# Dzhugdzhur Mountains
The **Dzhugdzhur Mountains** (Джугджур) are a mountain system on the northwestern coast of the [Sea of Okhotsk](https://www.edgepedia.org/sea-of-okhotsk) in [Khabarovsk Krai](https://www.edgepedia.org/khabarovsk-krai), in the [Russian Far East](https://www.edgepedia.org/russian-far-east), forming the divide between the rivers of the Aldan basin, which drain to the Arctic Ocean, and the rivers flowing to the Sea of Okhotsk.[1](https://old.bigenc.ru/geography/text/1953341) The name comes from the Evenki language and means "high bare peak", that is, mountains stripped of vegetation.[2](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/common/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Location | Northwestern shore of the Sea of Okhotsk, Khabarovsk Krai, Russian Far East[3](https://slovar.cc/enc/bse/1993058.html) |
| Extent | Stretched in a convex arc facing the Sea of Okhotsk; length given as 700 km by the Great Soviet Encyclopedia and 900 km by the Great Russian Encyclopedia, width 175–200 km[1](https://old.bigenc.ru/geography/text/1953341) • [3](https://slovar.cc/enc/bse/1993058.html) |
| Highest point | Mount Topko, 1,906 m[1](https://old.bigenc.ru/geography/text/1953341) |
| Watershed role | Divides the Aldan (Arctic Ocean) and Okhotsk Sea drainages; Lena headwaters east of the Stanovoy Range approach within 100 km of the Pacific but are blocked by the range[1](https://old.bigenc.ru/geography/text/1953341) • [4](https://lib.icimod.org/records/f9w9j-x4h09/files/attachment_157.pdf) |
| Climate | Moderate monsoon with severe snowy winter; mean January −24.5 °C, mean August 12.9 °C; eastern precipitation twice the western, which reaches up to 400 mm[1](https://old.bigenc.ru/geography/text/1953341) |
| Geology | Late Precambrian gneisses and granites in the southwest of the arc; slates and limestones folded in the Mesozoic in the northeast, overlain by Cretaceous and Paleogene lavas and tuffs[3](https://slovar.cc/enc/bse/1993058.html) |
| Protection | Dzhugdzhursky Strict Nature Reserve (zapovednik), created 10 September 1990 with 806,256 ha, expanded in 1991 by 53,700 ha of Okhotsk Sea waters[5](https://base.garant.ru/74547869/) |
## Geography and relief
The system consists of asymmetric ridges and massifs arranged in a convex arc toward the Sea of Okhotsk, extending from northeast to southwest from the mouth of the Uchur River, a tributary of the Aldan.[1](https://old.bigenc.ru/geography/text/1953341) The Great Soviet Encyclopedia gives a length of 700 km along the arc, while the Great Russian Encyclopedia gives 900 km from the [Uchur](https://www.edgepedia.org/uchur) mouth; both place the highest point, Mount Topko, at 1,906 m.[1](https://old.bigenc.ru/geography/text/1953341) • [3](https://slovar.cc/enc/bse/1993058.html) Width is 175–200 km, and the reserve's own materials give 130–180 km for the ridge itself.[1](https://old.bigenc.ru/geography/text/1953341) • [6](https://www.djugdjur.ru/visitors/unikalnosti-dzhugdzhura/khrebet-dzhugdzhur/)
**Asymmetric uplift.** The mountains were formed by a recent asymmetric uplift: a gentle continental slope, drained by rivers of the Aldan basin, contrasts sharply with a more deeply dissected coastal slope.[3](https://slovar.cc/enc/bse/1993058.html) Erosion-denudation mid-mountain terrain of 1,200–1,400 m and low mountains of 700–1,000 m predominate, with structural plateaus and high-mountain relief with snowfields and glaciers near the crests; traces of ancient glaciation occur, and kurums (blocky rock fields) cover up to 7 percent of slope area.[1](https://old.bigenc.ru/geography/text/1953341) Toward the Sea of Okhotsk the Ulinsky and Pribrezhny (Coastal) ridges drop steeply in an escarpment of 1,300–1,660 m.[7](https://www.flatik.ru/osobennosti-prirodno-resursnogo-potenciala-hrebta-djugdjur) A discontinuous coastal chain, separated from the main ridge by the longitudinal valley of the Ulya River, receives more moisture.[3](https://slovar.cc/enc/bse/1993058.html)
The range is a major hydrological divide. Its pass separates the basins of the two oceans: tributaries of the Aldan and of the Uda, including the Uchur, the [Maya](https://www.edgepedia.org/maya-landform), and the Yudoma, flow to the Arctic, while coastal rivers such as the Aldoma and Lantari flow to the Sea of Okhotsk.[2](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/common/) East of the Stanovoy Range, the headwaters of the Lena approach to within 100 km of the Pacific but are blocked by the Dzhugdzhur Range.[4](https://lib.icimod.org/records/f9w9j-x4h09/files/attachment_157.pdf)
## Geology
The southwest part of the arc exposes gneisses and granites of late [Precambrian](https://www.edgepedia.org/precambrian) age; in the northeast, slates and limestones folded during the Mesozoic are overlain by a thick sequence of [Cretaceous](https://www.edgepedia.org/cretaceous) and [Paleogene](https://www.edgepedia.org/paleogene) lavas and tuffs.[3](https://slovar.cc/enc/bse/1993058.html) The range belongs to the Dzhugdzhur–Stanovoi fold region at the southern framing of the North Asian craton, where mafic magmatism of Triassic age has been documented.[8](https://sibran.ru/en/journals/issue.php?ARTICLE_ID=130958&ID=120566&PAGEN_1=142)
**Anorthosites and ores.** The Dzhugdzhur anorthosite pluton is the range's best-studied geological feature. Apatite-ilmenite-titanomagnetite ores occur in spatial association with the anorthosites, and a genetic connection has been claimed between these ores and an independent Middle Proterozoic complex of differentiated olivine gabbroids and gabbro-syenites.[9](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232827387_Apatite-Bearing_Gabbro-Syenite_Intrusions_and_the_Origin_of_the_Apatite-Ilmenite-Titanomagnetite_Ore_Shows_of_the_Dzhugdzhur_Range) Platinum-group minerals and gold occur in lenses of massive pyrrhotite within the anorthosite.[10](https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/georef/term/5/12435/Dzhugdzhur-region) Cargo transport across the Dzhugdzhur system to settlements such as Allah-Yun later supported gold-mining development and large-scale geological exploration in the region.[11](https://ar.culture.ru/en/subject/gruzoperevozchiki-allah-yun)
## Climate and vegetation
The climate is moderate monsoon, with a severe snowy winter and an overcast rainy summer; mean January temperature is −24.5 °C and mean August temperature 12.9 °C. Annual precipitation in the east is twice that in the west, where up to 400 mm falls, and permafrost is widespread.[1](https://old.bigenc.ru/geography/text/1953341) The ridge divides the surrounding territory into two dissimilar parts: the western continental side approaches the sharply continental climate of Eastern Siberia, with temperature swings from −55 °C in winter to +30 °C in summer, while the eastern coastal side has a maritime monsoon climate with cool foggy summers that stay below +20 °C and milder winters around −20 °C.[2](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/common/)
**Vegetation belts.** On the western slope, light-coniferous larch taiga predominates, in places with an admixture of pine and Ayan spruce; the eastern slope also carries dark-coniferous taiga of the Okhotsk type with Ayan spruce and khaya fir. At 1,000–1,300 m the forest gives way to sparse larch woodland and thickets of dwarf Siberian pine and alder, and the bare summits (goltsy) bear stony and stony-lichen tundra; poplar and Chosenia forests line the river valleys.[1](https://old.bigenc.ru/geography/text/1953341) Along the coast, washed by the cold waters of the sea, dwarf pine thickets grow, and Okhotsk mountain taiga with Ayan spruce covers the coastal slopes up to 1,300 m.[3](https://slovar.cc/enc/bse/1993058.html)
## Dzhugdzhursky Reserve and wildlife
The Dzhugdzhursky Strict Nature Reserve was created by decree of the [Council of Ministers](https://www.edgepedia.org/council-of-ministers) of the RSFSR on 10 September 1990 with a land area of 806,256 ha, and in 1991 it was expanded by 53,700 ha of Okhotsk Sea waters; a protective zone of 252,500 ha was approved in 1992.[5](https://base.garant.ru/74547869/) • [12](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/history/) The reserve protects intact mountain-taiga landscapes of the Okhotsk region, the marine ecosystems of the southern Sea of Okhotsk and their mammals, and concentrations of migrating birds.[2](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/common/) Its land area is divided into the Osnovnoy (Main) and Pribrezhny (Coastal) cluster sections, covering the Dzhugdzhur and Pribrezhny ridges respectively, separated by a 100-km corridor of unprotected taiga; the marine section includes the Malminskie Islands.[2](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/common/)
Scientific inventories record 47 species of mammals (including the [Steller sea lion](https://www.edgepedia.org/steller-sea-lion), listed in the Red Book of Russia), 185 species of birds, of which 14 are in the Russian Red Book, and 753 species of vascular plants, of which 6 are nationally listed.[2](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/common/) Brown bears fish for abundant salmon on the mountain rivers, and the taiga supports sable, wolverine, moose, and capercaillie; snow sheep, an arctic-alpine species, live in the mountains.[2](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/common/) The Lithuanian encyclopedia also lists bighorn-like snow sheep, musk deer, [Kamchatka](https://www.edgepedia.org/kamchatka) marmots, and seals and bearded seals on the coast.[13](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/dzugdzuro-kalnai/)
## Exploration history
The first Europeans recorded as crossing the Dzhugdzhur ridge were Cossacks of the explorer Ivan Moskvitin's party in August 1639.[2](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/common/) In 1859 the crew of the frigate *Pallada*, on which the writer [Ivan Goncharov](https://www.edgepedia.org/ivan-goncharov) served as secretary, landed on the inaccessible shores, and Goncharov's travel sketches preserved impressions of the harsh coast and the difficult crossing of the Dzhugdzhur by the Ayan-Yakutsk tract, an old route linking Yakutsk with the Sea of Okhotsk.[2](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/common/) In the 20th century the geologist and writer Grigory Fedoseev explored much of the area, compiled maps, and wrote stories about it.[2](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/common/) The idea of a reserve to protect the snow sheep was first voiced in 1949, a scientific justification was published in the journal *Priroda* in 1983, and the reserve was established in 1990 after district and krai decisions in 1988 and 1989.[12](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/history/)
## References
1. [ДЖУГДЖУР, Большая российская энциклопедия, том 8 (2007)](https://old.bigenc.ru/geography/text/1953341)
2. [Общая информация о заповеднике "Джугджурский", официальный сайт](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/common/)
3. [ДЖУГДЖУР, Большая советская энциклопедия](https://slovar.cc/enc/bse/1993058.html)
4. [Mountains of Southeast Asia and the North-East (ICIMOD library)](https://lib.icimod.org/records/f9w9j-x4h09/files/attachment_157.pdf)
5. [Приказ Минприроды России от 21.05.2020 N 291 "Об утверждении Положения о государственном природном заповеднике "Джугджурский", ГАРАНТ](https://base.garant.ru/74547869/)
6. [Хребет Джугджур, официальный сайт заповедника](https://www.djugdjur.ru/visitors/unikalnosti-dzhugdzhura/khrebet-dzhugdzhur/)
7. [Особенности природно-ресурсного потенциала хребта Джугджур](https://www.flatik.ru/osobennosti-prirodno-resursnogo-potenciala-hrebta-djugdjur)
8. [The Triassic stage of mafic magmatism in the Dzhugdzhur-Stanovoi superterrane, Russian Geology and Geophysics (2010)](https://sibran.ru/en/journals/issue.php?ARTICLE_ID=130958&ID=120566&PAGEN_1=142)
9. [Apatite-Bearing Gabbro-Syenite Intrusions and the Origin of the Apatite-Ilmenite-Titanomagnetite Ore Shows of the Dzhugdzhur Range, ResearchGate](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232827387_Apatite-Bearing_Gabbro-Syenite_Intrusions_and_the_Origin_of_the_Apatite-Ilmenite-Titanomagnetite_Ore_Shows_of_the_Dzhugdzhur_Range)
10. [Compositional variations in platinum-group minerals and gold in lenses of massive pyrrhotite in the Dzhugdzhur anorthosite, GeoRef](https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/georef/term/5/12435/Dzhugdzhur-region)
11. [Allah Yun Cargo Sled Drivers, Culture.ru](https://ar.culture.ru/en/subject/gruzoperevozchiki-allah-yun)
12. [История заповедника "Джугджурский", официальный сайт](https://djugdjur.ru/aboutdjdj/history/)
13. [Džugdžuro kalnai, Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/dzugdzuro-kalnai/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Landforms and terrestrial features › Mountains, plains, and other land terrain › Mountain ranges, ridges, and hill systems › Asian ranges*
*Initially written Oct 21, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license