Geographic review, relief of Tomsk oblast

Tomsk oblast is situated in the South-Eastern part of the West Siberian Plain and occupies the territory of 314.4 ths. km2.

The regional center is the city of Tomsk. (in the latitude of 56 o30' N and in the longitude of 85 o00' E, the distance between Tomsk and Moscow is 3100 km).

Neighbour territories are Kemerovo, Omsk, Novosibirsk and Tumen oblasts, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug of Tumen oblast.

The relief is extremely flat. The highest point of Tomsk oblast is +274 m above the sea level. The lowest point is +34 m above the sea level.

Most part of the territory is occupied by forests, swamps, rivers and lakes. The largest rivers are the Ob, the Tom, the Chulym, the Ket, the Tym and the Vasyugan. The whole river system belongs to the basin of the Ob, which crosses the oblast from the south-east to the north-west over 1000 km dividing the territory into 2 almost equal parts.

The number of lakes, especially numerous in the river flood lands, reaches 95000. The largest is Lake Mirnoye with surface area of 18.4 km2 lies on the flat interfluve between the rivers Chusik and Chizhapka (Parabel region) with surface area of 18.3 km2. High right bank is not as bogged up as the left one and is marked by higher population density. The left bank includes huge Vasyugan swamp (the largest in the world) – 53 ths. km2. There are 573 rivers in Tomsk region with the length more than 20 km and 35 lakes ranging from 5 to more square kilometers. River valleys occupy 1/5 of all the territory of the region.

Considerable part of the region is taken by woodland, where main zones can be traced: central taiga, southern taiga and forest steppe. Siberian taiga has the following types of finewood: Siberian pine, fir-tree, abies.

Information prepared by OJSC “Tomskgeomonitoring”