Russia - The Great Vasyugan Mire

The Great Vasyugan Mire, the largest swamp system in the northern hemisphere of the planet, is located in the central sector of the West Siberian plain, a geographical phenomenon due to extremely wide spreading of swamps. The mire occupies a large area of the Ob and Irtysh watershed and stretches between latitudes 55'35' and 58'40' North, and longitudes 74'30' and 83'30' East. Mire extension from west to east is about 550 km, from north to south in the axial part - in average 50-80 km; with spurs, or "tongues" taken into account, spread of the mire from north to south reaches 270 km. The area of the Great Vasyugan Mire is over 55 000 m*, which is about 2% of the whole area of peat bogs of the world. The landscape structure of the Great Vasyugan Mire includes bogs (32%), fens (35%) and forested mires (33%). The Great Vasyugan Mire is located within boundary of four regions of Russian Federation: Tyumen, Omsk, Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions (mainly Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions). The system of registration of land resources categorizes the mires as the land belonging to forest fund. The western part of the mire till about 78' E meridian is involved into the area of exploration and exploitation of oil and gas fields.