Elburz Mountains
Elburz Mountains, additionally spelled Alborz, Albourz, Alburz, or Elburs, Persian Reshteh-ye Kūhhā-ye Alborz, major hill range in northern Iran, 560 miles (900 kilometer) long. The product range, most broadly defined, stretches in a arc eastward through the frontier with Azerbaijan southwest of the Caspian Sea to your Khorāsān area of northeastern Iran, southeast of the Caspian Sea, in which the range merges in to the Ālādāgh, the more southerly for the two ranges that are principal. More commonly, nonetheless, the part that is westernmost of range is called the Talish (Talysh, Talesh, or Tavālesh) number, or the Bogrov Dāgh. The Elburz Range, in its strictest sense, forms the main central stretch associated with the string, which also includes Iran’s two greatest peaks, Mount Damāvand and Mount Alām. The Elburz mountain system traverses most of the northernmost portions of Iran from east to west.
The Elburz chain is never as truly alpine (i.e., resembling the European Alps) in its structure as is often suggested. In the one hand, continental conditions sedimentation that is regarding mirrored by dense Devonian sandstones (about 360 to 415 million years old) and by Jurassic shales containing coal seams (about 145 to 200 million years of age). Regarding the other side, marine conditions are mirrored by strata dating to your boundary associated with Carboniferous and Permian periods (about 300 million yrs . old) that are composed primarily of limestones, as well as by extremely dense beds of green volcanic tuffs and lavas. Orogenic (mountain-building) stages worth focusing on date from the Miocene and Pliocene epochs (between about 23 and 2.6 million years ago). Over big areas they produced merely a free folding; but in the Central Elburz a number of folds had been created into blocks thrust mainly southward however in places northward, with cores made from Paleozoic rocks (a lot more than 250 million years old). Structurally and topographically, the Elburz system is less plainly defined on the southern than on the Caspian (northern) side associated with the string, since different off-branching elements interconnect it regarding the southern part aided by the adjoining plateau that is iranian.
The Western Elburz number operates south-southeastward for 125 miles (200 kilometer). Varying in width from 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km), it is made up of solitary asymmetric ridge, the long slope facing the Caspian. Number of its peaks approach or exceed 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) in height. There exists a low pass western of ДЂstДЃrДЃ, near the Azerbaijan frontier, 5,000 f t (1,500 m) above sea level. The SafД«d River, created by the junction associated with the Qezel Owzan (Qisil Uzun) and ShДЃhrЕ«d rivers, is the only river to get a cross the whole width of the string its gorge, providing usage of the low pass of QazvД«n, supplies the passage that is best through the mountain chain, although by no means an easy one, between the GД«lДЃn region on the shores regarding the Caspian plus the inland plateau to the south.
The Central Elburz is 250 kilometers (400 kilometer) very long. East associated with the longitude of Tehrān, which lies towards the south for the range, a width is reached by it of 75 miles (120 km). Situated one of the longitudinal valleys and ridges of the range are some important centers of settlement, using the towns of Deylamān, Razan, Kojūr, and Namar situated on the Caspian side and Emāmshahr (formerly Shāhrūd), Lār, Damāvand, and Fīrūzkūh regarding the side that is southern. You will find likewise gorges that are many through which the streams find their way down one or any other of the slopes. Just two passes enable a relatively easy crossing in a single ascent—those are the Kandevān Pass, between the Karaj as well as the Chālūs rivers, as well as the Gadūk Pass, between the Hableh as well as the Tālā rivers. The key divide operates generally speaking south associated with crest that is highest, which—with the exception for the towering and isolated cone regarding the extinct volcano Mount Damāvand (18,386 legs [5,604 metres])—culminates into the glaciated massif of Takht-e Soleymān, which rises to more than 15,750 feet (4,800 metres).
The Eastern, or ShДЃhkЕ«h, Elburz operates about 185 kilometers (300 kilometer) in a direction that is northeasterly.
Since two ranges branch off on its southern side and no compensatory elements show up on the side that is northern its width dwindles to significantly less than 30 miles (48 kilometer). Except for the ShДЃhkЕ«h Range proper (which reaches an elevation of 12,359 f t [3,767 metres]), the string decreases in height toward the eastern. Longitudinal valleys are found less usually east regarding the ShДЃhkЕ«h. There are several passes at low elevations.
The Caspian and also the inland, or southern, slopes regarding the Elburz vary markedly from each other in 
climatic and aspects that are vegetational. The slope that is caspian a distinctly humid weather, thanks to northerly air movements, enriched with dampness from the sea, which collide utilizing the high faces for the mountains to cause precipitation. The precipitation amounts to more than 40 ins (1,000 mm) yearly within the lowlands regarding the GД«lДЃn region and it is even more abundant at higher elevations. It still suffices to nourish a humid forest for the whole length of the chain on the Caspian side, where the soils are mostly of the brown-forest type although it decreases toward the east. The normal vegetation of the slope grows in distinct areas the luxuriant Hyrcanian w dland on the lowest amounts; a beech w dland at the center zone; and a magnificent oak forest through the level of 5,500 legs (1,700 metres) as much as the levels where gaps into the divide permit the moist atmosphere to overflow into the inland basins. In some sheltered valleys here are extensive stands of crazy cypress. Sheltered valleys next to the SafД«d River constitute the actual only real olive-growing areas of note in Iran.