Manchurian-Korean Mountains

(also Changpai Mountains), a mountain system in Northeast China, North Korea, and Primor’e Krai of the USSR. Length, more than 1,000 km; width, to 500 km. It stretches from the Ussuri River valley in its middle course to the tip of the Liaotung Peninsula. Elevation, 1,000-2,000 m (the highest point is the volcano Pait’ou Shan, 2,744 m).

The mountains are composed primarily of granites, metamorphic shales, and limestones. Upper Paleozoic folded structures are developed in the northeast, and in the southwest there are structures of the Precambrian Liaotung Shield. The most recent uplifts (in the Cenozoic) were accompanied by the formation of fractures and outflows of basalts, which formed a number of plateaus and uplands (Changpai Shan, for example). The valleys of the Yalu and Tumen rivers formed along the axial fracture and divide the Changpai Shan (East Manchuria Mountains) from the North Korea Mountains. The Manchurian-Korean Mountains have deposits of coal (Fushun in the People’s Republic of China [PRC]), iron ore (Anshan and Penki in the PRC; Musan in the Korean Democratic People’s Republic), and nonferrous metals.

The area has a moderate monsoonal climate. Summers are warm (mean July temperature, 18°-24°C); winters are cold and, in the inner highlands, they are severe (January temperatures, to-22°C). Most precipitation falls in the summer. The streams have considerable gradients, and they discharge the greatest amount of water during the summer. In the central and eastern regions there are coniferous and broadleaf forests; in the zone near the crests there are elfin woodlands in some places. The lower parts of the slopes are covered with brush vegetation.