Baluchistan, where annual precipitation is measured in a few tens of millimeters, and in other years they do not happen at all.
Ceylon has an equatorial monsoonal climate. It plays a crucial role in the cycles of agriculture; The whole year is divided into four seasons according to the monsoons.
The climate of Nepal is subtropical, with a pronounced altitudinal zonality and is also influenced by the monsoons.
The Meso-Cenozoic tectonic movements of the earth's crust, which manifested themselves very actively both in geosynclines and on platforms, greatly changed the structural plan of Asia and largely smoothed out the differences in relief that are usually observed between land areas of ancient and young consolidation. They manifested themselves most strongly in the Alpine-Himalayan belt, where the highest ridges of the world arose; slightly weaker, but also very active in the northern part of Central Asia, Northeast and East China and Indochina, and much less brightly in areas of the ancient Precambrian platforms of Arabia and Hindustan. In addition to the formation of large endogenous megaforms of relief, they largely predetermined the direction of exogenous processes of relief formation, as they created sharp differences in the continental climate and runoff conditions between the internal and marginal (southern and eastern) oceanic regions of Asia. Cenozoic folding and mountain building, which actively manifested itself in various parts of the land, further complicated the structure and orography of Asia and created a geomorphologically unique belt of island arcs off the eastern coast of the Eurasian continent. Depending on the features of the geological structure and landforms, which are due to both endogenous and exogenous processes, eleven large morphostructural regions can be distinguished within foreign Asia. In the south and southwest of the mainland, the plateaus and plateaus of the Arabian and Hindustan peninsulas are isolated, imprinting in the relief the processes of prolonged denudation under the conditions of the ancient Precambrian platform structure. In the north, they are adjoined by narrow flat accumulative lowlands formed in the foothill troughs of the Alpine-Himalayan folded belt: Mesopotamian and Indo-Gangetic. To the north of them there is a wide belt of internal highlands formed by the cores of ancient Hercynian structures, and alpine folded arcs bordering them. This belt is characterized by sharp geomorphological differences between the marginal mountain ranges, which reach a considerable height and condense atmospheric moisture in an amount sufficient for the development of erosional forms, and lower drainless internal basins, occupied mainly by deserts, with their characteristic special denudation-accumulative relief forms. This belt includes the relatively low Front Asian highlands and the highest Tibetan highlands in the world. Among the mountain arcs framing the internal highlands of Asia, the Himalayan mountains stand out for their great length and especially significant height, representing an important geographical boundary between Tibet and Central Asia proper in the north and the Indo-Gangetic lowland in the south.
To the north of the Tibetan Plateau lie the mountains and plains of Central Asia Proper. This territory is formed mainly by the most stable ancient folded structures of Asia, sections of the Precambrian platform, Caledonides and Hercynides. This explains the predominance of vast plains and plateaus here. At the same time, active young movements of the earth's crust created in some places high fold-block ridges, which predetermined the peculiar cellular structure of the surface, and determined the significant height of the territory. The sharp continentality of the climate, remoteness from the ocean limit the development of runoff and the removal of destruction products outside the region. This explains the widespread development here, as in the regions of the interior highlands, of peculiar denudation and accumulative landforms. The mountains and plains of East and Southeast mainland Asia stretch from the borders with Russia in Northeast China to the Indochinese lowlands in the south, inclusive. The combination of vast low plains formed on ancient stable massifs and medium-altitude and low mountains, corresponding to parts of the platform activated in the Mesozoic, determines the great complexity of this vast structural-morphological region. Moderate vertical movements of the neotectonic stage only rejuvenated some mountainous areas, uplifting them and deforming the ancient leveling surfaces. However, the denudation that continued from the Mesozoic had time under conditions of abundant moisture to level the slowly rising land, which explains the combination of young erosional forms with ancient ones and the preservation of peneplains in many mountainous areas. Another type of relief is low-lying plains, which feature in places protruding hills and low mountains. In the western part of Indochina, medium-altitude mountains of Alpine and Mesozoic age predominate, which are a continuation of the structures of the Himalayas and southeastern Tibet. The deep intermontane Irrawaddy trough delimits these structures of different ages. In relief, it corresponds to the lowlands of the Irrawaddy River. From the east, Asia is bordered by the island arcs of East and Southeast Asia, which are in the stage of geosynclinal development, which is confirmed by active seismicity and volcanism here, as well as a contrasting combination of the relief of mountainous islands and deep oceanic depressions with depths up to 11,000 m. The Hindustan peninsulas are characterized by a wide development of peneplains that arose on a crystalline and metamorphic basement. The flat nature of the surface, clearly expressed in the inner parts of the peninsulas, is disturbed by young dislocations, which are especially pronounced along their western edges.
In the relief of Arabia and peninsular India, along with similarities, significant differences are found, which are predetermined by the peculiar history of the development of these large regions of Asia. Since the Mesozoic, on the Hindustan Peninsula, located in the area of Indian monsoons, apparently, such arid conditions have never existed, as in Arabia, therefore, erosional forms are clearly expressed in the relief of its surface. Activity in Arabia water streams weakened as the dryness of the climate developed, which became more and more noticeable from the Mesozoic, and especially from the end of the Paleogene. The Arabian Peninsula is characterized by a general slope of the surface from west to east, due to the sharp rise of its western edge. Its western parts, as well as the coast of the Red Sea, have a sharp fault relief. The height amplitudes are especially significant in the belt of horsts and grabens of the mountainous west, where massifs up to 3000 m high are adjacent to basins, the bottoms of which lie below the ocean level (the Dead Sea basin, for example, is located at an altitude of 748 m). The uplift of the western edge caused the monoclinal (sloping to the east) occurrence of the sedimentary layers of the platform, and the activity of water flows, still active in the period following the uplift, led to the formation of cuestas in the layers of Mesozoic and Paleogene marine sediments. However, erosional forms are not widely developed. Most of the peninsula is occupied by sandy deserts with their characteristic dunes and ridges. In the western part of the peninsula, volcanic landforms that arose in the Neogene are common. They stretch in a strip of varying width from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait along the Red Sea to the southern part of the Syrian semi-desert. In Yemen, lava eruptions created a plateau, which is dissected in the west and south by short but deep river valleys. To the north of Yemen, in the mountainous regions of Asir and Hijas, on fault lines stretching parallel to the discharge basin of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Dead Sea, there are cones of low volcanoes (up to 100-200 m in height). This whole band of outpourings ends in the southwestern part of the Syrian semi-desert with volcanoes of the Jebel Druz mountain group. In the northeast, the plateau borders on the Mesopotamian lowland, located in the area of the modern foothill trough in front of the Zagros Mountains. In the northwest, it is framed by the medium-altitude folded mountains of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. The relief features of the latter are already associated with the development of the geosynclinal zone of the Alpine-Himalayan belt. Peninsular India is predominantly a plateau country, with a strongly eroded surface by rivers.
Wide river valleys cross the peninsula from west to east, according to the prevailing slope of the surface. Even where the uneven foundation of the platform is blocked by trap effusions, the once unified surface, in the process of erosion and uplift, has received a tiered structure. Remnant massifs rise everywhere with steep slopes, flat tops, and in places with narrow ridges. In the central parts and in the east of the Deccan, where metamorphic and crystalline rocks everywhere come to the surface, the relief has the character of either flat, softly undulating, or more dissected peneplain surfaces. These two are the most characteristic types relief step on the traps and wavy peneplain on the crystalline rocks of the base, is opposed to the relief of the peripheral parts of the plateau, where block movements were most active. Thus, the Western and Eastern Ghats are oblique boulders with steep, sometimes steep slopes towards the ocean and gently sloping towards the inner parts of the plateau. Western Ghats from the sea look like a single ridge. Their peaks are of the same height, and the linear strike gives the whole system a morphological uniformity. In the lower Eastern Ghats, the massifs are separated by shallower river valleys, and the whole system is not uniform in strike. The fault origin of the marginal uplifts of Hindustan is emphasized by the straightness of the coasts of the peninsula, Malabarek in the west and Coromandel in the east. The Arabian and Hindustanian peninsulas in the north and northeast border on the Mesopotamian and Indo-Gangetic lowlands extended parallel to the mountain ranges. They occupy deep piedmont troughs filled with alluvial sediments. In the eastern part of the Himalayan trough, their thickness reaches 8–9 km. With the exception of a horst uplift in the eastern part of the Indo-Gangetic lowland - the Shillong Plateau and small outcrops in the Aravalli system near Delhi and elsewhere, indigenous (rocks never come to the surface); this circumstance determines the exceptional flatness of the relief. The greatest irregularities are created here by rows of accumulative river terraces, which are eroded in places by lateral tributaries of the rivers. The erosional relief is most characteristic of the watershed of the Indus and the Ganges. The relief of the Front Asian and Tibetan highlands was formed as a result of the multiphase development of the territory in the single Alpine-Himalayan geosynclinal zone of Tethys. The arcs of the Alpine ridges form, as it were, wide ovals, framing the ancient cores of the middle parts of the highlands. The Asia Minor highlands are bordered by the Pontic and Taurus mountains; Iranian mountains Zagros, Mekran, Turkmen-Khorasan and Hindu Kush; Tibetan Himalayas, Karakorum, Sichuan Alps and others.
V. V. Belousov explains the origin of these alpine arcs and the older lower areas enclosed between them as the result of the articulation of individual oval links, which experienced independent development to some extent. The places where neighboring ovals meet are marked by compression of mountain belts, an increase in the height of mountains, and in some places by volcanic activity (Armenian Highlands). Among the highest ridges and uplands are the Hindu Kush mountains, reaching 5000 m in height, and especially the Pamir, the number of peaks of which exceeds 7000 m. intense erosional dissection. Unlike the marginal arcs, the inner parts of the highlands have a dry climate and are subject to intense physical weathering. The products of the destruction of mountains are not taken out of the uplands. They gradually fill intermountain valleys and hollows. Many of the basins have undergone a complex evolution: signs of wetter epochs are clearly expressed here, when they were lake baths. Traces of the high standing of the waters were imprinted in several tiers of terraces, forming wide concentric circles. A curious feature of the morphometry of the uplands is their elevation from west to east. The average height of the Asia Minor Highlands is 600-800 m, and the marginal mountains are 1500-2000 m (Taurus in the south and Pontic in the north), the Iranian Highlands are 800-1000 m, and its marginal mountains (Elburs, Zagros, Hindu Kush and others) about 2500 m, the Tibetan Plateau - 4500-4600 m, the marginal mountains are about 5000-6000 m (Himalayas, Kunlun). Unlike the Front Asian highlands, the Tibetan one stands out not only for its grandiose average height, but also for the presence of numerous parallel mountain ranges in the inner part of the highlands. These inner ridges seem to be piled up on the common high foundation of the highlands, on its base. In the western and central parts of the highlands, the relative heights of the ridges are low (300-500 m and up to 1000 m). In its eastern half, where there is a well-developed network of rivers with access to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, they reach 2000-3000 m. . Tertiary and especially Quaternary time. A folded structure lies at the base of the highlands, with a distinct stretch of the ridges along the latitude. The lavas erupted from numerous craters covered the ancient relief of the highlands and, hugging the structural irregularities of the foundation, created, together with blocky movements, due to which the modern relief acquired the character of a fine-meshed or hollow.
In the grandiose Asian belt of mountains, the central part stands out with the highest ranges of the Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Himalayas and the mountains of the western part of Burma (Arakap-Yoma, Patkai). The most remarkable here are the Himalayas, which are a mountain arc with a length of about 2.4 thousand km and a width of up to 300-350 km. Many peaks of the Himalayas rise to 7000-8000 m or more, and Mount Chomolungma (Chomolungma), reaching 8848 m, is the highest peak on the globe. The high altitude and abundance of precipitation falling on their slopes led to extensive glaciation and intensive development of erosion processes, which led to the formation of the deepest valleys on the Earth's surface (up to 4000-5000 m deep). The Quaternary glaciation, which left bright traces in the form of grandiose circuses and troughs, terminal and lateral moraines and other forms, was here even more significant than the modern one. The great height of the Himalayas is due to the young movements of the earth's crust, which have a arched character. The band of maximum elevation coincides with the main ranges of the Himalayas, the Great Himalayas. The ridges lying to the south of them are in a peripheral belt that has not experienced such intense movements. A peculiar relief is connected with this, consisting in the successive change of the lower ridges of the Sivalik foothill zone in the south by the higher ridges of the Small, and then the Big Himalayas. Due to difficult accessibility, the ridges of the high-mountain belt of Asia have not yet been sufficiently explored and are inhabited only in the lowest parts of the longitudinal valleys. In the Himalayas, settlements and oases of agriculture are concentrated in the extensions of river valleys, which were supposed to be the bottoms of now drained lakes. To the north of Tibet, in Central Asia, high plains surrounded by mountains dominate. These plains, occupied by the Takla-Makan and Alashan deserts, the semi-deserts and steppes of the Gobi and the Ordos plateau, represent in the relief either ideally flat surfaces of sandy deserts, or small hills, or low mountains. In the eastern part they are bordered by the Great Khangan, Khangai, Khentei and other ranges. The highest of them reach only 2500-2700 m above sea level, and their prevailing average heights are 1500-1800 m (up to 2000 m). The low height of the eastern marginal mountains is explained by the antiquity of their geological structure and the absence of intense young movements of the earth's crust in this part of Asia. On the contrary, on the western side, the plains are bordered by high mountain ranges, among which Kunlun and Tien Shan stand out with especially high heights. These mountain structures, like most of Central Asia Proper, have a Hercynian structure, but in the formation of their modern relief, much big role than Hercynian folding, played the movements of the earth's crust in the Tertiary and Quaternary time.
In terms of their heights (maximum up to 7700 m) and the depth of vertical dissection, these ranges are almost as good as the highest mountain arcs of the Alpine-Himalayan fold belt. The Tien Shan, Kunlun, with the adjoining Nanshan, Kuruktag and other ranges, not only frame the plains from the west and southwest, but also separate them into separate flat basins of the Tarim, Dzhungar, Tsaidam. The ancient folded base of these basins is overlain by the products of denudation of neighboring ranges. It is to the cloak of this loose material that they owe their modern relief. East mainland Asia, as well as Central Asia, is characterized by a combination of vast plains with mountainous countries. However, both mountains and plains lie low above sea level. The low plains of Northeast China and East China, namely the Songliao, the North China Plain and the plains in the lower reaches of the Mekong and Menam rivers in Indochina, have absolute elevations of up to 200 m. Precambrian or Paleozoic age. The direction of the mountains in East China is dominated by the direction from the southwest to the northeast. The exception is the Qin-Ling Range, which stretches from west to east. This is perhaps the only range that has a clearly defined linear strike, the rest of the mountain systems of East China are essentially highlands without clear watersheds. The different strikes of the mountains are thought to be due to the rigid structure of the China Plate. The modern relief also reflects other structural features of the Chinese platform. These are, first of all, syneclises, represented on the surface by vast gentle basins. Among them, the largest is the Red Basin or Sichuan Basin, located at the foot of the Sichuan Alps. Some syneclises were formed by the products of the destruction of the surrounding uplifts and are not currently expressed in relief, for example, the syneclise at the base of the Loess Plateau. The vertical movements of the Tertiary and Quaternary time in East mainland Asia, although they had a very significant influence on the rejuvenation of the previously created mountainous terrain, yet were not as energetic as in Central Asia. Mature erosive landforms and low relative heights testify to their moderate manifestation. The relief and tectonics of the western half of the Indochinese Peninsula differ noticeably from the considered regions of eastern mainland Asia. The age of the folded base of the territory here is predominantly Meso-Cenozoic (with the exception of more ancient structure little-studied Shan highlands).
Particularly young are the mountains of Western Burma, the Patkai, Prakan-Yoma (Rakhing) Pegu-Yoma ridges, as well as the intermountain tectonic trough occupied by the Irrawaddy lowland. The above mountain ranges experienced major folding in the Cenozoic. They differ from the Himalayas in a much lower height, representing mainly medium-altitude mountains. Only Mount Sarmat reaches 3826 m in height. The entire mountainous region to the west of the Ayeyarwaddy River did not experience glaciation, which is its no less important distinguishing feature. The mountain ranges arcuately curved to the west, making up a wide belt as a whole, stretch parallel to each other and are separated by deep river valleys, among which longitudinal ones predominate. In the south, this alpine belt of mountains, interrupted by sea straits, continues in the form of small Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are already part of the Java tectonic arc. To the east of the Alpine belt is a no less wide belt of older (Paleozoic and Mesozoic) structures of the central regions of Indochina, which ends with the Malay Peninsula. It includes the Shan karst highlands, located in the central part of Indochina. The limestones prevailing in the areas of these uplands determined the wide development of karst landforms. To the south are the so-called Central Cordilleras, a medium-altitude mountainous region with a longitudinal type of dissection and heights not exceeding 2850 m, the southern parts of which are submerged in the sea due to recent subsidence. Far to the south, like an isolated island massif, the folded-blocky mountains of Malacca (Mount Tahan up to 2190 m) rise, which, obviously, are a residual massif that has not sunk into the sea, unlike the territories surrounding it. Encircling the mainland from the east and southeast with several gentle scallops, the island arcs of East Asia stretch. In some places they are represented by small islands on the tops of submerged mountain ranges, such as, for example, the Ryukyu Islands. In other cases, island arcs unite large islands. Volcanoes crown the folded base of the islands and form volcanic areas dominated by conical peaks, gradually turning into gentle slopes covered with lava flows. Being under the direct influence of the oceans, the islands receive a lot of precipitation and are therefore eroded by deep but short valleys of rivers and streams. The significant depth of the valleys can also be explained by another reason, the proximity of the erosion base. In the group of the Japanese islands, the axial ridges have heights of more than 2000 m, reaching 3776 m in Mount Fuji, and 2000-2900 m in the Philippine Islands.
The most difficult is the relief of the Malay Archipelago, in geological structure which involves both young folded and platform structures. Here chains of high volcanic cones are combined with massive fold-block ridges. The latter form the greater northern half of the island of Kalimantan (Borneo). This is where the most high peak island arcs of Southeast Asia Mount Kinabalu (4101 m).
Bibliography
For the preparation of this work, materials from the site http://rgo.ru were used.
