Donbass.

Donbass hasn't the vast territory but it's good for any kind of human activities. The Ukrainian Donbass has common borders with Kharkov, Belgorod, and Voronezh regions in the north, and Rostov region in the west. It crosses the administrative borders and reaches the region of Dneprovya.
The territory stretches 357 km from north to south, and 270 km from south-west to north-east. The total area of Donbass is 53,2 thousands sq. km, and it includes Donetsk region- 26,5 thousands sq. km, Lugansk region- 26,5 thousands sq. km.

Relief.

Donetsk ridge is the dominate in relief of Donbass. By the structure it's placid, slightly wavy plain, which is 200- 300 m above the sea-level. The ridge crosses the Central Donbass from north-west to south-east and covers about the half of the territory. Donetsk ridge consists of several ridge ranges which are separated from each other by lowerings. The highest ridge is the middle. It is the main Dnepr-Don water-shed. In the eastern part of the water-shed the highest point of the area- mountain Mogila-Mechetnaya- is located. It stands 367 m above the sea-level. It is the remainder of the high mountain mass. At the edges the ridge merges into surrounding valleys. It beraks into precipitous ledge baring the cretaceous sediments of its million centuries aged thickness near the Severskiy Donets.
Donetsk ridge spreads in the south and south-west of karst formations. They are peculiar stone ridges and rounded hills- the cupolas. The highest of them (100-150 m) are near Nagolnoe ( Central Cupola), Esaulovka (Sharp knoll), Dyakovo (Dyakov's cupola), near the railway station Nickitovka (Sophy's Cupola).
The Southern extremity of Donbass surrounded by the Priazov Hills. There are single hills on its wavy surface. They are called "graves"(Grave -Gonchariha, Grave-Nickolskaya). The Priazov Hills are breaking down by ravines, gorges but less than Donetsk ridge. In some places the rocks ( granities and gneisses) show up.
In the south the Priazov Hills transfers into narrow Priazov lowland. This is the part of the vast Blacksea plain which covers the south of Ukraine. It is a plain ploughed steppe lowering to Azov sea. @0 km away from the shore near Khomutovka thereis untouched piece of virgin land. It's a nature reserve "khomutov Steppe" amd its are is more than 1000 ha.
There are not many such reserves in that industrial part. There is one near the "khomutov steppe"- Stone graves. and in the north-east of lugansk region - Strelets's Steppe. They are the only primordial islands og amazingly different and picturesque flora which is represented by 500 kinds of plants and interesting fauna.
Sand spits are the peculiarity of the north Azov seashore. it's a narrow poin of land running into sea. Sand and crumbled up cockle-shells form the spits. In Donetsk Azov area thereare Byelosarayskaya and Krivaya spits. By the structure of reliaf it's aslightly wavy plain, which is covered with greenary of vineyards and gardens. Havin a mild sea climate the area attracts thousands of people from Donbass and other regions in the summer.
And now let's move from Preazov to Predonetsk plateau. The biggest part of plateau is abounded in ravines. Starobelskaya steppe covers three fifth of Lugansk region. Here rivers, the left tributaries of the Severskiy Donets, flows in meridional direction. This part of Lugansk region is one of the main granaries of Donbass.
In the south a picturesque plain along the rivers can be seen. It is surrounded by Donetsk plateau in the north and by Donetsk ridge in the south. This is Donetsk terrace plain which is a valley in Severskiy Donets. Its length is more than 225 km and the width 4-26 km. The big sizes of the valley prove the fact that in the past the river was deeper. A damp climate favoured it.
The valley has an asymmetrical structure. The right slope is high and steep, and the left one that has 4 terraces, is low and gentle. The first flood-lands terrace is covered with water-meadows and former river beds. The lands are for vegetable-growing. The three other over flood-lands terraces are about 50 m above the river but they extends far away from the bank. Cities with the big factories and many villages with ploughed fields are based on them. The peculiarity of Donetsk relief is about 3 thousands waste banks of dead rock which are taken out the mines,. In some places their height is more than 100 m.

Soils.

Donbass is famous for its chernozem. The thickness of rich strata is about 1 m. There are saline-soils in the valleys of some rivers. Azov spits and banks of Severskiy Donets have sand and sandy loam. Somewhere near the rivers there are swampies and meadow soils. These are the main deflection from chernozem expense. Hot sun and rich soils are good for growing winter and spring crops, barleys, corns, water-melons, melons and gourds, vegetables and other corns.

Climate.

Locating between the equqter and the Pole the area gets much warms. Donbass has a temperate continential climate with defenite seasons which are changing because of the western part of continental steppe region. There are big differencies between winter and summer temperatures. Average temperature in January is minus 4-6 degrees. In the central part of Donetsk ridge and in the north-east of Lugansk region it's minus 7 degrees. During the coldest winters the minimum temperature is not below minus 36 degrees. Thaws often change the frosts because warm air mass comes from the west.
In the middle of March the temperature increases . In the begining of April it is 5 degrees above zero on the whole territory. The hottest month is July. Average temperature in the north is 21,8 degrees Celcium (Starobelsk), In the souh it's 22,3 degrees Celcium (Mariupol). Maximum summer temperature is 40-42 degrees. The total length of frost-free period is 170 days in the north and 200 in the south. The temperature is suitable for growing of almost all kinds of agricultiral corps, even grapes.
During the cold east and south-east winds dominate. They dry out the soils in the spring that negatively influences the agriculture. In the summer west and north-west winds dominate. Droughts and hot dry winds aren't rare in the area.
Average quantity of atmospheric precipitation is 350-550 mm in Donbass. It's not enough considering that the spring , the end of summer and autumn is arid, and the rains are downpouring and momentary, covering a small area. The water is a big problem for Donbass.

Water resources.

The area of high developed industry and with great population daily consumes much water.For example, the concentration of 1 tone of coal requires 0,5 tone of water, production of 1 tone of steel- 25 tonnes of water, and production of 1 tonne of sulphuric acid - 90 tonnes of water.
Donbass consumes 55 % of total national consumption of water.
Donetsk and Lugansk regions use surface and underground water to provide water for industrial and everyday needs.
Rivers hold the main water resources. There are 230 rivers in donbass , but only 9 of them extends more than 100 km. The total length of the rivers is about8,2 thousands km. The sources of their existence are waters from melted snow and industrial flows. The industrial flows make water of many rivers maximum mineralized, hard, and useless, not just for drinkig and even for irrigation.
The main water way is Severskiy Donets which stretches for 370 km. The square of the river basin is 99 thousands sq. km. Left tributaries are Jerebets, Borovaya, Krasnaya, Derkul, Idar; the right ones are Kasyenni Torets, Bachmutka, Lugan, Luganchick, Bolshaya Kamenka, and others. The left tributaries flopws from the north Lugansk region, the right ones flows from Donetsk ridge where the Samara and Volchya starts. These rivers belong to the Dnepr.
South rivers are the Kalmius, Kalchick, Gruzskiy, Elanchick, Mius, Krynka foll into Azov sea.
There are not many lakes in donbass. Basically they are former river-beds in flood-lands. Many such lakes are in flood-lands of Severskiy Donets. The largest are Volchye, Medvejye, and Boronoe. Total water volume is 7 mln cubometers. There are salty lakes near Slavyansk. They are the Repnoe. Slepnoe, Veysovoe. The Repnoe has a spa.
So, the water- supply is a big problem for the area because there isn't much atmospheric precipitation which are influenced by eraporation. For the solving of the problem there were built large resrvoirs. They are Makeevskoe, Kleban-Bykskoe, Voynsevskoe, Karlovskoe, Mironovskoe, Olhovskoe, Nizhne-Krynskoe, Kramatorskoe,Konstantinovskoe, Zuevskoe, Kalmiuskoe , Donetskoe, and others.
There are about 3 thousands ponds in Donbass. Severskiy Donets-Donbass canal plays a big role in water supply. It was built in 1953-1958 and its lenghth is 131 km. The water of severskiy Donets comes to many cities and settlements through the remified system of water-main from the canal.
Underground waters aren't as big as surface but they play an important role in supply of drinking water. Reserves of upper creteceous and coal horizons form the ballance of underground waters. Many water bearing horizons of differently aged sediments are used as local water sources.
There is a complex of steps for efficiant water use in Donbass. They are circulating water supply of factories, sewage disposal, new filter stations, improving of purification of mine's water, which can give 450-500 thousands cubometers of good water, building large storage ponds and pools.
Dnepr-Donbass helped in solving the water shortage problem.
Azov sea borders the region in the south.. Its total square is 38 thousands sq. km and the depth isn't more than 14 m. Its water heats up in the summer and cools down in the winter because of the small sizes and depths. The sea has different kinds of fish, even sturges. It promotes international selling of fish. Lately,the supply of marketable fish decreased and specialists try to restore the productivity of the sea.

The vegetable kingdom.

People influence the nature of Donbass very much. Primordial steppe vegetation is only in the nature reserves. They aren't many and basically they are located along the river sides, in old gullies, in the edges of groves, on the sides of highways and railroads.. More than thousands of different plants grow in the steppe oases. In the spring the south motley grass- feather grass, couck grass, forget-me-not,- fill the air with fantastic aroma. Also eastern aronic and Caucasian wormwood from the Crimea and Caucas grows in the steppe. The nature reserve "Stone Graves" in Volodar region has vary rare alpine fern which grows just in some parts of the world. On the cretceous sediments there are bushes of skumpia, the natives of th south. Most of the steppe lands are ploughed up.
The forests are pretty much damaged. In the last century thousands of trees were cutted down by businessmen. The World War II caused damage to forests too. Now the territory of forestry, forest shelter-belts, and bushes is 5,9 % of the region. Big territories of pine woods are in Slavyansk, Kremensiy, and Krasnolimanskiy regions, and in Severskiy Donets terraces. 45 km to the south from Donetsk there is the Velikanadolskiy forest which was founded by forester V.G. Graff in 1843. In Volodarsk region grows rapidly. Groves of oak, ash, mapple, and wild pear grow along gullies on Donetsk ridge. Small groups of trees and vegetation are near the middle stream of the Kalmius to yhe north from Donetsk ridge. Every year forest shelter belts, field protaction forest plantations are extending around the cities.

Animal world.

Donbass was called Wild Field 2-3 centuries ago. Thinly populated steppe was covered with motley grass, bushes, and flood-lands forests, and many animals and birds lived there. Wild anthelops and horses ran to water source through the high grass.
Now the animal world isn't so rich. Foxy minks, forest martens, grey-hares, jerboas, mole-rats, red squirrels live in gullies and forests. There are desmen near the banks of the Severskiy Donets. Roe-deers can be seen in the forests but their number sharply decreased because of WW II. Donbass fauna enriches because animals from other places acclimarize in the area succesfully. Moles inhabit in Velikanadolskiy forest, and coypus live in Drobyshevskiy forestry. There are sika deers and elks in the Serebyanskiy reserve (Lugansk region). Raccon dog became a new inhabitant of Donetsk steppes.
Birds are represented by partridges, bustards, quails, little bustards, cranes, skylarks, starlings, and black cap buntings. In the forest thickets kites, turtledoves, woodpeckers, nightingales, and tomtits built their nests. There are many water fowl such as geeses, ducks, and sandpipers on the banks of rivers and ponds, spits of Azov sea especially during the transmigration. Seagull-blackcap, joilly seagulls, mallards, and lapwings inhabit at the shore of Azov sea. There are also reptiles as yellow-belly sledge runners, steppe adders, grass snakes, and lizards. Boggy tortoises live in steppe ponds.

Minerals.

Donbass has many minerals . Only donetsk region has more than 1/2 of the elements of mendeleev's periodic system. More than 50 kinds of minerals are using and developing.
Coal is the most important mineral for the economy of Donbass. 1/2 of discovered coal stocks consists of gas and long-flaming coal, and anthracite is a quarter of the stocks. Donetsk anthracite is considered one of the world best by calorific value and other technical and economical showing. Caking coal (plus coke coal) is 17 % of total stocks whish is a technological fuel for ferrous metallurgy. Non-bituminous coal is just 5,2 %. Different sorts of coal make it useful for power engineering, chemistry, ferrous metallurgy. Donetsk coal is famous for its calorific value which is 7600-8800 kcal.
Every year geoogists discover new coal-fields. In 1966-1967 coal-fields in the north-east of Lugansk region (Belovodskiy district), and near the border between dDonetsk and Dnepropetrovsk regions (Krasnoarmeyskiy-West coal-field) were discovered. The reserves of coal in South Donbas are 2 billion tonnes. Average provision of coal is 27 years for operating mines, 69 years for building mines, and 76 years for reserve mines. Coal reserves in Donbass are enough for about 200 years considering the coal available for mining.In the north-west (near Slavyansk) brown coal is found. Also Novodmitrievskoe coal-field was discoveres which has 5 horizons of coal. Total reserve is about 1/2 billion tonnes.There the brown coal can be developed by openpit mines. It's a good fuel for thermoelectric power stations.
Natural gas mixture is a new and important kind of fuel and raw material for chemical industry. Its commercial reserves are in the north of lugansk region(Krasnogorovskoe deposit). Geologists suppouse that Donetsk region also has commercial reserves of oil.
Ore was discovered near Mariupol (20 km from metallurgical factory by Ilych anf "azovsteel") in 1962. It was called Mariupol's ore deposit. There are 6 ore plots - Demyanovskiy, Pershotravneviy, North, Dzerjinskiy, Yurevskiy, and Yaltinskiy- on its territory. Reserves of ore are 500-600 million tonnes which are enough for 40 years of work of the metallurgical factories in Mariupol. Ore doesn't lay very deep- 20-35 m - and can be mined by open-pit mines, Mariupol's ore consists of 30% of total iron, and 23% of magnetite iron. Deleterious admixturesare practically absent. Ores are aesy to concentrate. In the area (width- 400 km, length- 120 km) between Mariupol and Berdyansk were found new ore deposits in 1974. The largest are Kuksuganskoe, Novoukrainskoe, and Korsakovskoe which form whole ore district. Suppoussedly the reserves of the ore are 1,5-2 billions tonnes.
There are copper ores (railway station Nyrkovo and Logvinovo), lead, zink, silver (Athracite's and Rovenskiy districts- Nagolniy ridge) in Donbass. Near Nickitovka there is a famous deposit of antimony and mercury reserves in Ukraine. Mercury ores are discovreed near Slavyansk and Drujkovka.
Nepheline syenities in Oktober's and Elanchick's deposits are important. Their reserves are very large. Their complex use gives valluable elements such as alumina, some rare metalls, alkaline products, and also carbosol. Alumina is used for aliminum production.
Except fuel and ores there are natural building materials in donbass. They are dolomites, limestones, marls, different clays, kaolins, quarzites, gypsum, glas and building sand, ,sandstones, granites. Dolomite's reserves are rich and they are used in metallurgical, glass and ceramic industries, building industry, others. The biggest deposit which is called Elenovskoe, is in the south of Donetsk region. The large deposits of dolomites are Novotritskoe, Stylskoe, Karakubskoe.
The region is also rich for raw materials for chemical industry. The most important is salt that has an old history. There is Artyomovskiy rock-salt deposit near Artyomobsk city. It has 18 strata. The thickness of salt suite varies from 400 to 1200 m. Salt is mining 127-257 under the ground. Slavyansk salt deposit is 7 km to the north-east from Slavyansk. It containes 25 trata of rock-salt which is mining 540m under the ground. The main consumer of the salt is Lisichanskiy soda factory.
Novokarfagenskoe salt deposit is in the north-east from Artyomovsk.
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