General Information

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The Sakha Republic (Yakutia) is the largest federal subject of Russia. The total area of Yakutia comes to 3,103,200 km², and it covers almost the entire northeastern part of the Asian continent, stretching 2000 kilometers from the north to the south, and 2500 kilometers from the east to the west.

Almost 80% of the territory lies to the north of 600 of the northern latitude, and over 40 per cent sprawls across the polar circle. The capital of the republic, Yakutsk, is located 6875 kilometers away from Moscow, and 1814 kilometers from Vladivostok...

Time zones

There are three different time zones: Yakutsk Time Zone (6 hours ahead of Moscow time / 10 hours ahead of Greenwich) in west and central part of Yakutia, Vladivostok Time Zone. (+7/+11) between 127°E and 140°E longitude, and Magadan Time Zone (+8/+12) in east of 140°E longitude.

Borders

Yakutia borders the Krasnoyarski region on the west and Irkutskaya oblast on the southwest, and reaches south to Chitinskaya and Amurskaya oblast, southeast to Khabarovsky region and east to Magadanskaya oblast. The northern border runs through the East Siberian and the Laptev sea , including the Novosibirski Islands . The land frontiers run through difficult to access mountainous regions, and practically do touch upon the natural border lines. Yakutia is located on a considerable distance from the Atlantic ocean and is fenced in by mountains from the Pacific. It is constantly exposed to the cold arctic air masses. Such geographical location along with the enormous area that it covers and the complex topography strongly influence the natural conditions.

Landforms

Today's landform of Yakutia developed under the influences of the alpine orogenesis, the age-old fluctuations of the earth's crust, the running waters, glaciers, thermokarst and other natural processes.
The territory of Yakutia is primarily composed of two largest tectonic structures, the Siberian platform and the Verhoyansko-Chukotski belt of the Mesozoic folding. The topography, and the character and conditions of the rock bedding on the area of the republic are not uniform, over 70 per cent of Yakutia's surface is covered by mountains and highlands.

Orogenesis processes, especially in the eastern and southern parts of Yakutia, of the Siberian highland caused the intensified flow of the running waters (splitting the surface with river valleys). The fall of the temperature and the formation of glaciers in the mountains, and of the permafrost affected the today's landforms. The thawing of the permafrost leads to the development of the lakustrine and other thermokarst landforms, and the glaciers leave moraine undulating landforms behind. Orographic features of the certain parts of Yakutia strongly influence the climate, the permafrost, the soil, the vegetation, animal life, the allocation of the mineral wealth, grasslands and pastures, as well as the economic activities of the people.
Yakutia is washed by the Laptev and the East Siberian seas, the coldest seas of the Arctic . In the winter, the water temperature beneath a layer of ice varies from –0,80 C in the river estuaries to –1,80 C at the northern borders of the seas. In the summer the surface water temperature in the bays comes up to 100 C and even to 140, and decreases to 00 C, -10 C in the open sea. For 9 to 10 months the Laptev and the East Siberian seas are completely covered with a 1,5 to 2 m thick layer of ice.

Rivers and lakes

The territory of Yakutia is rich in surface waters. There are more then 443 thousand of larger and smaller rivers, the total length of which amount to 1,5 million kilometers. The largest being the Lena river, which ranks among the 10 largest rivers of the world (with its total length of 4400 kilometers). There are over 672 thousand lakes with the total area of 67 thousand square kilometers in the republic. Most of them are shallow and are predominately of the thermokarst origin. Marshes and waterlogged lands account for 10per cent of the republic's territory. Over a hundred outlets of the underground springs are found in the republic, most of these are said to have healing powers. Besides the rivers, lakes and marshes, there are glaciers and ice mounds.

The lakes spread out unevenly on the territory of the republic. Most of them are found on the vast lowlands and on the highlands with difficult drainage conditions. The highest density of lakes (10-20per cent) is observed in the river basins of the Kolymskaya lowland. There are virtually no lakes (less then 0,1per cent) in the mountainous regions, which are better drained by the rivers.

Permafrost

Yakutia, except for its southwestern part, lies in the continuous permafrost zone. During summer, the surface soil layer thaws at a depth of 0, 4 to 3 ,5 m, the rest of it stays permanently frozen. It is the permafrost that creates conditions for the growth of vegetation, because the amount of precipitation in Yakutia equals to that of the semi-desert zone. Taiga covers 72% of the territory, the remaining territory is covered with forest-tundra, tundra, and the arctic desert. The animal life and vegetation of Yakutia is diverse. The grass cover of the river valleys and the numerous drying lakes create conditions for livestock farming.

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