Lab 3 Russia

 

   Lab3 Russian Population, Economy, and Chernozem

This week we discussed the geography of Russian and conducted a lab where we created a map showing the populations of the different districts along with their economy and relation to the Chernozem.  Russia is the largest country in the world and contains 1/8 of the entire worlds land, with much of the land lying above the arctic circle.  The population is relatively small given the size of the country, with most Russians living in the southern latitudes and the western part of the country closer to Europe.  Russia contains numerous mountain ranges including the Ural Mountains to the east that separate the European continent from Asia and also separates western Russia from Siberia.  The Caucasus Mountain lie to the Southeast and create the border between Russia and Southwest Asia.  On the far east lies the volcanic highlands of Kamchatka Peninsula. 

In our lab this week, we discussed that Chernozem is a very rich black earth that is exceptional for agriculture.  It us found in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Moldova.  This Black Earth is very important to the economies in this area.  We used Proportional Symbols to represent the sizes of the populations in different Russian Districts.  As the population becomes larger, so do the symbols, representing an acurate size description without having to look at any other data.  Through this we are able to assess the highest populations in the country lie in the Northwest, Central, and Volga Districts.  The districts with the least production and smalles economies are the Southern and North Caucasian districts.  We were able to determine the Highest populations are on fringe of the chernozem, which could explain Russia's desire to retake Ukraine.  Chernozem does not necessarily affect the economy because districts with different economies encompass it. Kaliningrad, even though appearing isolated, has a fairly high economy.  

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