Relief of Ukraine: features, main features and characteristics

The relief of Ukraine is very diverse. There are almost everything: mountains and plains, caves, canyons, remnants of coral reefs and even sand dunes! What are the main features of the relief of Ukraine? What minerals are found in the bowels of this country? Read about this in our article.

Features of the relief of Ukraine and its main forms

Most of the country is within the largest structure - the East European Plain. Only in the west and in the extreme south of Ukraine do mountains of medium height rise. In general, about 95% of the territory is the plains, and only 5% are occupied by mountain ranges and massifs.

Characteristic of the relief of Ukraine is impossible without mentioning its highest and lowest point on the earth's surface. So, in the Ukrainian Carpathians, on the administrative border of Transcarpathian and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, is the highest mountain of the country - Goverla. Its absolute height is 2061 meters. Every year thousands of Ukrainians make an ascent to its summit. But in the vicinity of Kuyalnytsky estuary (Odessa region) is the lowest point of Ukraine (minus 5 meters from sea level).

The Earth's surface on the territory of modern Ukraine was formed for millions of years, during many geological epochs. Its development was also influenced by the latest tectonic movements, and several powerful glaciations. Thanks to this, the Ukraine's topography attracts great and genuine interest among the researchers. In the twentieth century, the rapid economic activity of man left its imprint on him.

The forms of the relief of Ukraine are striking in their diversity. Here there are mountains and plains, lowlands and hills. Karst, slope, aeolian, water-erosion, glacial and biogenic - all of the listed forms of relief can be found in different parts of this country.

General characteristic of the relief of Ukraine

In terms of orography, the entire territory of Ukraine can be conditionally divided into two parts: the right bank, where the absolute height of the terrain is over 200 meters, and the left bank, whose absolute height rarely exceeds 200 meters above sea level.

The main features of the relief of Ukraine in the right-bank part are the abundance of hilly elevations, significant differences in absolute altitudes on the terrain, and a significant spread of karst forms. On the left bank, the aligned parts of the earth's surface predominate, with well-developed river valleys and a dense network of beams and gullies.

Almost the entire northern part of Ukraine is occupied by the Polesie lowland with average heights of 100-250 meters. Only in the north of Zhytomyr is the Slovene-Ovruch ridge with a maximum height of 316 meters. Among the forests and marshes of this lowland, there are often glacial and eolian relief forms.

The greater part of Western Ukraine is occupied by the Podolsky Upland, as well as by a number of low-mountain massifs (Voronyaki, Gologory and others). Here is located Khotyn Upland with the highest point of the flat part of the country - Mount Berda (515 meters).

The relief of the eastern part of Ukraine is mostly flat. This monotony slightly dilutes the Donetsk ridge, Priazovskaya, and also the Central Russian Upland, whose spurs enter the territory of the country in the northeast. Almost the entire south of Ukraine (and also the northern part of the Crimean peninsula) occupies an extensive Black Sea lowland, whose average heights range from 80 to 120 meters.

The relief of Ukraine is represented not only by plains, but also by mountain massifs. In the extreme west of the country are the Ukrainian Carpathians, consisting of several parallel ridges.

Briefly about the minerals of the country

Ukraine is among the top ten world states in terms of total reserves of mineral and raw materials. The main wealth of the country is iron ore with a rather high content of ferrum. Its main deposits are concentrated within the Krivoy Rog iron ore basin. The extraction of ore here since the end of the XIX century.

In general, in Ukraine there are over 20 thousand deposits of more than hundreds of different minerals. Among them, stone and brown coal, native sulfur, natural gas, potassium salt, iron and manganese ore, phosphorites, granites, marls, amber and others.

The relief and minerals of Ukraine are very closely related. So, the main reserves of coal are concentrated within the Donetsk ridge, oil and gas - on the Poltava plain. Large protuberances of iron and manganese ores are confined to the protrusions of the crystal shield on the Dnieper Upland. The subsoil of the Podolsky Upland is extremely rich in various building materials.

Podil Upland

The Podolsky Upland is an orographic structure that occupies about 15% of Ukraine's area. Its southern spurs also enter the territory of neighboring Moldova. The highest point of the hill is Mount Kamula (471 meters). The average height is 300-350 meters.

The Podolskaya Upland is composed mainly of limestone, sandstone, slate and marls. Therefore, a variety of construction materials are actively mined here. In the relief of the elevation, individual massifs can be clearly traced: Opole, Gologory, Voronyaki, Kremenets Mountains, Toltry and others.

Within the Ukrainian Podillia the karst is very common. Only in the south of the Ternopil region there are about 100 caves. Among them, the longest plaster cave in Europe is the Optimistic Cave. The total length of its courses is estimated at 250 kilometers.

Black Sea lowland

The Black Sea lowland occupies almost the entire south of Ukraine, extending from Izmail to Berdyansk. It is flat and slightly inclined toward the seas of the plain with average heights of 80-120 meters.

From the north to the south lowlands cross the valleys of three major rivers - the Dnieper, the Dniester and the Southern Bug. In the watersheds of these rivers there are unique forms of relief - the so-called pods. These are small rounded drops in the earth's surface, formed as a result of subsidence of soil particles deep into the earth.

On the shores of the Black and Azov Seas, several large estuaries (Dnieper, Dniester, Molochny and others) have formed, as well as many narrow sandbars and islets.

Ukrainian Carpathians

The Ukrainian Carpathians are part of the huge Carpathian mountain system, which is located in the western part of the country and covers the territories of four regions. They consist of several parallel ridges, oriented in a direction from the north-west to the southeast. Between them are quite deep longitudinal hollows.

The total length of the Ukrainian Carpathians is 280 km, and the average width is about 110 km. In total, the mountains occupy about 24 thousand square kilometers, which is comparable to the territory of the Mykolaiv region.

The geological structure of the mountain system is dominated by Cretaceous deposits, as well as Jurassic limestones and crystalline schists. From minerals here are extracted oil, gas and ozocerite. There are many sources of healing mineral waters.

Chernogor - the highest ridge of Ukraine

In the Ukrainian Carpathians there are six so-called two-thousand-two mountains - mountains exceeding the 2000 meters mark. These are the peaks: Hoverla, Petros, Brebeneskul, Pop Ivan Chernogorsky, Gutin Tomatnik and Ribs. All of them are located within one mountain range - Montenegrin.

The ridge of Chernogor can be called the culmination of all Ukrainian Carpathians. It is the most popular place among tourists. The ridge stretches for almost 20 kilometers and serves as a watershed of two major Eastern European rivers - Tisza and Prut.

The array of Chernogor is also asymmetric. Its southern slopes are rapidly falling down and practically have no branches. But the northern, on the contrary, differ a great degree of branching and decrease step-by-step. On Chernogor, you can see glacial relief forms - small boilers, rocky ledges and moraine ridges.

Toltry - a unique natural formation

Speaking about the relief of Ukraine, we can not fail to mention the Toltrakh. This is one of the most interesting geomorphological formations in the country. In the whole world there are only a few of its analogues.

Genetically, Toltry is a huge coral reef that stretches for several hundred kilometers. It originates near the village of Podkamen, Lviv region, and ends near the town of Costesti, already on the territory of Moldova. Hundreds of millions of years ago in this territory splashed warm Sarmatian Sea, organic life in which blossomed violent color. The grand Toltro range that we see today is nothing more than the result of these active biological processes.

The width of the Toltre varies from 4 to 12 km, and the height reaches 430 meters. Throughout the length of the ridge there are 65 quarries, where limestone, gypsum and clay are mined.

Anthropogenic relief in Ukraine

The relief of Ukraine was greatly altered by human economic activity in the second half of the 20th century. This is particularly noticeable in regions such as the Donbas or Kryvbas, where iron ore and coal are actively extracted from the bowels of the earth.

So, around many cities of Donetsk and Lugansk region hundreds of waste tanks have grown. These small hills are cone-shaped, consisting of an empty rock - a kind of by-products of the coal industry. But the lands of Krivorozhye, like a sieve, were covered with mines, failure craters and huge iron ore quarries in the area and depth.

In addition, the banks of the Dnieper and several other large rivers of Ukraine were blocked by massive dams. As a result, vast areas simply went under water, and the terrain of the surrounding area was radically modified.

Thus, the active economic activity of a person in the territory of Ukraine in the twentieth century substantially transformed the nature of its surface, creating new forms of relief.