Prelims ask
Four countries. Ob and Irtysh. Belukha.
Asia · Re-uplifted fold
Altai
- Countries
- Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia.
- Length
- About 2,000 km.
- Orientation
- Northwest–southeast.
- Mountain type
- Re-uplifted fold
- Plates
- Paleozoic rocks, broken and lifted again. Not a primary Alpine-age geosyncline like the Himalaya.
- Highest peak
- Belukha, 4,506 m, Russia.
- Rivers that rise here
- The Ob begins at the Biya–Katun confluence in the Russian Altai. The Irtysh rises in the Mongolian–Chinese Altai.
- Climate and rain shadow
- A watershed between Arctic drainage (Ob) and the interior basins of Central Asia.
Mains use
Use for ‘old rocks, new uplift’, and for the Arctic-bound rivers of Siberia.