Eurasia: position, history, structure and relief

Eurasia is built of ancient solid platforms and the fold belts of various ages that link them. It was part of Laurasia, and North America split from it in the Mesozoic. There are two active belts now: the Alpine–Himalayan belt and the Pacific “Ring of Fire”; young mountains are rising here, with volcanoes and strong earthquakes (Ashgabat 1948, Tashkent 1966, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake). Mineral wealth is great: iron on platforms and shields (Kursk, Scandinavia, China), gold, copper, tin, diamonds; oil, gas and coal in sedimentary layers. Eurasia leads other continents in oil and gas. Mountains take up nearly half of the area. The oldest are the Urals, the Deccan and the Kazakh Uplands; rejuvenated mountains include the Tien Shan and Altai; the youngest and highest are the Himalayas, Pamirs, Alps, Caucasus, Carpathians and Hindu Kush. The highest point is Everest in the Himalayas, 8 848 m; the lowest place on land is the Dead Sea shore at about –430 m (the book says –405 m; the level keeps falling year by year). One of the highest active volcanoes is Klyuchevskaya Sopka in Kamchatka (about 4 750 m). Plains lie on platforms: the East European, West Siberian, Turan and Indo-Gangetic. In the north and high mountains there are many forms left by glaciers.