Reverse flow of rivers. Where does the Volga River flow? Interesting facts

Thanks to its unique natural resources And geographical location The river has long attracted people to its banks, where they built their settlements, which over time turned into large and small cities with surrounding villages. The development of shipping contributed to the emergence of trading cities - ports located along the entire course of the river. The largest of them are Volgograd, Samara, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod.

Since the 30s of the last century, the Volga began to be used as a source of hydropower. Nowadays, approximately 50% of the agricultural production of the Russian Federation is concentrated in the river basin. The Volga provides more than 20% of the country's entire fishing industry. 9 reservoirs and hydroelectric power stations were built here. Therefore, it becomes quite acute.

According to experts, the load on water resources rivers are eight times higher than the national average, and 65 of the 100 most polluted cities in Russia are located in the Volga basin.

Environmentalists are sounding the alarm: the waters of the Volga are seriously polluted. Monitoring data confirm that the water quality in the Volga and its tributaries and reservoirs does not meet the Russian quality standard for a number of parameters. The most serious ones arise in connection with:

• availability large quantity dams;
• the work of large industrial enterprises and complexes;
• an abundance of polluted wastewater from large cities;
• intensive navigation.

Impact of wastewater

The main cause of river pollution is the discharge of untreated and insufficiently treated waste water. The reason for this lies in physical and technological wear and tear and, as a consequence, the inefficiency of treatment facilities of industrial and municipal enterprises.

The pollution of the Volga water directly affects the condition of its inhabitants. Data from various studies have shown the presence of mutations and congenital deformities in some fish populations.

water bloom

The appearance of blue-green algae in the river was also noted, capable of actively absorbing oxygen during decomposition and releasing environment up to 300 types of toxic substances, most of which have not yet been studied. About 20–30% of the water surface of the Kuibyshev reservoir annually in summer period covered with a film of these algae. After dying, the algae that fall to the bottom release phosphorus and nitrogen, thereby creating an ideal environment for self-reproduction, which results in secondary pollution of the reservoir.

Presence of dams

According to experts, the situation is complicated by the fact that after the construction of the dams the river lost its ability to cleanse itself.

The Volga reservoirs are virtually non-flowing, and 90% of the pollution that enters them is not carried out by the current and settles at the bottom.

In addition, during the construction of these hydraulic structures,

Hazardous waste

A large share of pollution in the Volga basin comes from sunken and abandoned watercraft (oil tankers, cargo ships, passenger ships). Remains of fuel and other toxic substances, washed out by the waters of the Volga, pose a huge danger to environmental situation rivers.

A solution to the problem of deteriorating ecology can be the development and implementation of government programs aimed at modernizing and replacing outdated treatment facilities, as well as the implementation of a project to clean up the Volga basin from 2.4 thousand sunken watercraft.

• Hydronym mazhis water body(rivers, streams, oner, etc.)
• Low water is an annual low water level.
• Shuga is an accumulation of small fragments of in-water and bottom debris.
• In 1709, a devastating flood occurred at the Makarevsky Monastery, which is located 90 km down the Volga from Nizhny Novgorod. Peter I, who visited the monastery in 1722, “ordered to sign where the water was” at the time of the disaster. Since that time, recording the highest points of water rise has become mandatory.
• IN Ancient Rus' a portage was a place where two navigable rivers came closest; ships and cargo in this area were dragged (dragged) from one river to another.

Perhaps the first thing that attracts attention is geographical map Russia is an abundance of rivers covering vast expanses of the country with a dense network. Along with the forest and steppe, rivers, as historians note, are the main natural “elements” that have had a diverse influence on the course of the history of the Russian state.

Rivers in Ancient Rus' were called “God’s roads.” In the summer, many ships sailed along them - from small fishing boats to large military and merchant ships. In winter, sleigh carts pulled along the hard ice surface. New lands were being developed along the rivers, cities, towns and villages were built along their banks.

To this day, the vast majority of cities and villages are located on the banks of rivers. The majestic Dnieper became the cradle of Kyiv - “the mother of Russian cities,” the capital of Ancient Rus'. Moscow settled on the banks of the Moscow River. Not far away, on the Klyazma River, stands the city of Vladimir - in the past one of the centers of Rus', the residence of the great princes. At the mouth of the Neva at the beginning of the 18th century. St. Petersburg was founded - the capital Russian Empire. The Volkhov River flows close to the city, on the banks of which stands “Mr. Veliky Novgorod,” the center of the ancient Russian Novgorod Republic... This list could be continued with many, many famous cities of the country.

There are more than 2 million rivers in Russia. Of these, more than 200 are large (over 500 km long); about 3 thousand - average (200-500 km). The total length of all rivers exceeds 6 million 500 thousand km. At the same time, the share of large rivers is about 160 thousand km, and the length of medium rivers is 450 thousand km. The rest, i.e. almost 6 million km, is the length of a huge number of small rivers.

WHERE AND WHERE RIVERS FLOW

It seems that everyone knows that the Volga flows into the Caspian Sea. Where does the great Russian river begin its run? Someone will confidently say that from Valdai, from a spring near the village of Volga-no Verkhovye. However, the answer is not so certain. They say that the residents of Nizhny Novgorod for a long time could not decide which of the two rivers to name the one formed from the confluence of the Oka and Volga. Then they organized a competition: which river they could sing the most songs about, that one would be considered the main one. If the Volga had not won, then the waterway to the Caspian would have to be counted from the center of the Central Russian Upland, where the Kursk and Oryol region, i.e. from the source of the Oka.

This is not the only example when history, tradition or simply chance determine the primacy of one of two merging rivers of equal size. By the way, the Volga could be a tributary of not only the Oka, but also the Kama, which at its confluence is much deeper than the main artery of the European part of Russia. Sometimes the river, starting from the confluence of two tributaries, is called by a third name: the Ob is formed by the Biya and the Katun, the Amur by the Shilka and the Argun.

If there is a lake along the path of a water flow, then almost always their hydronyms are different.

The Neva flows from Lake Ladoga, but neither the Volkhov nor the Svir, the largest rivers flowing into it, claim the right to be the ancestors of the Neva. And it is even more difficult to consider it the source of one of these rivers, since the first flows from Lake Ilmen, and the second from Lake Onega.

In fact, any river begins simultaneously at many points scattered throughout an area called a drainage basin. But most often the source, official or unrecognized, is located near the watershed - the line outlining the river basin.

The main watersheds mark the boundaries between river basins flowing into different oceans. Taking this circumstance into account, it is possible to divide the territory of Russia into several uneven parts. For example, the Pacific Ocean stretches along the eastern coast of the country for more than 5 thousand km, but from Russian waters it only gets those flowing with a narrow coastal strip, compressed by approaching mountains. True, in the south Far East Ocean "domains" extend into the interior of Eurasia, including the Amur River basin.

The main recipient of river waters in Russia is Severny Arctic Ocean. Its basin covers almost all of Siberia and the northern part of the East European Plain. IN northern seas carry their waters greatest rivers Eurasia - Ob, Yenisei and Lena. Together with many other rivers flowing to the north, they collect up to 4/5 of all moisture that falls in the form of precipitation. The Ob, Yenisei and some of their tributaries are so long that they cross Russia from south to north, and with their upper reaches they also “grab” the lands of Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia.

The Atlantic Ocean receives the least amount of river "tribute". Of the large rivers that carry their waters into it, we can name the Don, Kuban (flow into the Sea of ​​Azov) and Neva (into the Baltic Sea). The Dnieper and Western Dvina, which also feed the Atlantic Ocean, penetrate into Russia only through the upper reaches; after the collapse of the USSR, most of their basins ended up abroad.

The waters of some rivers do not reach the World Ocean at all. They are accepted by closed lakes, or they completely disappear into the desert sands. The largest endorheic basin is the Caspian. In addition to the Volga, such large rivers as the Ural, Terek and Sulak flow into it.

LIFE OF RIVERS

The rivers of Russia have many faces. Some are several kilometers wide, and ocean ships sail freely on them. Others barely cover their own muddy bottom, across which a herd of cows can easily wade. Still others rush in a foamy stream through a mountain gorge. And yet, it’s not without reason that the collective image of a Russian river is a blue ribbon slowly carrying its waters and smoothly bending among the low banks. Indeed, these are basically the rivers of the Russian Plain, and Western Siberia. The channels have a slight slope and freely form bends in a wide valley. The flow pattern is calm and predictable. In spring, when the snow melts, main source feeding these rivers, hollow water freely floods the coastal floodplain lowland. In summer, the river returns to its previous channel and even becomes noticeably shallower - the so-called summer low water begins. Before winter freezes freeze the river, autumn rains may raise the water again, but these floods rarely reach the level of the spring flood. This is repeated year after year.

Rivers in the mountains behave differently Southern Siberia and in the south of the Far East. Little snow accumulates in these areas during the winter, and floods do not always cause a noticeable rise in water. But in the summer, especially in the second half, prolonged rains can even lead to catastrophic floods. They are famous for the violent, indomitable temperament of the rivers of Primorye and Khabarovsk Territory, which after tropical cyclones - typhoons that came with Pacific Ocean, spread over tens of kilometers.

The Altai rivers have a special character and North Caucasus. They are at their deepest in midsummer, the period when they melt the most. mountain glaciers. The water level fluctuates even throughout the day: where in the morning it was possible to cross the river on protruding stones, in the afternoon there is an irresistible and high seething wave.

Not all rivers in Russia all year round full of water. In hot and dry areas - in the Caspian region, the southern Volga region, in the south of Western Siberia - small rivers dry up, leaving chains of puddles and islands of swampy thickets in their riverbeds for the summer. Even more often, rivers stop flowing in winter. The water does not leave them: it turns into ice. A severe cold lasting many months binds most of the upper streams in Siberia and the Far North. Even large rivers such as the Kolyma, Indigirka and Anadyr will not escape this fate. IN central regions, where there are droughts in summer and severe frosts in winter, there are rivers that dry up and freeze over.

ICE ON RIVERS

Russia is a country with predominantly cold or temperate climate(see article "Climate"). During the frosty period, almost all rivers are covered with ice. It restricts the flow for varying periods of time - from several days to eight months or more.

When the air temperature remains steadily below O "C, banks first form on the river - stripes of ice near the banks. Then thin ice plates - the so-called ice lard - appear near the banks. Soon it spreads to the entire water space, but does not stay on the rivers for long, usually three to five days. New ice crystals, freezing together and with the “fat” plates, contribute to the formation of large ice floes. Ice appears both at the bottom and in the thickness of the water stream, its crystals grow and turn into spongy lumps that float up. Sugi.

So, the ice becomes more and more, and finally, the autumn ice drift begins / ice floes float on the water, which on large rivers reach tens and hundreds square meters with a thickness of 20-30 cm. Ice plugs - jams - form in narrowings of the channel and in shallow waters; It is from them that ice formation begins to form - the winter cover of the river.

Ice lasts the longest, of course, on the rivers of the Far North - those that flow through the Arctic islands, through the tundra and taiga of Siberia; The rivers in the mountains of northeastern Russia have been frozen for a long time.

The destruction of ice cover is also a complex and lengthy process. In the spring, the snow covering the river ice becomes compacted, and then heat freely flows down through it. Melt water, the layer of which can reach 50-60 mm, enters the pores of the ice and thus contributes to its destruction. Soon after the snow begins to melt everywhere, water penetrating under the ice lifts the cover attached to the banks. At some point, it splits, and stripes of water - edges - form along the banks. This is exactly how ice drift “starts” on large and medium-sized rivers in the European part of Russia. Those that flow through the western and southern regions of this region and open at low water levels have a relatively calm ice flow. After the ice breaks away from the shores, it becomes covered with transverse cracks, which turn into polynyas.

If the spring is friendly, without the return of long-term frosts, then just one or two ice shifts lead to a rapid opening of the river. In a long spring, there are more such shifts, and they occur at intervals of several days, or even weeks.

When the ice cover is strong and resists rising water for a long time, edges appear at the height of the flood. This phenomenon is observed on large rivers of Siberia flowing from south to north. Ice jams also form on them more often. Sometimes an ice drift consists of a series of ice plugs moving down the river (for example, on the Yenisei), which poses a rather serious danger.

Small rivers with abundant groundwater supply, as well as large ones flowing from north to south, open up in the lower reaches without ice drift. The destruction of ice in them occurs due to solar radiation and heat coming from the air. There is practically no spring flood. Examples include the lower reaches of the Don and Volga, which open in early spring.

FLOODS

Floods are very common on Russian rivers. The history of settlement of the coasts and estuaries is a kind of chronicle of man's struggle with the water element.

Numerous evidence of floods is stored in ancient historical chronicles. Commemorative plaques mounted on the walls of houses and churches tell of the disasters. Unfortunately, in recent decades, much of this has been lost, and among them the famous “hydroscope” - a board with marks of significant floods in the vicinity of the Makaryevsky Monastery on the Volga.

Floods occur most often during high floods and floods caused by the influx of melt and rainwater into the riverbed. A sharp rise in water can be a result of congestion, winds pushing water into the mouths, as well as other reasons.

Small and medium level lowland rivers during spring floods it usually rises by 2-3 m; large ones - 15-20 m or more. At the same time, the rivers overflow up to 10-30 km in width.

Before the creation of the reservoir system, floods on the Volga became real disasters: the water often rose 10 m or more.

Noteworthy in this regard is 1908, when a huge territory in the Upper and Middle Volga basin was under water. More than 50 thousand people were then left homeless.

Floods caused by rain are extremely common in the south of the Far East and Transbaikalia. There are up to 10 floods a year on the Amur River and its tributaries, one of which is catastrophic.

Among the reasons why a river can overflow its banks is zazhor (accumulations of slush). As a rule, in such cases the water level rises by 2-Zm, but sometimes the river rises by 6-7 m or more. Similar phenomena are observed mainly late autumn and in winter, most often on the rivers of the north-west of the European part of Russia and Siberia.

Ice jams usually occur on large rivers flowing from south to north (Yenisei, Ob and Lena). And if the congestion is aggravated by sea water - wind surges of water from the sea, as happens at the mouth of the Northern Dvina, then the rise in level will not only be strong, but also long-lasting. In 1811, in the Arkhangelsk region, the water rose by 6 m, the flood lasted 6 days. As a result, 42 ships were thrown ashore.

Congestion causes frequent destructive floods on the Yenisei and its tributaries. Yes, on Nizhny Tunguska, near the mouth, at a large threshold during the spring ice drift, the water level rises by 25-40 m compared to the average.

FROM LOTS TO A UNIFIED WATER SYSTEM

In Ancient Rus' there was a great waterway “from the Varangians to the Greeks,” that is, from Scandinavia to Byzantium. It passed from the Baltic Sea up the Neva to Lake Ladoga, further along the Volkhov to Lake Ilmen, from there along the Lovat to the portages

Having crossed the upper reaches of the Dnieper, the merchants descended into the Black Sea. The Dnieper-Volkhov line served as the core around which Russian statehood was formed. “Strung” on the river “axis” ancient cities- Kyiv, Smolensk, Novgorod.

Another important waterway followed the Volga to the southeast, to the land of the Volga Bulgars and Khazar Khaganate, and then into the Caspian Sea.

The portages were organically part of the waterways of Rus'. Subsequently, artificial shipping routes ran along many of them. The transformations began with the construction in 1702 of the connecting (Ivanovo) canal between the Don and Volga; Around the same time, an attempt was made to connect the Volga with Baltic Sea and with the new capital - St. Petersburg. However, the first steps were unsuccessful, since the constructed locks did not create sufficient depth for navigation during the summer low water. Only later (in 1708) was the Vyshnevolotsk system created - one of the best structures of its time.

From the end of the 17th century. the rivers became the property of the state. Peter I entrusted oversight of them to the Senate. In 1795, the Department of Water Communications was created, later transformed into the Administration of Water and Land Communications, and in 1820 into the Main Directorate of Communications (the predecessor of the modern Ministry of Communications).

In the first half of the 19th century. Large artificial water systems began to operate on the rivers of the Russian Plain: Mariinskaya (1810), Tikhvinskaya (1811), North Ekaterininskaya (1822), North Dvinskaya (1828). In the middle of the 19th century. steamships appeared; this significantly increased the speed of transportation and reduced its cost, but the main drawback of water communications - seasonal unevenness of water levels - turned out to be unavoidable at that time. In summer, during low-water years, navigation on the rivers decreased.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the European part of Russia had about 85 thousand km of waterways that were intensively used. In the years Soviet power A radical reconstruction of waterways began. Dams were erected on the Volkhov, Dnieper, Volga, Don and Kama, as well as on some small rivers at rapids and rifts. Large reservoirs appeared, which significantly improved navigation conditions.

Such artificial water routes were built as the White Sea-Baltic Canal (1932), the Moscow Canal (1937), the Volga-Don Shipping Canal (1952); in 1964, on the basis of the Mariinsky water system, the Volga-Baltic waterway was created, the total length of which was 361 km (of which 67 km were artificial canals, 294 km were reservoirs).

Thus, in the middle of the 20th century. A unified deep-sea transport system for river-sea class vessels arose, connecting five seas - the White, Baltic, Black, Azov and Caspian.

Over the centuries, the role and purpose of rivers have changed. They themselves have become the subject of detailed research: especially in recent decades, the patterns of their structure, formation water regime and the influence of man on it. Until now, many aspects of the life of rivers await further study - this will help treat rivers more carefully and use them more wisely.

Do rivers always flow from north to south? It would be more correct to say something else: Rivers flow from top to bottom, and not from north to south. The rivers flow downhill! Some people believe that rivers always flow from north to south. By default, rivers most often flow south due to some of the geophysical properties of the earth.
River flow is always subject to the forces of gravity and is regulated by gravity (except in cases of human intervention).

Do rivers always flow from north to south? Examples

Why do you think that rivers always flow from north to south? Know that rivers, like all other objects on Earth, move downward under the force of gravity.

No matter where the river is, it will follow the path of least resistance. Sometimes this is the path to the south, but it is just as likely that her path may lie north, east or west.

The river can choose any combination of compass directions. Just because the south is at the bottom of the map does not mean it is lower in elevation than the north!

There are countless examples of rivers that flow from south to north (in both hemispheres), such as the Ob in Russia and the Mackenzie in Canada.

Some of the most famous rivers which flow north is the longest river in the world, the Nile. In Russia - Lena, Yenisei. Red River in the United States and Canada. San Joaquin in California. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of rivers and streams that flow north.

You will find examples like this all over the world. Therefore, know that rivers only move downwards! But it doesn’t matter whether it’s north or south, or any other direction!

For example, the largest rivers in Asia: - originate in the Sino-Tibetan mountains in the north-west of Yunnan province. Where do you think these rivers will flow from the northwest? Naturally, they will flow parallel to each other to the southeast.

As a child, I loved to sail boats along the bubbling spring streams. It was funny to watch how the flow of a small stream carried him into a nearby ravine, and then into a small river that flowed nearby.

Once my dad told me that my boat could sail to the sea and even to the ocean. Seeing the surprise in my eyes, he took out a large map of the country and offered to take an imaginary journey along the rivers. This is how I learned where the rivers flow from and where.

Why does the river flow

The water in the river is constantly moving - flowing, moving. This happens because water itself has the property of fluidity and any elevation is enough for it to start moving. The flow of water begins its journey at the highest point - there is its beginning or source.

Obeying gravity, the water begins to move downwards until it reaches the lowest terrain. This will be the “end” of the stream or river, called the mouth.

The river runs where it flows

If you look at the map, you can see that the blue lines of the rivers entangle the entire land like a web. Thin lines connect with thicker and longer ones - these are small rivers merging with big rivers and together with them they travel further, to an even larger river, which necessarily flows into the sea or ocean.

Therefore, they say about rivers that they belong to the basin of such and such an ocean. For example, most rivers in Russia belong to the basins of 3 oceans:

• Arctic;
• Quiet;
• Atlantic.

Long way to the ocean

Now, I’m ready to talk about the long journey to the ocean of my imaginary boat.

Imagine launching it into the water at the source of the small river Oskol, which flows in the Kursk region of Russia. The stream carries him to another river - the Seversky Donets, and then to the ancient mighty Don. Together with the waters of the Don, your boat sails further and ends up first in the Azov Sea and then in the Black Sea.

The Black Sea waves carry it through the Bosphorus Strait into the Sea of ​​Marmara, and then into warm waters Atlantic Ocean. Here is the final destination of the journey of an imaginary boat and the small river Oskol.