The Chuya Steppe in the Siberian Altai Mountains is a depression formed by tectonic movement of major faults in the Earths crust. The name 'Chuya Steppe' comes from the large river which runs through the steppe

Steppe

In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...

, the Chuya River

Chuya River

The Chuya River is a river in the Altai Republic in Russia, a right tributary of the Katun River . The Chuya is 320 km long, the area of its drainage basin is 11,200 km². The river freezes up in October - early November and breaks up in late April....

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Major Towns

Kosh-Agac is a major town in the north of the steppe. Other large towns include Chaganuzun and Beltir.

Geology

The Chuya Steppe is filled with Cenozoic

Cenozoic

The Cenozoic era is the current and most recent of the three Phanerozoic geological eras and covers the period from 65.5 mya to the present. The era began in the wake of the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous that saw the demise of the last non-avian dinosaurs and...

 sediments, derived from the surrounding mountains of the Chuya Range-Chuya Alps

Chuya Alps

The Chuya Alps are part of the Altay mountain range, straddling the border of Russia and Kazakhstan close to the region where their borders and those of China and Mongolia meet. They have an average altitude of about 9000 ft with summits ranging from 11,500 to 12,000 ft. There are about...

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Seismicity

In September 2003, a major earthquake occurred in the Chuya Steppe which caused regional devastation. Major movement considered to have occurred on the Chuya thrust fault caused this earthquake, of magnitude 7.3. The USGS estimates that this caused $10.6 million damage.