Turgai (river)
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Turgai - Torghai Турга́й, Торғай |
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| Data | ||
| location | Areas Qostanai , Aktobe ( Kazakhstan ) | |
| River system | Turgai | |
| source | west of Arqalyq 50 ° 8 ′ 2 ″ N , 65 ° 13 ′ 14 ″ E |
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| Source height | approx. 130 m | |
| muzzle |
Schalkartengis Lake Coordinates: 48 ° 1 ′ 14 ″ N , 63 ° 1 ′ 55 ″ E 48 ° 1 ′ 14 ″ N , 63 ° 1 ′ 55 ″ E |
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| Mouth height | approx. 50 m | |
| Height difference | approx. 80 m | |
| Bottom slope | approx. 0.1 ‰ | |
| length | 825 km | |
| Catchment area | 157,000 km² | |
| Discharge at the Tussum gauge |
MQ |
10.4 m³ / s |
| Right tributaries | Ulkajak , Irgis | |
| Communities | Amangeldi , Torghai | |
| Navigable | not navigable | |
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The Turgai ( Russian Турга́й ; Kazakh Торғай Torghai ) is an 825 kilometer long river in northwestern Kazakhstan .
course
The actual Turgai arises in a confusing swamp area from the source rivers Schaldama from the right and Kara-Turgai ("Black Turgai") from the left. Both arise in turn from several smaller source rivers, the former having their origins in the steppe area west and northwest of the city of Arqalyq , partly already in the neighboring Aqmola area , while the source rivers of the Kara-Turgai at heights between 500 and 800 m in the northwest part of the Kazakh threshold , about halfway between Arqalyq and Schesqasghan in the west of the Karagandy area.
The Turgai first flows in a westerly to the southwest and by cutting into a wide, 20 to 75 km wide valley tectonic origin, Turgaisenke (Russian Turgaiskaja loschbina ), also the named after him Turgaiplateau . Especially on this section meanders of the river strong, forming a plurality of arms and small lakes surrounded by swamps. Overall, the steppe-like landscape through which it flows gradually takes on the character of a semi-desert ; Salt lakes are also increasingly common.
After leaving the Qostanai area , the Turgai turns about 100 kilometers east of the village of Yrghys to the southeast, later to the east, and finally flows into the 1,800 km² salt lake of Schalkartengis , located in the far northeast of the Turan lowlands , which only has water in spring and is mainly fed by the Turgai. The lake is located in an outflow-free basin in the extreme southeast of the Aqtöbe area , almost 200 kilometers northeast of the city of Aral .
The river is hardly wider than 50 meters along its entire length, in the lower reaches still a good 30 meters, at a depth of two meters. The flow velocity there is 0.2 m / s. The most important tributaries are Ulkajak and Irgis , both from the right.
Hydrology
The catchment area of the river covers 157,000 km², according to other information only 60,000 km².
The mean annual discharge on the middle reaches at the Tussum gauge, 476 kilometers above the mouth, is 10.4 m³ / s. From November to March / April the river freezes over. It is mainly fed by meltwater and therefore floods during the snowmelt in spring (April to May).
The mineral content of the water fluctuates between 300 and 600 mg / l during the spring flood and from 1.5 to 2.0 mg / l during the summer and from 1.5 to 2.0 mg / l during the winter low water. In the lower reaches of the Turgai, the water is salty in summer.
Use and infrastructure
The Turgai is not navigable. Its water is used to irrigate agricultural areas along the middle reaches . The area through which it flows is only sparsely populated. The most important places near the river are Amangeldi, not far from where the river from Schaldama and Kara-Tugai came into being, and Torghai in the Turgaisenke. The road from Arqalyq to Irgis runs through both places and follows the valley on the right.
history
Located in the Paleocene around 60 million years ago, the Turgaistraße, a strait that connected the southern Tethys Sea with the Arctic Ocean and separated Europe from Asia, replaces the Turgai depression through which the Turgai now flows in its southern part .
Already in the 19th century, and more specifically in the Soviet era, there were plans ( Davydov Plan ) to divide part of the water of the great West Siberian rivers, in particular the Ob and its tributary Irtysh, through the Turga Depression, using the course of the Turgai into the dry, drainless ones Basin of the lowlands of Turan, specifically to be diverted to the drying Aral Sea , which, however, did not occur for cost reasons and because of unpredictable ecological effects. However, considerations in this regard are taken up again and again to this day, most recently by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2010.
The river and the plateau named after it gave its name to the Turgai Oblast , an administrative unit of the Russian Empire that existed from 1868 to 1920 , and from 1970 for the territory of the same name of the Kazakh SSR of the Soviet Union , the Torghai region in independent Kazakhstan , until the administrative reform existed from 1997.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Soviet General Staff Map 1: 200,000. Sheet M-41-XVIII. 1988 edition
- ↑ Soviet General Staff Map 1: 200,000. Sheet M-41-XXXIV. Edition 1990
- ↑ a b c Article Turgai in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) , 3rd edition 1969–1978 (Russian)
- ↑ a b c Slovar ʹ sovremennych geografičeskich nazvanij . U-Faktorija, Yekaterinburg 2006 (Russian, entry Turgai ).
- ↑ Article Turgaisenke in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) , 3rd edition 1969–1978 (Russian)
- ↑ Kazakhstan calls for a diversion of the Siberian rivers in the Tages-Anzeiger , September 7, 2010