Kuznetsk Basin (redirected from Kusbass)

Kuznetsk Basin, coal basin, c.10,000 sq mi (25,900 sq km), W Siberian Russia, between the Kuznetsk Alatau and the Salair Ridge. Its abbreviated name is Kuzbas. With extensive coal deposits, particularly of high-grade coking coal, the Kuznetsk Basin was second only to the Donets Basin of Ukraine in Soviet regional coal production. The main fields are around Anzhero-Sudzhensk, Kemerovo, Leninsk-Kuznetski, Kiselevsk, and Prokopyevsk. The first iron-smelting works were founded in 1697. Coal deposits were discovered in 1721 and first mined in 1851. The area's industries grew rapidly in the late 19th cent., and new heavy industry was started from 1930 to 1932 when the Ural-Kuznetsk industrial combine was formed. With major plants at Novokuznetsk, the Kuznetsk industrial region (c.27,000 sq mi/69,900 sq km) produces iron and steel, zinc, aluminum, heavy machinery, and chemicals. Ores were brought from E Siberia for processing, and during World War II the basin's industrial importance was surpassed only by that of the Urals. Strikes by Kuznetsk and Donets Basin coal miners in 1989 and 1990 weakened the Gorbachev government and crippled the USSR's industries.

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Kuznetsk Basin, Kuzbass

a region of S Russia, in the Kemerovo Region of W Siberia: the richest coalfield in the country, with reserves of iron ore. Chief industrial centre: Novokuznetsk. Area: about 69 900 sq. km (27 000 sq. miles)

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Kuznetsk Basin 

an intermontane basin between the Kuznetskii Alatau in the northeast, the Salair Ridge in the south-west, and the massif of Gornaia Shoriia in the south, in Kemerovo Oblast, RSFSR. Area, 70,000 sq km; length, 400 km; width, 100–120 km. Average elevations, from 200 m in the north to 400–500 m in the south.

The surface of the basin is an undulating plain dissected by a dense network of river valleys. Even and flat interfluves are characteristic only for the regions near the Salair Ridge; in the east, close to the Kuznetskii Alatau, the depth of the dissection increases. The river network is dense, with the main rivers being the Tom’, Inia, and the other tributaries of the Ob’. The river valleys are well developed, and the river terraces in them are well defined. The terraces are composed of alluvial deposits that are usually covered by loess-like loams up to 10–20 m thick. Mountain highlands (Taradanovskii and Saltymakovo ridges and the Karakany Mountains) with elevations to 600–740 m, which are composed of Mesozoic basalts, rise in the central part of the Kuznetsk Basin.

The climate is continental, with a mean January temperature of about −18°C and a temperature of 18°−20°C in July. Annual precipation totals 350–500 mm. In the northwestern part of the basin there is a predominance of forb and feather grass steppes on leached chernozems; insular groves of birch and aspen (kolki) have survived in the ravines. The central part is forest steppe with leached and degraded chernozems and dark gray slightly podzolized soils under insular groves of birch. In the southeastern and eastern parts, light gray, heavily podzolized soils have developed under fir-aspen mountain taiga, and there are shallow, rocky soils on the slopes.

The landscapes of the basin have been greatly changed by the economic activities of man—for example, large areas of the steppe have been plowed up. The Kuznetsk Coal Basin, which is located in the Kuznetsk Basin, provided the basis for the development of one of the most densely populated and largest industrial regions of Western Siberia. Farming, including the growing of wheat, oats, rye, and potatoes, is widely developed. There is vegetable raising and dairy and meat livestock raising near the large cities (for example, Kemerovo, Novokuznetsk, and Prokop’evsk) and workers’ settlements.

S. S. VOSKRESENSKII