17 Interesting Facts about Russian Geography
We love cool facts and we love to share with our tourists fun facts about Russia.
Here are 17 Interesting Facts about the geography of Russia. Where is the center of Russia, how big is Russia, is it a European or an Asian country?
Even if you are planning tours to Moscow or St Petersburg, you need to know these facts.
17 Facts about Russian Geography
1. Russia is the largest country in the world with an area of 17,075,400 square kilometers. It is 1.8 times bigger than the United States. The territory of Russia almost covers the surface of the planet Pluto. Russia is the seventh of the Earth’s land area. Forests cover about 60% of the country.
2. The New Zealand city of Dunedin is the most remote from Moscow settlement on Earth.
3. The border between Kazakhstan and Russia is the longest continuous land border in the world.
4. Lake Vivi is the geographical center of Russia, located on the 66 ° C. w. and at 94 °. e., to the north of Arkhangelsk city and the east of Krasnoyarsk city.
5. Russia has the world’s largest active volcano Kluchevskoy. Its height is 4 kilometers 850 meters. A column of ash from the volcano rises 8 kilometers into the air. With each eruption, it becomes higher. Kluchevskoy volcano has been erupting for the last 7000 years.
6. The largest swamp in the world is the Russian Great Vasyugan swamp. With an area of 53–55 thousand square kilometers.
5. Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway in the world. Great Siberian Way that connects Moscow to Vladivostok, has a length of 9298 kilometers, crosses eight time zones, 16 rivers, including the Volga and passes through 87 cities and towns and crosses.
6. Russia is considered a European country, but two-thirds of the country is in Asia
7. Siberian Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world and the largest source of fresh water on the planet. Lake Baikal contains 23 cubic kilometers of water. All the major rivers of the world — the Volga, Don, Dnieper, Yenisey, Ural, Ob, the Ganges, the Orinoco, the Amazon, the Thames, the Seine and Oder should flow almost a year to fill the pool equal to the volume of Lake Baikal.
8. Russia is the only country which territory is bordered by twelve seas.
9. Russia is separated from America by 4 kilometers. This is distance between the island Ratmanova (Russia) and the island Krusenstern (USA) in the Bering Strait.
10. Ural Mountains are the oldest mountains in the world. The mountain Pencil is 4, 2 billion years old. Historical names of the Ural Mountains are Big Stone, Siberian Stone, Earth Belt, Belt Stone. Once the Ural mountains were very high, but now only the base is left.
11. In Russia, there are 103 reserve, 70 sanctuaries and 43 giant national parks. The total area of protected areas in Russia is almost 600 thousand square kilometers, accounting for 4% of the total area of the country, or a little more that the territory of France.
12. The area of Siberia is 9 million 734.3 thousand square kilometers, accounting for 9% of the Earth’s land, or the whole territory of China.
13. Siberian taiga is the world’s largest forest.
14. The West Siberian Plain is the largest plain in the world.
15. Lake Mogilnoe in the Murmansk region is unique for its four layers of varying degrees of salinity. In the uppermost layer of freshwater live daphnia and copepods. At the lowest layer, where the salinity reaches 3.3%, purple bacteria are the only inhabitants. In the middle layers are typical sea creatures, such as sea stars. They are kind of trapped as they can not live either in the upper layer or lower layer. Mogilnoe Lake is 1000 years old.
16. Russia ranks first in the world in oil and gas, exports of steel, primary aluminum, nitrogen fertilizers.
17. Russia has borders with 16 countries: Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Japan and the United States. Russia is also bordered by two unrecognized states: South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
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Original source: https://friendlylocalguides.com/blog/interesting-facts-about-russian-geography
