Kola Peninsula

Russian botanical garden

Kola Peninsula, large promontory in Murmansk oblast (province), far northern Russia. The Kola Peninsula covers some 40,000 square miles (100,000 square km) and extends across the Arctic Circle for about 190 miles (305 km) north-south and 250 miles (400 km) east-west, separating the White and Barents seas. The peninsula, which is geologically an extension of the Baltic Shield, consists of Precambrian granites and gneisses (more than 540 million years old), much fractured by faulting and rifting to give upland blocks and rift valleys. Two laccoliths, massive intrusions of igneous rock, form the highest areas, the mountain massifs of Khibiny and Lovozorskye Tundry, which reach 3,907 and 3,674 feet (1,191 and 1,120 metres), respectively. Along the peninsula’s northern coast, a plateau slopes gently northward to a high, cliffed shore. Southward the land falls in a series of steps to the low, swampy Kandalaksha coast. The low cliffs of the Tersky coast at the eastern end of the peninsula overlook the narrow entrance to the White Sea, known as the Gorlo (Throat). There are numerous lakes on the peninsula; the rivers are broken by rapids, and several hydroelectric dams are planned.

The winter climate is extremely severe, and summers are short and cool. Nearly all the peninsula is in tundra of mosses, lichens, and dwarf Arctic birch. In the south is swampy forest, or taiga, of birch, spruce, and pine. Sphagnum bogs are widespread everywhere. Soils are thin and very poorly developed, but a botanical garden has been maintained. The principal branch of the economy is mining, centred on the towns of Kirovsk and Apatity in the Khibiny Mountains. The Kola Peninsula has the world’s largest deposits of apatite (rich in phosphorus and used for fertilizer production). Nephelinite (a source of aluminum), zirconium, and columbium are also mined; the aluminum is smelted on the peninsula and at Kandalaksha. The largest town is the ice-free port of Murmansk on the eastern shore of the long, narrow Kola inlet on the northern coast. Elsewhere, the population is sparse, concentrated along the coasts, with fishing as the main occupation. In the interior a few thousand Sami (Lapps) are engaged in reindeer herding. Some timber working takes place in the extreme south.