Verkhoyansk Range


The Verkhoyansk Range is a mountain range in the Sakha Republic, Russia. It is part of the East Siberian Mountains.
The range lies just west of the boundary of the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates. The mountains were formed by folding, and represent an anticline.
The Verkhoyansk Range was covered by glaciers during the Last Glacial Period and the mountains in the northern section, such as the Orulgan Range, display a typical Alpine relief.
There are coal, silver, lead, tin and zinc deposits in the mountains.

Geography

Rising from the shores of the Buor-Khaya Gulf in the north, it runs southwards spanning roughly 1000 km across Yakutia, east of the Central Yakutian Lowland, and west of the Chersky Range, reaching the Lena Plateau to the south and the Yudoma-Maya Highlands to the southeast. It forms a vast arc between the Lena and Aldan rivers to the west and the Yana River to the east. Its highest point is an unnamed high peak in the middle section of the range.
The Verkhoyansk Range has a higher southeastern prolongation, the Suntar-Khayata Range, that is occasionally considered as a separate range system. Thus the highest point of the range in a restricted geographical sense is an unnamed peak in the Orulgan Range. The Skalisty Range, highest point, and the Sette-Daban, highest point, are located at the SE end and were also considered separate ranges in classical geographic works. The two ranges were surveyed in 1934 by geologist Yuri Bilibin together with mining engineer Evgeny Bobin in the course of an expedition sent by the government of the Soviet Union. After conducting the first topographic survey of the area Bilibin established that the Skalisty and Sette-Daban mountain chains belong to the Verkhoyansk Mountain System. Bilibin and Bobin also explored for the first time the Yudoma-Maya Highlands, directly adjacent to Sette-Daban.

Subranges

Besides the Orulgan, the system of the range comprises a number of subranges, including the following:
;Northern section —north of the Arctic Circle
;Southern section —south of the Arctic Circle
;Southern section
;Southern section
;Far southern section
The world's lowest temperatures for inhabited places have been recorded in this region, and there is quite deep snow cover for most of the year.
The mountain range is home to an alpine tundra, supporting various species of mosses and lichens. Some sparsely-wooded forests of mainly larch and dwarf Siberian pine are found on smooth slopes.