Chersky Range

The Chersky Range (, ) is a chain of mountains in northeastern Siberia between the Yana River and the Indigirka River. Administratively the area of the range belongs to the Sakha Republic and Magadan Oblast. The highest peak in the range is tall Peak Pobeda, part of the Ulakhan-Chistay Range. The range lies on the boundary between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. 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.
The Moma Natural Park is a protected area located in the southern zone of the range.
History.
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. The range was sighted in 1926 by Sergei Obruchev (Vladimir Obruchev's son) and named by the Russian Geographical Society after the Polish explorer and geographer Ivan Chersky (or Jan Czerski).
Geography.
The geographic boundaries of the mountain system are the Yana—Oymyakon Highlands in the southwest and the Momo-Selennyakh Depression in the northeast. The range also includes Ynnakh Mountain (Mat'-Gora), an important mountain in Yakut culture.
Subranges.
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:
Between the Adycha and Sartang 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 ), the Selennyakh Range (highest point highest point Saltag-Tas (), and the adjacent Moma Range (highest point ) with the Moma-Selennyakh Depession running along their western side, are included in the Chersky mountain system.
Other ranges of the system are the Irgichin Range, Porozhny Range, Inyalin Range, Volchan Range, Silen Range, Onel Range, and Nendelgin Range, among others.
Tectonics.
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. 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. 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 a seismically active zone. It connects in the north with the landward extension of the Laptev Sea Rift, itself a continental extension of the Mid-Arctic Gakkel Ridge.