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The Ural Mountains, ( Russian: Ура́льские го́ры = Ура́л) also known simply as the Urals, are a mountain range that run roughly north and south through western Russia.The Urals extend 2500 km from the Kazakh steppes along the northern border of Kazakhstan to the coast of the Arctic ocean. The island of Novaya Zemlya forms a further continuation of the chain. Geographically this range marks the northern part of the (arbitrary) border between the continents of Europe and Asia. Its highest peak is Naroda Mountain (Poznurr, 1895 m). Erosion has exposed considerable mineral wealth in the Urals, including gems such as Topaz and Beryl. The Virgin Komi Forests in the northern Urals is recognised as a World Heritage site.
The Urals are among the world's oldest extant mountain ranges. They were formed in the late CarboniferousThe Carboniferous is a major division of the geologic timescale that extends from the end of the Devonian period (about 280 million years before the present (BP)) to the beginning of the Permian period (about 340 million Years BP). As with most older geol period, when a continent consisting largely of SiberiaSiberia ( Russian: , common English transliterations: Sibir Sibir' is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan, constituting all of northern Asia, and extending eastward from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and southward from the Arctic Oc collided with the supercontinentA supercontinent is a mass of land comprising more than one continent. Since the definition of continent is arbitrary, the definition of supercontinent is also arbitrary (as is the definition of a subcontinent), but the term refers to a landmass containin that contained much of the world's land at the time: the combination of Laurussia (Europe and North AmericaNorth America is the third largest continent in area and the fourth ranked in population. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocea) and GondwanaThis article is about the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana. For the region of India called Gondwana, see Gondwana (India). The southern supercontinent Gondwana (originally Gondwanaland included most of the landmasses which make up today's continents of. Europe and Siberia have remained joined together ever since.
Geographers have divided the Urals into five regions: South, Middle, North, Subarctic and Arctic Urals.
Mountain ranges
Russian geography
Mountains of Russia
