Everything about Ob River totally explained
Ob River, also
Obi, is a major river in West
Siberia,
Russia, the country's fourth longest.
Names
The Ob is known to the
Khanty people as the
As,
Yag,
Kolta and
Yema; to the
Nenets people as the
Kolta or
Kuay; and to the
Siberian Tatars as the
Umar or
Omar.
Geography
The Ob is formed sixteen miles southwest of
Biysk in
Altai Krai by the confluence of the
Biya and
Katun rivers. Both these streams have their origin in the
Altay Mountains, the Biya issuing from
Lake Teletskoye, the Katun, 80 mi long, bursting out of a glacier on
Mount Byelukha. The Ob zigzags west and north until it reaches 55° N, where it curves round to the northwest, and again north, wheeling finally eastwards into the
Gulf of Ob, a long (600 mi) bay of the
Kara Sea, which adjoins the
Arctic Ocean.
The river splits into more than one arm, especially after joining the large
Irtysh tributary at about 69° E. Originating in
China, the
Irtysh is actually longer than the Ob from their sources to the point of their confluence. From the source of the Irtysh to the mouth of the Ob, the river flow is the longest in Russia at 5,410 km. Other noteworthy tributaries are: from the east, the
Tom,
Chulym,
Ket,
Tym and
Vakh rivers; and, from the west and south, the
Vasyugan,
Irtysh (with the
Ishim and
Tobol rivers), and
Sosva rivers.
The combined Ob-Irtysh system, the third-longest river system of
Asia (after
China's
Yangtze and
Yellow rivers), is 5,410 km (3,362 mi) long, and the area of its basin 2,990,000 km².
The river basin of the Ob consists mostly of
steppe,
taiga,
swamps,
tundra, and
semi-desert topography. The floodplains of the Ob are characterized by many tributaries and lakes.
The Ob is ice-bound at southern
Barnaul from early in November to near the end of April, and at northern
Salekhard, 100 miles above its mouth, from the end of October to the beginning of June.
Human use
The Ob is used mostly for irrigation, drinking water, hydroelectric energy, and fishing; the river has more than 50 species of fish.
The navigable waters within the Ob basin reach a total length of 9300 miles.
The importance of the Ob basin navigation for transportation was particularly great before the completion of the
Trans-Siberian Railway, since, despite the general south-to-north direction of the flow of Ob and most of its tributaries, the width of the Ob basin provided for (somewhat indirect) transportation in the east-west direction as well. Until the early 20th century, a particularly important western river port was
Tyumen, located on the
Tyumen River, an affluent of the
Tobol. Reached by an extension of the
the
Ekaterinburg-
Perm railway in 1885, and thus obtaining a rail link to the
Kama and
Volga rivers in the heart of
Russia, Tyumen became an important railhead for some years until the railway was extended further east.
In the eastern reaches of the Ob basin,
Tomsk on the
Tom River was an important terminus.
Tyumen had its first
steamboat in 1836, and the middle reaches of the Ob have been navigated by steamboats since 1845.
In an attempt to extend the Ob navigable system even further, a
system of canals, utilizing the
Ket River, 560 mi long in all, was built in the late 19th century to connect the Ob with the
Yenisei, but soon abandoned as being uncompetitive with the
railway.
The Trans-Siberian Railway, once completed, provided for more direct, year-round transportation in the east-west direction. But the Ob river system still remained important for connecting the huge expanses of
Tyumen Oblast and
Tomsk Oblast with the major cities along the Trans-Siberian route, such as
Novosibirsk or
Omsk. In the second half of the 20th century, construction of rail links to
Labytnangi,
Tobolsk, and the oil and gas cities of
Surgut, and
Nizhnevartovsk provided more railheads, but didn't diminish the importance of the waterways for reaching places still not served by the rail.
A dam was built near
Novosibirsk in 1956, which created the largest artificial lake in
Siberia, called
Novosibirsk Reservoir.
In the 1960s through 1980s, a gigantic project was contemplated by Soviet engineers and administrators to
divert some of the waters of Ob and Irtysh to
Kazakhstan and Soviet
Central Asian republics, replenishing the
Aral Sea as well. The project never left the drawing board, abandoned in 1986 due to economic and environmental considerations.
Cities along the Ob
Cities along the river include:
See also: Rivers of RussiaFurther Information
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