Vasyugan Swamp

Location in Russia

The Vasyugan Swamp (Russian: Васюганские болота, romanized: Vasyuganskiye bolota), also the Great Vasyugan Mire ^[1] is the largest swamp in the northern hemisphere as well as the largest peatland in the world.^[2] It is located in Russia, in southwestern Siberia. and occupies 53,000 km² (13,000,000 acres), which is about 2% of the whole area of peat bogs of the world. The swamp is located in the Novosibirsk, Omsk, and Tomsk regions of Russia within the watershed of Ob River and Irtysh River, and stretches between latitudes 55°35' and 58°40' North, and longitudes 74°30' and 83°30' East.^[1]

History

It appeared nearly 10,000 years ago and from that time has constantly increased in size. 75% of the contemporary area became waterlogged less than 500 years ago.^[3]

Environment

The swamp is a major reservoir of fresh water for the region, and the Vasyugan river has its source there.^[4] It is home to a number of endangered species which is a concern among local environmentalists as the production of oil and gas has become a major industry in the region.

The swamp has a continental climate (Walter system) or taiga (WWF system),^[5] with long cold winters and short hot summers.

References

^ ^a ^b The Great Vasyugan Mire, whc.unesco.org
^ Kirpotin, Sergey N.; Antoshkina, Olga A.; Berezin, Alexandr E.; Elshehawi, Samer; Feurdean, Angelica; Lapshina, Elena D.; Pokrovsky, Oleg S.; Peregon, Anna M.; Semenova, Natalia M.; Tanneberger, Franziska; Volkov, Igor V. (2021-11-01). "Great Vasyugan Mire: How the world's largest peatland helps addressing the world's largest problems". Ambio. 50 (11): 2038–2049. doi:10.1007/s13280-021-01520-2. ISSN 1654-7209. PMC 8497674. PMID 33677811.
^ "Great Vasyugan Mire | Greenpeace Russia". Greenpeace.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
^ Cohen, S.B.; Cohen, S. (2008). The Columbia Gazetteer of the World: A to G. The Columbia Gazetteer of the World. Columbia University Press. p. 4073. ISBN 978-0-231-14554-1. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
^ "Taiga or Boreal Forest". Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved February 21, 2011.