Landscape

In a general Chukotka’s looks had already formed by the beginning of glaciations of the forth period. And today we can see the same scenery the way it was first seen by the Russian pioneers: simple contours of the coasts and mountains, straight valleys as if cut out with a chisel, free open spaces of lowlands as if flowing into endless seas…

Geographically speaking, Chukotka is a space system unity whose main factors are: location in high latitudes, low mountain relief and the fact that it is surrounded by two oceans. Chukotka prevailing symmetry is a wegde pointing to the East and surrounded by two oceans.

The stem of the wegde is the Anyuisk-Chukotka mountainous-and-tundra upland (highest point is 1887 meters). This is a dividing belt between the basins of the Pacific and the Arctic oceans. The upland consists of a number of ridges which are cut through by wide valleys.

Extremely water-logged Anadyr lowland lies in the central part of the region. Anadyr plateau, the center of the most important ridges and rivers which diverge in all directions, lies north-west of Anadyr. In the very South of the Okrug there is another large upland - Koryak (its northern part). The South-West of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug is occupied with the eastern part of Yukagir plateau with altitudes from 500 to 700 meters. In the northern part, along the sea coast there are Cheunsk and Vankaremsk lowlands.

Mountaneous "tundra" soils prevail. Gley, marsh-gley and peat-and-gley soils prevail in the lowlands; in river valleys and in sparse forests gley-podsolic soils can be found. Alluvial and peat-podsolic soils of river valleys, including the Anadyr River, are the best for agriculture and farming.

Recent and relic ice diversity makes Chukotka a unique place. There are thick sheet deposits, ice veins, up to 50 meters in vertical length and underground ice of stone glaciers. Moreover one may often come across buried remains of ancient glaciers, injection ice of heaving hillocks and various cave ice.