| Map Size: | 300 |
| Subdivision1 Type: | Republic / Oblast |
| Length Km: | 1500 |
| Length Orientation: | NW/SE |
| Width Km: | 400 |
| Width Orientation: | NE/SW |
| Parent: | East Siberian System |
| Highest: | Pobeda |
| Elevation: | 3003m (9,852feet) |
The Chersky Range is a chain of mountains in northeastern Siberia between the Yana and Indigirka Rivers. Administratively, the area of the range belongs to the Sakha Republic, although a small section in the east is within Magadan Oblast. The highest peak in the range is the 3003m (9,852feet)-tall Peak Pobeda, part of the Ulakhan-Chistay Range. The range also includes important places of traditional Yakut culture, such as Ynnakh Mountain (Mat'-Gora) and kigilyakh rock formations.[1]
The Moma Natural Park is a protected area located in the southern zone of the range.[2]
At some time between 1633 and 1642, Poznik Ivanov ascended a tributary of the lower Lena, crossed the Verkhoyansk Range to the upper Yana, and then crossed the Chersky Range to the Indigirka.[3] The range was sighted in 1926 by Sergei Obruchev (Vladimir Obruchev's son) and named by the Russian Geographical Society after the Lithuanian explorer and geographer Ivan Chersky (or Jan Czerski).[4]
The geographic boundaries of the mountain system are the Yana–Oymyakon Highlands in the southwest, the Upper Kolyma Highlands in the southeast, and the Momo-Selennyakh Depression in the northeast.[5]
The system of the Chersky Range comprises a number of subranges running generally from northwest to southeast, including the following:
Between the Yana and Indigirka rivers:
In the upper Kolyma river basin:
Between the Chibagalakh and Adycha rivers
Between the Indigirka and the Nera rivers:
Northeastern outliers
In some works, a few roughly-parallel ranges located off the main system to the northeast, such as the Kyun-Tas Range (highest point 1242m (4,075feet)), the Selennyakh Range (highest point highest point Saltag-Tas (2021m (6,631feet)), and the adjacent Moma Range (highest point 2533m (8,310feet)), with the Moma-Selennyakh Depression running along their western side, are included in the Chersky mountain system.[9]
Other ranges of the system include the Irgichin Range, Inyalin Range, Volchan Range, Silen Range, and Polyarny Range, among others.[10]
The Chersky System includes three main river basins:
Some of the higher ranges with alpine relief have glaciers. There are roughly 350 glaciers in the system, with a total area of 156.2km2.[11] There are also small lakes in the swampy valleys of some rivers, as well as lakes of glacial origin, such as Emanda and Tabanda.
The range lies on the boundary between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.[12]
The precise nature of the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in the area of the Chersky Range is still not fully understood and is the subject of ongoing research. By the 1980s, the Chersky Range was considered mostly a zone of continental rifting where the crust was spreading apart.[13] However, the current view is that the Chersky Range is mostly an active suture zone, a continental convergent plate boundary, where compression is occurring as the two plates press against each other.[14] There is thought to be a point in the Chersky Range where the extensional forces coming from the north change to the compressional forces noted throughout most of the range. The Chersky Range is also thought to include a geologic triple junction where the Ulakhan Fault intersects the suture zone. Whatever the exact nature of the regional tectonics, the Chersky Range is seismically active. It connects in the north with the landward extension of the Laptev Sea Rift, itself a continental extension of the Mid-Arctic Gakkel Ridge.
The Chersky mountains, along with the neighboring Verkhoyansk Range, have a moderating effect on the climate of Siberia. The ridges obstruct west-moving air flows, decreasing the amount of snowfall in the plains to the west.
