The relief and minerals of Eurasia are very diverse. Geomorphologists very often call this continent the continent of contrasts. The geological structure, relief of the continent, as well as the distribution of minerals in Eurasia will be discussed in detail in this article.
Mainland Eurasia: geological structure
Eurasia is the largest continent of our planet. 36% of the land and about 70% of the earth's population is concentrated here. Almost all the continents of the Earth, in fact, are fragments of two ancient supercontinents - Laurasia and Gondwana. But not Eurasia. After all, it was formed from several lithospheric blocks that converged for a long time and, finally, soldered into a single whole by locks of folded belts.
The mainland consists of a number of geosynclinal areas and platforms: East European, Siberian, West Siberian, West European and others. In Siberia, in Tibet, as well as in the area of Lake Baik althe earth's crust is cut by a huge number of cracks and faults.
In different geological epochs, folded belts of Eurasia arose and formed. The Pacific and Alpine-Himalayan are the largest of them. They are considered young (that is, their formation has not yet ended). It is these belts that include the largest mountain systems of the mainland - the Alps, the Himalayas, the Caucasus Mountains and others.
Some parts of the mainland are areas of high seismic activity (such as Central Asia or the Balkan Peninsula). Powerful earthquakes are observed here with considerable frequency. Eurasia also boasts the largest number of active volcanoes.
The minerals of the continent are closely related to its geological structures. But we will talk about them further.
General features of the relief of Eurasia
The relief and minerals of Eurasia are extremely diverse. They formed in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, within several ancient platforms connected by mobile folding areas.
Eurasia is the second highest continent on the planet with an average height of 830 meters above sea level. Only Antarctica is higher, and even then only due to the powerful ice shell. The highest mountains and the largest plains are located in Eurasia. And the total number of them is much greater than on other continents of the Earth.
Eurasia is characterized by the maximum possible amplitude (difference) of absolute heights. This is where the highest peak is.planets - Mount Everest (8850 m) and the lowest point in the world - the level of the Dead Sea (-399 meters).
Mountains and plains of Eurasia
Almost 65% of the territory of Eurasia is occupied by mountains, plateaus and uplands. The rest belongs to the plains. The five largest mountain systems on the mainland by area:
- Himalayas.
- Caucasus.
- Alps.
- Tien Shan.
- Altai.
The Himalayas is the highest mountain range not only in Eurasia, but of the entire planet. They occupy about 650 thousand square kilometers of area. It is here that the “roof of the world” is located - Mount Chomolungma (Everest). Throughout history, 4469 climbers have conquered this peak.
The Tibetan Plateau is also located on this mainland - the largest in the world. It occupies a huge area - two million square kilometers. Many famous rivers of Asia (Mekong, Yangtze, Indus and others) originate in the Tibetan Plateau. Thus, this is another geomorphological record that Eurasia can boast of.
Minerals of Eurasia, by the way, often occur precisely in folding zones. So, for example, the bowels of the Carpathian Mountains are very rich in oil. And in the mountains of the Urals, precious minerals are actively mined - sapphires, rubies and other stones.
There are also many plains and lowlands in Eurasia. Among them is another record - the East European Plain, which is considered the largest on the planet. It stretches from the Carpathians to the Caucasus for almost 2,500 thousand kilometers. Within this plain, in whole or in part, is locatedtwelve states.
Relief of Eurasia: highlights and interesting facts
Behind the impressive orographic records, it is very easy to miss the smaller, but no less interesting features of the mainland. In the relief of Eurasia there are, in fact, all forms of relief known to modern science. Caves and karst mines, karsts and fjords, ravines and river valleys, dunes and dunes - all this can be seen within the largest continent of the Earth.
Slovenia is home to the famous Karst Plateau, whose geological features gave their name to a whole group of specific landforms. Within this small limestone plateau, there are several dozen beautiful caves.
There are many volcanoes in Eurasia, both active and extinct. Klyuchevskaya Sopka, Etna, Vesuvius and Fujiyama are the most famous of them. But on the Crimean Peninsula you can see unique mud volcanoes (on the Kerch Peninsula) or the so-called failed volcanoes. A vivid example of the latter is the well-known mountain Ayu-Dag.
Mineral resources of the mainland
Eurasia ranks first in the world in terms of total reserves of many mineral resources. In particular, the bowels of the mainland are extremely rich in oil, gas and non-ferrous metal ores.
In the mountains, as well as on the shields (protrusions of the platform foundations) of Eurasia, solid deposits of iron and manganese ores, as well as tin, tungsten, platinum and silver are concentrated. To deflections of foundationsancient platforms are confined to huge reserves of fuel mineral resources - oil, gas, coal and oil shale. Thus, the largest oil fields are being developed in the Persian Gulf, on the Arabian Peninsula, in the shelf of the North Sea; natural gas - in Western Siberia; coal - within the East European Plain and Hindustan.
What else is rich in Eurasia? Minerals of non-metallic type are also extremely common on the mainland. So, on the island of Sri Lanka is the world's largest deposit of rubies. Diamonds are mined in Yakutia, granite of the highest quality is mined in Ukraine and Transbaikalia, sapphires and emeralds are mined in India.
In general, the main minerals of Eurasia are oil, gas, iron ore, manganese, uranium, tungsten, diamonds and coal. The mainland is unrivaled in the production of many of these resources worldwide.
Mineral resources of Eurasia: table and main deposits
It is worth noting that the mineral resources of the mainland are extremely uneven. Some states are frankly lucky in this regard (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, China, etc.), while others are not very lucky (like, for example, Japan). Listed below are the most important minerals of Eurasia. The table also contains information about the largest deposits of certain mineral resources on the mainland.
| Mineral resource (type) | Mineral resource | Largest deposits |
| Fuel | Oil | Al Ghawar (Saudi Arabia); Rumaila (Iraq); Daqing (China); Samotlor (Russia) |
| Fuel | Natural gas | Urengoyskoye and Yamburgskoye (Russia); Galkynysh (Turkmenistan); Aghajari (Iran) |
| Fuel | Coal | Kuznetsk, Donetsk, Karaganda basins |
| Fuel | Oil Shale | Bazhenovskoe (Russia), Boltyshskoe (Ukraine), Mollaro (Italy), Nordlinger-Ries (Germany) |
| Rudny | Iron ore | Krivoy Rog (Ukraine), Kustanai (Kazakhstan) basins; Kursk magnetic anomaly (Russia); Kirunawara (Sweden) |
| Rudny | Manganese | Nikopolskoe (Ukraine), Chiatura (Georgia), Usinskoe (Russia) |
| Rudny | Uranium ore | India, China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Romania, Ukraine |
| Rudny | Copper | October and Norilsk (Russia), Rudna and Lubin (Poland) |
| Nonmetallic | Diamonds | Russia (Siberia, Yakutia) |
| Nonmetallic | Granite | Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Sweden, India |
| Nonmetallic | Amber | Russia (Kaliningrad region), Ukraine (Rivne region) |
In closing
The largest continent on our planet is Eurasia. The minerals of this continent are very diverse. The world's largest reserves of oil, natural gas, iron and manganese ore are concentrated here. The bowels of the mainland contain a large amount of copper, uranium, lead, gold, coal, precious and semi-precious stones.
