Aldan Plateau

Aldan Plateau 

a plateau in eastern Siberia in the south of the Yakut ASSR, north of the Stanovoi Range, between the Olekma and Uchur rivers.

The Aldan Plateau consists primarily of lowland interfluves of an average altitude of 800–1,000 m, with isolated groups of gol’tsy (alpine tundra above the timberline) and short mountain ranges (western Yangi, Sunnagyn, Ket-Kap, and others) of an altitude reaching 1,400–2,000 m (the maximum altitude is 2,306 m). It is composed mainly of Archean and Proterozoic gneiss and crystallic shales of the Precambrian Aldan Plateau. It is cut by the deep valleys of the tributaries of the Aldan and Amga rivers. Up to an altitude of 1,100–1,300 m the dominant vegetation consists of pine and larch forests and mountainous taiga with ledum and Himalaya larch growth; above that altitude, on the lower part of the gol’tsy, there is sparse growth of larch and cedar pines. The gol’tsy summits constitute a stony tundra. There are deposits of iron ore, coal (settlements of Chul’man), mica, and gold.

G. S. SAMOILOVA