3. Russia is the largest country in the world. Nearly
twice as big as the USA.
4. In both total land area and geographic extent, Russia overs
about 6.6 million square miles. It stretches across Europe and Asia.
5.
6. Russia is a vast and varied land of plains divided and
bordered by mountain ranges, tundra, subarctic forests,
and wide rivers and seas. Within the borders of
Russia’s bounty that the wilderness seems boundless.
7. The Ural Mountains mark the traditional boundary between
European Russia and Asian Russia.
8.
9. The Urals are an old, worn down series of mountain ranges with
an average height of about 2,000 feet.
10. The Urals are rich in iron ore , oil and natural gas.
11. The Urals are rich in iron ore , oil and natural gas.
12. The Caucasus Mountains stretch from the Caspian to the Black
Sea. They are also part of the boundary between Europe and
Asia Russia.
44. Russia’s water systems include long coastlines, seas, and lakes
that provide access to other parts of the world. Russian rivers are
also important for economic activities in the country.
45. Russia has the longest continuous coastline, stretching 23,400
miles, touching both the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.
64. Lake Baikal is the third-largest lake in Asia and the deepest
freshwater lake in the world
65. Lake Baikal is nearly 400 miles long, 40 miles (64 km) wide, and
over 1 mile deep.
66. It is estimated to contain about 20 percent of the Earth’s total
supply of freshwater.
67. Most of Russia’s longest rivers — which carry 84 percent of the
country’s water — are located in Siberia, where only 25 percent of
the Russian people live.
101. Russia’s cold climate results in only about 10 percent of its land
able to have farming.
102. This is enough farmland to support the population with grains
and vegetables. Puttin has doubled grain production over the past
10 years.
103. In the north and east, permafrost, a permanently frozen layer of
soil, lies beneath the surface of the ground.
104. A wide, fertile band called the Black Earth Belt covers about 250
million acres stretching stretches from Ukraine to southwestern
Siberia.
105. A wide, fertile band called the Black Earth Belt covers about 250
million acres stretching stretches from Ukraine to southwestern
Siberia.
106. About one-fifth of the world’s forest lands lie in Russia — 75
percent of them in Siberia.
107. The Russian Boreal forest is second only to the Amazon rain forest
in the amount of oxygen returned to the atmosphere.
108. The Russian boreal forests also supply much of the world’s
timber, mainly pine, fir, spruce, and cedar.
109. As a result of commercial logging, and wildfires, however,
Russian forests shrink by almost 40 million acres (16 million ha)
each year — a rate of loss higher than that of the Amazon Basin.
110. Fish are important to the Russian diet and economy. Salmon from
the Pacific Ocean and herring, cod, and halibut from the Arctic
Ocean support a flourishing fishing industry.
111. However, the supply of world-famous Russian caviar, or salted
fish eggs, has declined.
112. Dams built on the Volga River have interrupted the migration of
sturgeon, the fish that provide the eggs for caviar.
113. Sturgeon is often fished illegally to meet the global demand for
this delicacy.