From the southwest to northeast, the oblast is crossed by the border of the Moscow glacier to the north of the common ice-erosion form with moraine ridges, and to the south are only erosional landforms.

Coal deposits rich in organic remains occur in the south, especially in Serpukhovsky District, and in the western regions.

The glaciers left behind a moraine loam with pebbles and boulders of various rocks, such as granite, gneiss, quartzite, dolomite, limestone and sandstone.

Refractory white clay occurs in the eastern region, in the Carboniferous and Jurassic sediments, and is extracted from the 14th century near Gzhel.

The famous Myachkovo deposit of carboniferous limestone provided material that went for cladding of such buildings in Moscow as the Bolshoi Theater.

The northern part of Moscow Oblast includes such Volga tributaries as the Shosha, the Lama, the Dubna, the Sestra, and the Yakhroma.

In the basin of the Moskva River, there are also Ozerninskoye, Mozhayskoye, Istrinskoye, and Ruza Reservoirs, providing Moscow with drinking water.

In general, soils are heavily polluted with chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and household and industrial waste, especially around Moscow, Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Noginsk, and Voskresensk.

Coniferous (mainly fir) trees dominate the northern (Verkhnevolzhsk lowlands) and western parts (Mozhaysky, Lotoshinsky, and Shakhovsky Districts).

Central and eastern regions have coniferous-deciduous forests with the main tree species of spruce, pine, birch, and aspen often mixed with bushes of hazel.

[35] The intensive cutting of Moscow region forests in the 18–19th centuries reduced them and changed their species: conifers were replaced by birch and aspen.

Some areas contain stable populations of imported animals, such as flying squirrel, American mink and Siberian roe deer.

[36] There are more than 170 species of birds in the area with large numbers of crows, sparrows, ducks, magpies, woodpeckers, thrushes, grouses, bullfinches, nightingales, corncrakes, northern lapwings, white storks, grey herons, seagulls and grebes.

[36] Rivers and lakes of Moscow Oblast are rich in fish, such as ruffe, carp, bream, bass, roaches, Chinese sleeper, perch and pike.

For example, the Timohovskaya dump is one of the largest in Europe; other objects of concern are aging oil storage tanks, and nuclear waste in the Sergiyevo-Posadsky District.

Contamination level is highest in Moscow, Voskresensk and Klin, high in Dzerzhinsky, Kolomna, Mytishchi, Podolsk, Serpukhov, Shchyolkovo, and Elektrostal, and low in Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve.

In the Moscow area and in major cities (in particular, in Podolsk, Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Serpukhov, Lukhovitsy and Stupino) also heavily polluted are groundwaters.

Germany reached Solnechnogorsky, Klinsky, Istrinsky, Lobninsky, Khimkinsky, Naro-Fominsky, Volokolamsky, Kolomensky, Kashirsky, Serybryano-Prudsky Districts and others.

There are plants for the thermal and nuclear power engineering (ZiO-Podolsk in Podolsk), nuclear fuel (TVEL in Elektrostal), space and missile (Energia in Korolyov, Lavochkin in Khimki, NGO engineering in Reutov, FTSDT "Union" in Dzerzhinsky – development of solid rocket fuel, etc., IBC "Horizon" in Dzerzhinsky – power plants for aircraft, etc.

); locomotives (Kolomna factory), metro cars (Metrowagonmash in Mytischi), electric trains (Demikhovsky Engineering Works), cars (SeAZ), buses (Likinsky bus plant in Likino-Dulyovo); agricultural machines, excavators and cranes (Lyubertsy, Dmitrov, Balashikha); stainless steel (Elektrostal), cables (Podolsk), optical devices (Krasnogorsky plant, Lytkarino Optical Glass Factory).

Chemical industry of the Oblast produces acids (Shchyolkovo), mineral fertilizers (plants named "Phosphates" and "Mineral fertilizers" in Voskresensk), synthetic fibers (Serpukhov and Klin), plastics (Orekhovo-Zuyevo), varnishes and paints (Sergiyev Posad, Odintsovsky paint factories), pharmaceuticals (Staraya Kupavna).

There is still production of cotton (in Yegoryevsk, Noginsk, Orekhovo-Zuyevo), wool (in Pavlovsky Posad and Pushkino) and jerseys (in Ivanteyevka and Dmitrov).

Large foreign investment projects include the plant for manufacturing household appliances (TV sets, washing machines, refrigerators, etc.)

Large areas are reserved for grains, especially wheat, barley, oats and rye, and significant role plays potato.

[44][45] Moscow Oblast has a dense transport network, including roads, railways and waterways along the largest rivers, lakes and reservoirs.

Eleven major radial lines originate in Moscow and run through the Oblast; the total length of the railways reaches 2,700 km.

[51][52] Moscow Oblast has a high density of scientific research institutions, especially related to engineering and military technologies.

Moscow Oblast hosts Mission Control Centers for spacecraft (in Korolyov) and military satellites (Krasnoznamensk), as well as a number of test sites.

Also numerous are manor complexes, such as those in Abramtsevo, Muranovo, Ostafievo, historical towns (Vereya, Volokolamsk, Dmitrov, Zaraysk, Zvenigorod, Istra, Kolomna, Sergiyev Posad, Serpukhov, etc.

[14] The oldest populated place in the oblast is Volokolamsk, first mentioned in 1135; slightly younger towns are Zvenigorod (1152), Dmitrov (1154), and Kolomna (1177).