The Ob River originates from the confluence of the mountain streams of Biya and Katun, at the southern outskirts of Russia, at the village of Fominskoye, a suburb of Biysk, Altai Territory. It is the artery of Western Siberia and carries its waters in a country like Russia.
River Ob
In the north-eastern part of the Asian continent, in the Altai Territory, near the administrative border with the Republic of Altai, there are two beautiful mountain rivers - Katun and Biya. They give rise to a great full-flowing river with the name still not unraveled Ob. As one of the assumptions about the toponymy of this geographical name, it is associated with the word "both."
The Ob River, where does it start? This place is marked on the maps as north latitude 52.5 degrees and east longitude 85 degrees. The Ob flows through the territories of five regions, crossing the West Siberian Plain from southeast to north. The mouth of the river is considered to be the Gulf of Ob with a length of 8 thousand km - this is the Kara Sea Bay. The place where the Ob River flows into is located beyond the Arctic Circle. It is marked by coordinates at 66.5 degrees north latitude and 69 degrees east longitude.
There is no disagreement on the location of the mouth. It is clear to everyone where the river flows. Ob attributed different data on its length. Some scientists summarize the length of the riverbed itself with the length of its left tributary of the Irtysh. It turns out a very impressive distance - 5140 km. Others suggest that the Ob is considered to be from the source of Katun as a longer river (688 km) than Biya (301 km), and get a different meaning. But it is impossible to belittle the significance of independent and unique watercourses of the planet - the Irtysh and Katun. In addition, the Irtysh for the most part belongs to Kazakhstan. The length of the watercourse equal to 3650 km will be considered correct - from the confluence of Katun with Biya to the Gulf of Ob, where the Ob River flows. The State Water Register provides the same data. The description of the location where the Ob River flows into: The Ob Bay of the Kara Sea, which is part of the Arctic Ocean basin, is also indicated there.
Hydrological regime
So, the length of the watercourse is 3650 km. According to this parameter, the Ob among the rivers of Russia is second, second only to the Lena.
The area of the Ob watershed is nearly 3 million square meters. km A huge amount of surface water runoff is formed from this impressive territory, which is the first by value among Russian rivers. To the Gulf of Ob, where the Ob flows into, 357 cubic meters reach. km of river waters.
The average annual flow rate (water volume in cubic m / s) was recorded by long-term observations at gauging stations: 1470 - at the city of Barnaul (upper reaches), 12 300 - at the city of Salekhard, located near the Gulf of Ob, where the Ob River flows. The maximum water mobility of the stream (during floods) recorded at gauging stations is approximately: Barnaul - 9690, Salekhard - 42 800 (cubic 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 with a length of more than 1000 km: Irtysh, Vasyugan and Big Yugan - they flow from the left bank; Chulym and Ket are right-bank.
The Ob depth - from 2-6 m at the beginning, near Biysk, reaches 25 m near Novosibirsk (near the hydroelectric power station), decreases to 8 m near the mouth of Tom and again increases to 15 m in the upper Ob Bay, where the river flows. The Ob is characterized by small slopes: from 4.5 cm at the beginning to 1.5 cm (per 1 km of length) in the lower reaches of the stream. The width of the floodplain is changing. It is 5 km at the beginning and 50 km in the region of the Gulf of Ob, where the river flows. Ob are inherent features of a flat river with a flood of spring floods and autumn floods.
Economic value
In conditions of inaccessibility due to the swampiness of the territories of the West Siberian lowland, the Ob since 1844 has been used for transportation purposes. Navigation lasts up to 190 days a year. In Novosibirsk in 1961, a hydroelectric power station, the main energy supplier for the population and enterprises of the Siberian Federal District, was commissioned. The favorite vacation spot of Novosibirsk is the beaches of the reservoir formed during the erection of the dam hydroelectric power station. From it water is taken for drinking, household and industrial enterprises of the Novosibirsk agglomeration. The river is used for fishing - valuable species of sturgeon, whitefish and partial fish live in it. The Ob discharges neutralized and treated wastewater from industrial and municipal enterprises. In the Altai Territory, river waters irrigate farmland, entering them through the Kulunda irrigation system.
Cities on the Ob
Since ancient times, people have settled along the banks of rivers. Mother Ob also did not stand aside - there are many settlements near her. We will call the largest in terms of population. At the beginning of the river is the city of Biysk, founded in 1709, with a population of 200 thousand people. Further, the city of Barnaul, the center of the Altai Territory, was formed 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 industry workers of 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 - Salekhard (1595, 50 thousand people) is located on the right bank of the Ob. Opposite it, on the left bank is the city of Labytnangi (1900, 26 thousand people).
