Theme5+Regions+JOY

Youjin Kwon  ** Russia and Two Neighboring Countries: China and Poland
 * Region of Russia and Neighboring Countries

**I. Landforms**



// 1) Black Sea- // The Black Sea is an inland sea surrounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus It is connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and various straits. The Bosporus strait connects Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects Black Sea to the Aegean Sea region of the Mediterranean. These waters separate eastern Europe and western Asia. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a maximum depth of 2,206 m, and a volume of 547,000 km // 2) Arctic Ocean- // The Arctic Ocean is located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region. It is smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions. Surrounded by Eurasia and North America, the Arctic Ocean is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year. The Arctic Ocean's temperature and salinity vary seasonally because the ice cover melts and freezes.

// 3) Caucasus Mountain- // The Caucasus Mountains is in Eurasia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus region. The Caucasus Mountains are made up of the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range and the Lesser Caucasus Mountains.The Greater Caucasus Range extends from the Caucasian Natural Reserve on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea. The Lesser Caucasus runs parallel to the greater range. The Meskheti Range is a part of the Lesser Caucasus system. The Greater and Lesser Caucasus ranges are connected by the Likhi Range.

// 4) Caspian Sea- //  The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, known as the world's largest lake. The sea has a surface area of 371,000 km2 and a volume of 78,200 km3. It has no outflows, which is why this is not considered a sea. And it is bounded by northern Iran, southern Russia, western Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and eastern Azerbaijan. It has a maximum depth of about 1,025 m. It has a salinity of 1.2%.

5) Volga River- The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia. It is considered the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven cities are situated in the Volga's basin.

// 6) Ural Mountain- // The Ural Mountains runs through western Russia. They are usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia. Also known as the Great Stone Belt in Russian history and folklore

7) Ob River- The Ob is a major river in western Siberia, Russia. It is the fourth longest river in Russia. The Ob is formed southwest of Biysk by the confluence of the Biya and Katun rivers. It is used mostly for irrigation, drinking water, hydroelectric energy, and fishing. Ob River contains than 50 species of fish. // 8) Lena River- // It is located east of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean (the other two are Ob River and the Yenisei River). Its watershed is entirely within national ranges. The total length is 4,400 km. The area of the Lena river basin is 2,490,000 km2 The Lena River appears to be the longest river in the world when viewed on a map using a Mercator projection.

9) Lake Baikal- Lake Baikal is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world with an average depth of 744.4 m. It contains 20 percent of the world's surface fresh water. It is located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia. The body of water is also called "Pearl of Siberia". It is more than 25 million years old, one of the world's oldest lakes. It was formed as an ancient rift valley with a surface area of 31,722 km2

// 10) Siberian Plateau- // The Central Siberian Plateau is located in Siberia between the Yenisei and Lena rivers. It extends over an area of 3.5 million km². The highest point is the Putoran Mountains of 1701 m. At the north, there are the Putoran Mountains and at the south are the Eastern Sayan and the Baikal Mountains. To the east there is land of the Yakuts. The climate is short warm summers and long and very cold winters. Most of the territory is covered with conifer forests; larch is most common. The plateau's major river is the Lower Tunguska. The mineral resources are very rich and include coal, iron ore, gold, diamonds and natural gas.

11) Kamchatka Peninsula-  The Kamchatka Peninsula is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of 472,300 km². It lies between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west. The Kamchatka peninsula contains the Volcanoes of Kamchatka, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Kamchatka receives up to 2,700 millimeters (110 in) of precipitation per year. The summers are moderately cool, and the winters tend to be rather stormy with rare amounts of lightning. The Kamchatka River and the surrounding central valley contain around 160 volcanoes, 29 of them still active. The highest volcano is Klyuchevskaya Sopka (4,750 m), the largest active volcano in the Northern Hemisphere. Kronotsky is considered the world's most beautiful volcano. More accessible volcanoes visible from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky are Koryaksky, Avachinsky, and Kozelsky. // 12) Pacific Ocean // largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east. Has an area of 169.2 million km2 and covers about 46% of the Earth's water surface and about 30% of its total surface. The equator subdivides it into the North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean **China** landforms are mostly mountainous. It also have high plateaus and major deserts in the west and hills in the east. There are elevation extremes such as lowest point in Turpan Pendi (154 m) and highest point at Mount Everest (8,850m) Only 14.86% of China's land is arable, which means that small percentage of land could be used to feed people. Also, Chinese use 545,960 sq km of the land to irrigate. China can be divided into 3 distinct physical regions 1. River Lowland 2. Arid China 3. Highland China The map below shows some prominent features of China's landform It has many mountains as I have mentioned before and it also has deserts and plains.



Poland



Russia is divided into a European and an Asian part. The dividing line is the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea. The European part is drained into the Arctic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Black Sea and Caspian Sea. The Asian part is into the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. In Europe, there are the Volga River, Don River, Kama River, Oka River and the Northern Dvina. While several other rivers originate in Russia but they flow into other countries, such as the Dniepr and the Western Dvina. In Asia, important rivers are the Ob, Irtysh, Yenisey, Angara River, Lena, Amur, Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma.

Above is the Volga River. It is the largest river in Europe and flows through central Russia.

Main Rivers in China are Followings: South China Sea - Mekong - Xijiang - Yujiang - Guijiang East China Sea - Qiantang River - Huangpu River - Yangtze River Yellow Sea - Wu River - Huai - Yi - Yalu

Main Rivers in Poland are Following Baltic Sea
 * Oder (Odra)
 * Rega
 * Parsęta
 * Wieprza
 * Słupia
 * Łeba
 * Reda
 * Pasłęka



Picture above is Rega River. Located in Zachodniopomorskie Lakeland and Szczecinski Coastland. Its length is 168 km and the drainage basin is 2725 square km.

The Kuril Islands in Russia's Sakhalin Oblast region, is a volcanic archipelago that stretches approximately 1,300 km. It extends northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many more minor rocks. The Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands. It has an area of 17,666 km²and extending about 1,200 1,931 km westward from the Alaska Peninsula to the Kamchatka Peninsula. Nearly all the archipelago is part of Alaska and usually considered as being in the "Alaskan Bush", but at the extreme western end the small, geologically-related, and remote Commander Islands are in Russia. The islands, with their 57 volcanoes, are in the northern part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. The Alaska Marine Highway passes through the islands.
 * III. major islands and island chains. **
 * IV. Type of climate of the region

**  Russia has a largely continental climate. Most of its land is more than 400 km from the sea, and the center is 3,840 km from the sea. The mountain ranges block moderating temperatures from the Indian and Pacific oceans, but European Russia and northern Siberia lack such topographic protection from the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans.

The average yearly temperature of nearly all of European Russia is below freezing. The average for most of Siberia is freezing or below. Most of Russia has only two seasons, summer and winter, with very short intervals of moderation between them. The moderate climate of Kaliningrad Oblast on the Baltic Sea is similar to American Northwest. The far East has a climate that reverses the direction of wind in summer and winter.

The average January temperatures are -8°C in St. Petersburg, -27°C in the West Siberian Plain, and -43°C at Yakutsk. Summer temperatures are more affected by latitude. The Arctic islands average 4°C, and the southernmost regions average 20°C. Russia's potential for temperature extremes is typified by the national record low of -94°C, recorded at Verkhoyansk in north-central Siberia and the record high of 38°C, recorded at several southern stations.

The long, cold winter has a profound impact on almost every aspect of life in the Russian Federation. It affects where and how long people live and work, what kinds of crops are grown, and where they are grown. Depending on how long and severe the winters are, people have to adjust to special requirements on many branches of the economy.

Most of the country receives moderate amounts of precipitation. Highest precipitation falls in the northwest, with amounts decreasing from northwest to southeast across European Russia. Along the Baltic coast, average annual precipitation is 600 millimeters, and in Moscow it is 525 millimeters. An average of only twenty millimeters falls along the Russian-Kazak border, and as little as fifteen millimeters may fall along Siberia's Arctic coastline.

In China, the climate is also very diverse. It is tropical in south and subarctic in the north. In Poland, it has winter and summer. Winter is cold, cloudy, moderately sever with frequent precipitation. The summers are mile with frequent rain and thundershowers



Works Cited ** [] [|http://www.geographic.org/geography/geography.html] [|http://staff.harrisonburg.k12.va.us/~cwalton/mapquizrussia.htm] [|http://cache.virtualtourist.com/275300-Volga_River-Samara.jpg] [|http://homepages.stmartin.edu/fac_staff/rlangill/HIS%20217%20maps/China%20physical%20map1.jpg] [|http://expats-in-poland.com/pictures/poland_map2.JPG] [|https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pl.html] [|http://german.china.org.cn/english/en-shuzi2004/zr/dltz-hl.htm] [|http://gim3byd.prace.cyberfair.pl/ang/polska/arzeki.html] [|http://pixdaus.com/pics/1246333872EEDXjZq.jpg] [|http://www.meteorologyclimate.com/climate-map.jpg]