Dzhugdzhur Mountains


The Dzhugdzhur Mountains or Jugjur Mountains, meaning 'big bulge' in Evenki, are a mountain range in the far east of Siberia that run along the entire northwest coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. In the east, mountains emerge from the Stanovoy Range and run northeast for some 1500 kilometers before splitting three ways into the Chersky Range, Verkhoyansk Mountains, and Gydan Mountains. The mountains are quite deserted, the one exception being the gold mines that have operated in the range since the 1920s.

Geology

The range was formed by an asymmetrical fold. The southwestern half of the mountains is composed of gneiss and granite from the Precambrian, while the northeast contains Mesozoic shale and limestone as well as Cretaceous and Paleocene igneous rock.

Ecology and Climate

The coastal stretch of the range is populated by Japanese stone pine and Dahurian larch. Parts of the range occupied by the Okhotsk-Manchurian taiga ecoregion contain swathes of Jezo spruce up to elevations of 1,300 m.
The climate is wet and cold, with wet rainy summers and severe winters.

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