page_title: Geology of Russia
section_title: Okhotsk-Chukotka Volcanic Belt
hierarchical_section_title: Geology of Russia / Okhotsk-Chukotka Volcanic Belt
caption_attribution_description: English: Area around Okhotsk plate.
context_page_description: The geology of Russia, the world's largest country, which extends over much of northern Eurasia, consists of several stable cratons and sedimentary platforms bounded by orogenic belts.
  European Russia is on the East European craton, at the heart of which is a complex of igneous and metamorphic rocks dating back to the Precambrian. The craton is bounded on the east by the long tract of compressed and highly deformed rock that constitutes the Ural orogen. In Asiatic Russia, the area between the Ural Mountains and the Yenisei River is the young West Siberian Plain. East of the Yenisei River is the ancient Central Siberian Plateau, extending to the Lena River. East of the Lena River there is the Verhoyansk-Chukotka collision zone, stretching to the Chukchi Peninsula.
  The orogens within Russia belong to the Baltic Shield, the Timanides, the Urals, the Altai Mountains, the Ural-Mongolian epipaleozoic orogen and the northwestern part of the Pacific orogeny. The country's highest mountains, the Caucasus, are confined to younger orogens.
context_section_description: The Okhotsk-Chukotka Volcanic Belt stretches 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) from the settlement of Okhotsk and runs along the northern shore of the Sea of Okhotsk. In the Shelikhov Gulf the belt runs northeast across most of the Chukchi Peninsula and then bends southeast and runs along the Pacific shoreline and terminates between the peninsula and St. Lawrence Island.
  The Okhotsk-Chukotka Volcanic Belt was formed during the Cretaceous by the subduction of the Kula or Isanagai oceanic plate under the Verkhoyansk-Chukotka orogen. The activity ended with the subduction moving farther east.
  Mineral resources found in the Okhotsk-Chukotka belt include gold, silver, tin and mercury.
caption: Map of the Okhotsk Plate and its neighbouring plates.
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