The Ob River originates from the confluence of the mountain streams of the Biya and Katun, near the southern outskirts of Russia, near the village of Fominskoye, a suburb of Biysk, Altai Territory. It is an artery of Western Siberia and carries its waters through a country like Russia.
Ob River
In the northeastern part of the Asian continent, in the Altai Territory, near the administrative border with the Republic of Altai, two beautiful mountain rivers meet - the Katun and the Biya. They give rise to the great full-flowing river with the name Ob, which has not yet been guessed. As one of the assumptions about the toponymy of this geographical name, it is associated with the word "both".
Where does the Ob River originate? This place is marked on maps as latitude 52.5 degrees north and longitude 85 degrees east. The Ob flows through the territories of five regions, crossing the West Siberian Plain from the southeast to the north. The mouth of the river is considered the Gulf of Ob, 8 thousand km long - this is the bay of the Kara Sea. The place where the Ob River flows is located beyond the Arctic Circle. It is marked at 66.5 degrees north latitude and 69 degrees east longitude.
By locationthere is no mouth of controversy. Everyone knows where the river flows. Obi is credited with different data on its length. Some scholars summarize the length of the riverbed itself with the length of its left tributary, the Irtysh. It turns out a very impressive distance - 5140 km. Others propose to consider the length of the Ob from the sources of the Katun as a longer river (688 km) than the Biya (301 km), and get a different value. But one cannot belittle the importance of the independent and most unique watercourses of the planet - the Irtysh and the Katun. In addition, the Irtysh mostly belongs to Kazakhstan. It would be correct to consider the length of the watercourse equal to 3650 km - from the confluence of the Katun with the Biya and to the Gulf of Ob, where the Ob River flows. The State Water Register contains the same data. It also contains a description of the location where the Ob River flows: the Ob Bay of the Kara Sea, which is part of the Arctic Ocean basin.
Hydrological regime
So, the length of the watercourse is 3650 km. According to this parameter, the Ob is the second among the rivers of Russia, second only to the Lena.
The area of the Ob drainage basin is almost 3 million square meters. km. From this impressive territory, which is the first in importance among Russian rivers, a huge volume of surface water runoff is formed. 357 cubic meters reach the Ob Bay, where the Ob flows into. km of river waters.
Average annual discharge (volume of water in cubic meters per second) was recorded by long-term observations at gauging stations: 1470 - near the city of Barnaul (upper reaches), 12,300 - near the city of Salekhard, located near the Gulf of Ob, where the Ob River flows into. Maximum flow rate(during floods), registered at gauging stations, is approximately: Barnaul - 9690, Salekhard - 42,800 (cub. m/s).
More than 161 thousand streams, small, medium and large rivers carry their waters to the Ob. The total length of the tributaries is 740 thousand km. Most of them (94%) are small rivers (no more than 10 km long). Large tributaries over 1000 km long: Irtysh, Vasyugan and Bolshoi Yugan - they flow from the left bank; Chulym and Ket are right-bank.
Depth of the Ob - from 2-6 m at the beginning, near the city of Biysk, reaches 25 m near the city of Novosibirsk (near the hydroelectric power station), decreases to 8 m near the mouth of the Tom and again increases to 15 m in the upper reaches of the Ob lips where the river flows. The Ob is characterized by small slopes of the terrain: from 4.5 cm at the beginning to 1.5 cm (per 1 km of length) in the lower reaches of the current. The width of the floodplain changes. It is 5 km at the beginning and 50 km in the region of the Gulf of Ob, where the river flows. The Ob has the features of a flat river with a flood of spring floods and autumn floods.
Economic value
In conditions of inaccessibility due to the swampy territories of the West Siberian Lowland, the Ob has been used for transport purposes since 1844. Navigation continues up to 190 days a year. In Novosibirsk, in 1961, a hydroelectric power station was put into operation - the main supplier of energy for the population and enterprises of the Siberian Federal District. A favorite vacation spot for Novosibirsk residents is the beaches of the reservoir, which was formed during the erection of the hydroelectric dam. Water is also taken from it for drinking, household andmanufacturing enterprises of the Novosibirsk agglomeration. The river is used for fishing - valuable species of sturgeon, whitefish and common fish live in it. In the Ob, neutralized and treated wastewater from industrial and municipal enterprises is discharged. In the Altai Territory, the waters of the river irrigate farmland, flowing to them through the Kulunda irrigation system.
Cities on the Ob
Since ancient times, people settled along the banks of rivers. Mother-Ob did not stand aside either - there are many settlements near her. Let's name the largest in terms of population. At the beginning of the river stands the city of Biysk, founded in 1709, with a population of 200 thousand people. Next - the city of Barnaul, the center of the Altai Territory, founded in 1730, the population is more than 600 thousand people. Novosibirsk is the main city of the Siberian Federal District, founded in 1893, it is inhabited by more than 1.5 million people. Tomsk region - the port of Kolpashevo (1938, 23 thousand people). Cities of oil workers in the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug with a population of more than 300 thousand people. in each - Nizhnevartovsk (1908) and Surgut (1594). The center of the Yamal-Nenets Okrug - the city of Salekhard (1595, 50 thousand people) is located on the right bank of the Ob. Opposite it, on the left bank, is the town of Labytnangi (1900, 26 thousand people).
Summing up
Among Russian watercourses, the great Ob River ranks in its main characteristics:
- 1st place - in terms of catchment area - 2 million 990 thousand square meters. km.
- 2nd place - by the length of the main channel - 3650 km.
- 3rd place - in terms of the annual total volume of runoff - 357 cubic meters.km.
