Chersky Range
The Chersky Range is a chain of mountains in northeastern Siberia between the Yana and Indigirka Rivers. Administratively, the area of the range belongs to the Sakha Republic, although a small section in the east is within Magadan Oblast. The highest peak in the range is the Peak Pobeda, part of the Ulakhan-Chistay Range. The range also includes important places of traditional Yakut culture, such as Ynnakh Mountain and kigilyakh rock formations.
The Moma Natural Park is a protected area located in the southern zone of the range.
History
At some time between 1633 and 1642, Poznik Ivanov ascended a tributary of the lower Lena, crossed the Verkhoyansk Range to the upper Yana, and then crossed the Chersky Range to the Indigirka. The range was sighted in 1926 by and named by the Russian Geographical Society after the Polish explorer and geographer Ivan Chersky.Geography
The geographic boundaries of the mountain system are the Yana–Oymyakon Highlands in the southwest, the Upper Kolyma Highlands in the southeast, and the Momo-Selennyakh Depression in the northeast.Subranges
The system of the Chersky Range comprises a number of subranges running generally from northwest to southeast, including the following:Between the Yana and Indigirka rivers:
- Burkat Range, highest point
- Khadaranya Range, highest point
- Ymiysky Range, highest point
- Kisilyakh Range, highest point, by the confluence of the Adycha and the Yana
- Tas-Khayakhtakh, highest point
- Kurundya Range, highest point
- Dogdo Range, highest point
- Chemalgin Range, highest point
- Yana-Oymyakon Highlands
- *Elgi Plateau, highest point
- *Oymyakon Plateau, highest point
- *Yana Plateau, highest point
- *Tirekhtyakh Range and Nelgesin Range, between the Adycha and Sartang rivers
- Ulakhan-Chistay, highest point, near the southern end
- Okhandya Range, highest point, the highest point of Magadan Oblast.
- Cherge Range, highest point
- Angachak Range, highest point
- Arga-Tas, highest point
- Chibagalakh Range, highest point
- Onyol Range, highest point
- Borong Range, highest point
- Nendelgin Range, highest point
- Porozhny Range, highest point
- Silyap Range, highest point Mount Chyon
- Tas-Kystabyt, highest point
- Khalkan Range, highest point, a southern prolongation of Tas-Kystabyt
In some works, a few roughly-parallel ranges located off the main system to the northeast, such as the Kyun-Tas Range, the Selennyakh Range, and the adjacent Moma Range, with the Moma-Selennyakh Depression running along their western side, are included in the Chersky mountain system.
Other ranges of the system include the Irgichin Range, Inyalin Range, Volchan Range, Silen Range, and Polyarny Range, among others.
Hydrography
The Chersky System includes three main river basins:- Yana River, covering the western and northwestern parts of the mountain system. It includes rivers Oldzho and Adycha with its tributaries Tuostakh and Charky.
- Indigirka River, covering the northeastern, central, and southwestern parts of the system, with rivers Selennyakh, Moma, and Nera, among others.
- Kolyma River, covering the eastern, southeastern, and southern parts of the system, with rivers Zyryanka, Rassokha, Omulyovka, Yasachnaya, Taskan, Debin, and Byoryolyokh, among others.
Tectonics
The range lies on the boundary between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.The precise nature of the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in the area of the Chersky Range is still not fully understood and is the subject of ongoing research. By the 1980s, the Chersky Range was considered mostly a zone of continental rifting where the crust was spreading apart. However, the current view is that the Chersky Range is mostly an active suture zone, a continental convergent plate boundary, where compression is occurring as the two plates press against each other. There is thought to be a point in the Chersky Range where the extensional forces coming from the north change to the compressional forces noted throughout most of the range. The Chersky Range is also thought to include a geologic triple junction where the Ulakhan Fault intersects the suture zone. Whatever the exact nature of the regional tectonics, the Chersky Range is seismically active. It connects in the north with the landward extension of the Laptev Sea Rift, itself a continental extension of the Mid-Arctic Gakkel Ridge.