Kobuk River

Kobuk River
Data
Water code	US :  1413363
location	Alaska ( USA )
River system	Kobuk River
Headwaters	north of Walker Lake in the Endicott Mountains 67 ° 18 ′ 24 ″  N , 154 ° 22 ′ 42 ″  W
Source height	900  m
muzzle	Hotham Inlet ( Kotzebue-Sund ) coordinates: 66 ° 42 ′ 44 "  N , 161 ° 52 ′ 29"  W 66 ° 42 ′ 44 "  N , 161 ° 52 ′ 29"  W.
Mouth height	0  m
Height difference	900 m
Bottom slope	2 ‰
length	450 km
Catchment area	31,850 km²
Discharge at the Ambler gauge ( ⊙ ) A Eo : 16,819 km²	MQ 1966/1978 Mq 1966/1978	217 m³ / s 12.9 l / (s km²)
Discharge at the Kiana gauge ( ⊙ ) A Eo : 23,680 km²	MQ 1977/2012 Mq 1977/2012	429 m³ / s 18.1 l / (s km²)
Left tributaries	Pah River , Pick River , Niaktuvik Creek
Right tributaries	Reed River , Beaver Creek , Mauneluk River , Kogoluktuk River , Selby River , Shungnak River , Ambler River , Akillik River , Tutuksuk River , Salmon River , Squirrel River , Kaliguricheark River
Communities	Shungnak , Ambler , Kiana , Noorvik
National Wild and Scenic River
Kobuk River near Kiana

The Kobuk River is a 450 km long tributary of the Chukchi Sea in northwestern Alaska .

Its headwaters are located in the Endicott Mountains in the Gates of the Arctic National Park just above the Arctic Circle . It flows westwards along the southern flank of the Brook Range , first through deep gorges and then meandering through wide wetlands. In the lower reaches it crosses the Kobuk Valley National Park between the Baird and the Waring Mountains . About 20 km before it flows into the Hotham Inlet of the Kotzebue Sound , the Kobuk begins to fan out into a wide delta .

During the Pleistocene , there were at least five major glaciers in northwestern Alaska. In the interglacials gathered by strong east wind glazifluviale deposits of river banks and outwash plains as aeolian sediment in an area of approximately 800 square kilometers along the Kobuk to. Most of it is now covered by forests and tundra , 83 km² are active dunes . The Great Kobuk Sand Dunes are about 3 km south of the river east of Kavet Creek , the Little Kobuk Sand Dunes 8 km south of the river in the southeastern part of the national park and the Hunt River Dunes directly on Kobuk at the mouth of the Hunt River .

The 175 km long section of the Kobuk River in Gates of the Arctic National Park was designated as a National Wild and Scenic River under the administration of the National Park Service in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act .

Fish fauna

The white salmon ( Stenodus leucichthys ) is an important part of subsistence farming in the region . The upper reaches of the Kobuk River and Selawik River are the only known spawning grounds for this species of fish in northwest Alaska. The fish spend their entire life in the river or in the mouth of the river. They winter in Selawik Lake and in the brackish water of Hotham Inlet .

Web links

Commons : Kobuk River  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Gates of the Arctic National Park: Kobuk River
• Hydrologic Data for the Kobuk River Basin , (PDF file, 4 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Walker Lake in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
2. ^ Kobuk River in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
3. ↑ USGS 15744000 KOBUK R AT AMBLER AK
4. ↑ USGS 15744500 KOBUK R NR KIANA AK
5. ↑ Kobuk Valley: Sand and Glaciers on nps.gov
6. ↑ National Wild & Scenic Rivers - Kobuk River ( Memento from March 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Selawik Sheefish, Murky Future in a Changing Climate? (PDF, 4.3 MB) US Fish & Wildlife Service, Fairbanks Fish & Wildlife Office. Retrieved December 10, 2017.