Rivers and lakes of Russia have long been the object of close attention from both the inhabitants of the state itself and guests from near and far abroad. And it's not just the exceptional beauty and riot of colors of nature. Many come for purely educational or even scientific purposes. For example, the world's leading experts on the territory of our country study the local flora and fauna, as well as the geological features of the planet.
Today, with confidence and some pride, we can say that the protection of rivers and lakes in Russia is under the control of the state, including local administrations.
This article is intended to answer many questions that, as a rule, sooner or later arise in all people who are interested in our country. The rivers and lakes of Russia will be considered in sufficient detail.
What is inland water?
Telling about the rivers and lakes of Russia is impossible without consideration and substantiation of purely theoretical concepts. So, inland waters are primarily understood as rivers, swamps, lakes, glaciers and artificial reservoirs. This also includes groundwater. It is unlikely that anyone will deny the fact that for human life their value is invaluable,without them, we simply could not exist. On the territory of Russia, rivers flow that belong to the basins of the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans.
By the way, the concept of a basin should be understood as a water area through which both the rivers themselves and their tributaries are saturated.
The seas, rivers and lakes of Russia, or rather, their characteristics and types of food, are directly related to the climate.
Rivers. General Description
Today, there are about two and a half million rivers in Russia. The volume of river flow is 4043 km3/year, i.e. 237 m3/year per km2.
It should be noted that the main part of our major rivers belongs to the Arctic Ocean. For example, the largest, full-flowing and long ones - the Ob, Lena and Yenisei - flow into it.
But if we take it in numerical terms, it turns out that about 80% of the rivers from the above number still belong to the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Such rivers are fast-flowing, but are considered not very long. The largest representatives are, of course, Anadyr and Amur.
Only 5% of Russian rivers belong to the Atlantic Ocean. They differ in the flat nature of the current. The largest of them is the Don.
It should be noted that the highest density of rivers in Russia falls on the taiga, and the smallest number of rivers is characteristic of the Caspian lowland.
Immediate food sources
As a rule, the rivers and lakes of Russia, photos of which can be seen almostin every encyclopedia of the planet, they feed on three types of sources: melted snow water, rain and groundwater.
This issue is worth dwelling on in more detail. So, due to the fact that the territory of the country is located in high and temperate latitudes with a continental climate, snow cover has become the main source of river nutrition throughout almost the entire Russian Federation.
At the same time, it should be noted that in some areas, for example, in the Amur region, Transbaikalia, the Kaliningrad region, where there is little snow and it rains, rivers flow with rain-type nutrition.
In mountainous areas, as a rule, in the Altai and the Caucasus, glacial nutrition has become the main one. As rivers approach the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the role of rain feeding increases.
But there are practically no rivers for which groundwater nutrition prevails in Russia. They are found only in Kamchatka.
By the way, the main runoff of the rivers of the Russian Federation falls on warm seasons.
Lena - the largest water artery
If we consider the rivers and lakes of Russia, it is simply impossible not to mention Lena. It is deservedly considered one of the largest rivers in the world. Its length is 4400 km, it flows in Eastern Siberia, through the Republic of Yakutia and the Irkutsk region. It is estimated that the basin area of this river is 490 thousand km2.
By the way, it starts from a lake with no name, at an altitude of 1000 m above sea level, located in the westBaikal ridge. The Lena flows into the Laptev Sea.
Talking about the characteristic features, it should be noted that at the source in winter the river freezes almost to the very bottom, but in summer it dries up almost completely. Surprisingly, there are even places where its depth is no more than half a meter.
And only after saturation with the first tributaries does it become deeper and more full-flowing. It is known that the river is filled with such large tributaries as Kirenga, Vitim, Aldan, Olekma, Vilyuy. Beyond Yakutsk, the Lena becomes more than 10 km wide.
The Lena River Delta begins at a distance of 150 km from the sea. The main food is rain and snow. It is full of water in spring, floods occur in summer.
Depending on the territory, the river can be very heterogeneous: fast, winding and rapids, but at the same time even and quite calm in places.
Some sections of the banks of the Lena are strong crystalline rocks, and there are those that are planted with birch and coniferous forests.
Ob is an amazing and unique river of Siberia
Ob is also a very strong water flow, the largest river in the world, the longest in Russia and the second in Asia. Its length is 3650 km. It flows through Western Siberia and flows into the Caspian Sea, where an eight-hundred-kilometer bay has now formed - the Gulf of Ob.
The river is formed in Altai at the confluence of the Biya and Katun. Its basin area is 2990 thousand km2.
The width of the Ob after the confluence of the Irtysh reaches 7 km, and the depthin this area it is up to 20 m.
The Ob Delta covers an area of about 4 thousand km2. Among the main tributaries, the Tom and Irtysh should be singled out. The river is fed mainly by melt water, in spring it is characterized by floods.
The largest lakes in Russia
Note that throughout our country there is a huge number of large water bodies. The largest lakes are Baikal, Onega, Ladoga, Chukotskoye, Ilmen, Khantayskoye, Segozero, Kuludinskoye, Teletskoye and Pskov-Chukotskoye.
Surely everyone who reads this article will agree that the name of the rivers and lakes of Russia has a special melody. Well, in what other language of the world are there such words, after pronouncing which one already wants to write poetry and compose amazing stories?
By the way, not without pride, we note that Lake Onega, Ladoga and Ilmen are among the most famous lakes in Europe.
Baikal is a mighty giant
There are corners on the planet that you can talk about endlessly. Many seas, rivers and lakes of Russia can be attributed to such places.
Take, for example, Baikal, which is considered not only the deepest lake on the planet and the largest storage of fresh water reserves in the world, but also simply a territory with a unique nature.
It is 1,640 meters deep and truly awe-inspiring at 25 million years old.years.
Not everyone knows that this lake contains 90% of the fresh water of the Russian Federation and 20% of the entire world fund of this natural resource. At first glance, it is even hard to imagine that 336 rivers carry waters to our Baikal and only one Angara flows out of it.
The sea that is a lake
Yes, yes, and this also happens, although, you see, it sounds extremely implausible. The thing is that the Caspian Sea is actually a huge drainless lake with s alt water and ocean cover.
It is located on the border of Europe and Asia, but the shores of the Caspian Sea are located on the territory of five states: Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iran. Thanks to this, this sea-lake received 70 different names, but its main name comes from the ancient tribes that used to live here - the Caspians.
The area of the Caspian Sea is more than 371 thousand km22. Shallow water is found in the northern part of the lake. The water level is unstable and fluctuates constantly. Unfortunately, if we list the most polluted rivers, lakes, seas of Russia, then it is simply impossible to bypass this territory. However, our country is taking the whole range of necessary measures aimed at preventing a catastrophe on a global scale.
