Kuznetskii Alatau

a mountain range in the south of Siberia, in Kemerovo Oblast and Krasnoiarsk Krai of the RSFSR.

Located between the Kuznetsk and Minusinsk basins, the range stretches from the Abakan Range in the south to the Siberian Railroad in the north and forms the divide of the Tom’ and Chulym rivers, which are tributaries of the Ob’. Length, approximately 300 km; width, 150 km. The Kuznetskii Alatau consists of a system of massifs of low mountains and highlands that are cut by rivers. Average elevation, 1,000–1,200 m; maximum elevation, 2,178 m (Mount Verkhnii Zub in the south). The mountains are composed of Proterozoic and Lower Paleozoic limestones, quartzites, and flinty and clay shales and are cut by numerous intrusions of gabbros, diorites, granites, syenites, and other rock. The present relief was created during the Neogene and Anthropogene as a result of the uplifting and subdivision of peneplanation planes of differing ages. The slopes of the range are asymmetric. On the eastern gentle slope the river valleys are well developed; on the western steep slope the rivers flow in narrow valleys with great drops and have numerous rapids.

The climate is cold and wet. Annual precipitation is 600–800 mm (maximum up to 1,500 mm) on the western slopes and 400–500 mm in the east. Mountain taiga predominates everywhere. On the western slope, up to an elevation of 700–750 m, mountain taiga prevails on dark gray podzolized soils, with secondary aspen-birch forests, and above that there are dark coniferous forests of fir, spruce, and cedar. The lower part of the eastern slope is covered by mountain-meadow steppes on chernozem soils; above 700–800 m, pine and larch forests predominate on podzolic and soddy-podzolic soils. Above altitudes of 1,300–1,500 m there are moss-lichen, brush, and stony tundras. The Kuznetskii Alatau has iron and manganese ores, gold, chromites, bauxites, and mineral building materials.