Murmansk Region
Physical geography
and
climate
The Murmansk Region roughly comprises the
Kola Peninsula
between the
Barents Sea
and
White
Sea, and
is bound by the Norwegian and Finnish borders to the west and the border with the
Karelian
Republic
(part of the
Russian Federation
) to the south. The landscape is that of a flat to hilly Precambrian shield, mostly below 300 m.a.s.l., and slightly inclined southward. Numerous swamps and lakes occur spread across the peninsula. Mountainous areas occur in the central region between Apatity, Monchegorsk and Revda (
Khibiny
Mountains
, up
to 1190 m), a highly mineralised area. High mineralisation extends from here to the Nikel area in the northwest, and the Kovdor area in the southwest (mainly iron, nickel, lead-zinc, phosphate).
Vegetation zones range from barren tundra in the northern coastal strip through forest tundra (birch forest) and northern, maritime taiga (spruce and pine forest); the climate is subarctic-maritime (north) to moderate-maritime (south), with permafrost in the tundra belt. The frost-free period is 2.5 to 3.5 months. Winter ice covers the
White Sea
and the waters around the north-eastern coast, approximately to the Gremikha area. Average temperatures are -6° to -12°C in January, and +8° to +15°C in July.