Geography

The reserve is located in the middle of the Central Russian Upland of the East European Plain, in the southern part of Moskvoretsko-Okskaya moraine erosion plain on the left-bank terraces of the Oka River, in the subzone of mixed coniferous and deciduous forests of the south-west part of the Moscow Region on the border with broad-leaved forests.

Climate

Climate of Serpukhov District, where the reserve is located, is moderately continental, with quite warm summers and moderately cold winters.

  • Over the past 10 years the average temperature of the coldest month, January is -8.3°С, and of the warmest one, July is +17.6°С.
  • The average annual temperature is +4.8°С.
  • Sometimes the summer temperature rises to 38-39°С and the winter temperature drops to -43.3°С, as it happened in December, 1978.
  • The maximum amount of precipitation occurs in July, 91.2 mm, the maximum — in March, 33.5 mm.
  • The average duration of the seasonal snow cover period is 133 days, the average snow depth is 52 cm.
  • The vegetation season lasts for 186 days.
  • As a rule, spring comes 8-10 days earlier than in Moscow.

Land Relief and Bedding Rocks

In the reserve, there are fragments of Oka floodplains, terraces above the floodplains and a drainage divide. The relief of the reserve is determined by its location on the slopes of the Oka River, which leads to its floodplain with terrace-like steps, boarded by ledges poorly resolved at times. Level difference from north to south is 76 meters. The minimum height is 106 meters above sea level; the maximum height is 182 meters above sea level.

рельефBedding rocks here are sediments of the lower and middle of Carboniferous period, which underlie the floodplain of the Oka River and compose terrace-like steps on the left bank. The rocks here are mostly limestone overlain by the Dnieper moraine and a thick cover of alluvial fluvioglacial sands. The thickness of sand sediments is from 0.75 to 2 meters, on the lower terraces in the west part of the reserve the thickness reaches 4 meters or more.

 

The reserve is located on the terrace-like steps, which are small, but well resolved ledges. They were formed as the result of modern and ancient erosion processes.

Hydrology

In the protected area, especially in its central part, there are a lot of springs with incredibly pure and delicious water. Due to a great number of springs, one glade is named the Spring Glade.

There are two small rivers – the Tadenka and the Ponikovka, which run from the north to the south of the reserve.

In the south part of the reserve, there are lakes: the Sionsky, the Protoksky.

Bogs cover 36 hectares of the territory. The total area of wetlands is 48 hectares, which is about 1% of the whole reserve territory.