How many rivers are in the Kamchatka Territory. Hydrography of Kamchatka: rivers, lakes, underground waters. Gorge Big Cheeks

23.10.2019

It flows into the Kamchatka Bay of the Bering Sea of the Pacific Ocean. In some parts of its channel, Kamchatka is suitable for navigation.

The settlements of Milkovo, Klyuchi and the port of Ust-Kamchatsk are located on the river.

Geography

The length of the river is 758 km, the basin area is 55,900 km². It originates in the mountains of the central part of the peninsula and before confluence with the Pravaya river is called Lake Kamchatka.

From the confluence of the Right and Ozernaya Kamchatka to the very mouth, along the river bank, the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - Ust-Kamchatsk highway passes.

In the upper reaches it has a mountainous character with numerous rifts and rapids. In the middle reaches, the river enters the Central Kamchatka lowland and changes its character to a flat one.

In this area at Kamchatka a very winding channel, in some places it breaks into branches. In the lower reaches, the river, bending around the Klyuchevskaya Sopka massif, turns to the east; in the lower reaches it crosses the Kumroch ridge.

At the mouth, the river forms a delta, consisting of numerous channels separated by sand and pebble spits. The delta configuration changes all the time.

At the confluence of the river Kamchatka it is connected to the ocean by the Ozernaya channel with Lake Nerpichye, which is the largest lake in the Kamchatka Peninsula. The peninsula north of the delta is also named after the river - the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Nature

The river is rich in fish, it is a spawning ground for many valuable species of salmon, including chinook salmon, so industrial and amateur fishing is carried out.

In a swimming pool Kamchatka also there are introduced silver carp, Amur carp, Siberian baleen char. The river is often used by tourists for water trips from Ust-Kamchatsk.

The river valley is the place of greatest distribution coniferous forests on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The species growing here are the Okhotsk larch ( Larix ochotensis) and Ayan spruce ( Picea ajanensis).

tributaries

The river has a large number of tributaries, both to the right and to the left along the stream. The largest tributaries: Kensol, Andrianovka, Zhupanka, Kozyrevka, Elovka - left; Kitilgina, Vahvina Left, Urts - right. The most significant of them is the Yelovka River.

More than six thousand large and small rivers flow through the territory of the [Kamchatka] region, but only a few of them have a length of more than 200 km, and only 7 - over 300.

The largest rivers

The insignificant length of the Kamchatka rivers is explained by the close location of the main river watersheds from the sea coast.

There are two main ridges on the peninsula - Sredinny and Vostochny, which stretch in the meridional direction. From the outer (western) slope of the Sredinny Ridge, the rivers flow into the Sea of Okhotsk, from outer slope Eastern - in Pacific Ocean. And those that arise on the inner slopes of these ridges flow into the central valley, along the bottom of which flows the largest river of the peninsula - Kamchatka.

The rivers of our region, although shorter, full-flowing rivers The European part of the USSR: from each square kilometer of the catchment area, they receive 15-25 liters of water per second - almost twice as much as in Europe.

River types. According to the nature of the flow of the river, the regions are divided into several groups. The most common are mountainous ones, the sources of which lie near the main watersheds. They are the largest on the peninsula and are formed from melting snow. However, they get most of their food from groundwater. Some of these rivers flow throughout the mountains, the other part - only in the upper reaches.

In the mountainous regions, the rivers flow in narrow valleys with steep slopes. As a rule, they have a fast rapid current, and when they enter the plains, they are calm: they break into numerous channels and branches, strongly meander (wind through), forming many oxbow lakes. Near the sea, the flow of rivers is slowed down by tidal waters. Their mouths often turn into long estuaries, which is especially characteristic of the western coast. When they flow into the sea, they usually form "cats" and "spits", bars are observed in the mouths (bars are shallows created by a tidal sea wave, making it difficult for ships to enter the mouths).

The upper reaches of Kamchatka, Avacha, Bystraya, Tigil, Penzhina and others are very typical for mountain rivers. To lowland rivers include Kamchatka, Penzhina and others in their middle and lower reaches.

The third group is dry rivers. They cut through the slopes and carry their waters to the receiving basins only in summer, during the melting of snow. During the rest of the year, water seeps into loose volcanic rocks and rivers disappear from the surface of the earth. Elizovskaya and Khalaktyrskaya can serve as an example.

River feeding- mixed. Most constitute groundwater and water obtained from the melting of snow in the mountains and valleys. The role of groundwater nutrition increases in dry years, and snow, on the contrary, in high-water years. rain food is significant for the rivers of the west coast, where its share in some years can be 20-30 percent. There are rain floods here in autumn, sometimes exceeding spring floods in height.

Freezing and opening. Due to the abundant ground supply, the freeze-up is unstable on many rivers, there are large non-freezing areas and polynyas. In winter, ice often appears only along the coast, places with fast current and the middle of the river are usually free of ice. Freeze-up begins in November or even in December, and only in the north of the region a little earlier. In the north and northwest where climatic conditions more severe, medium and small rivers freeze to the bottom on riffles, forming ice.

The opening of the rivers occurs in April - early May, in the north of the peninsula - a little later (in the middle and end of May). The opening is accompanied by spring ice drift, which is especially typical for the rivers of the northwestern region.

Water content. Its main indicator for rivers is the flow of water. It increases downstream as the basin grows. Thus, the average annual water consumption in the upper reaches of the Kamchatka River is 91 cubic meter per second, in the lower - ten times more. Water content also depends on precipitation and the nature of the underlying surface. For example, the Penzhina River has a catchment area much larger than the Kamchatka River, but its average annual discharge is smaller.

Kamchatka river flows through the lowlands located between the Sredinny and Vostochny ridges. Having cut through the Kumroch ridge - a section called "Cheks" - with a narrow valley, it flows into the Kamchatka Bay of the Pacific Ocean.

In the upper reaches, the river has a mountainous character. Fast, greenish-muddy waters are rapidly rushing from the Ganalsky and Sredinny ridges. Swift streams rush between the stone banks, tear off the stones and carry them far downstream. Stones piled up in the channel itself form rifts and rapids.

Below the village of Pushchino, the current becomes smooth. The river becomes flat and begins to meander strongly. Its width near the village of Milkovo is 100–150 meters.

The further down, the wider and fuller it is. The wide floodplain, along which the river has laid its winding course with many branches, oxbow lakes, is covered with a green carpet of meadows interspersed with fields and forests. In many places the forest comes close to the river and forms a dense wall of green hedges. In the lower reaches, the Kamchatka River expands to 500–600 meters, and its depths range from 1 to 6 meters. Numerous rifts make the fairway of the river unstable. After big floods, it changes its position. This greatly complicates navigation.

The river freezes in November, and opens in late April - early May. Among the numerous tributaries, the largest are the Elovka, Tolbachik, Shchapina.

The settlements of Milkovo, Dolinovka, Shchapino, Kozyrevsk, Klyuchi, Ust-Kamchatsk and others are located along the banks of the river.

Kamchatka is the most important transport route of the peninsula. Passenger trams, boats, barges run along it. Shipping is carried out almost to Milkovo. AT in large numbers the forest floats. Salmon fish enter the river and its tributaries for spawning.

The mighty northern beauty river is an interesting tourist route for summer hikes.

Lakes of Kamchatka

There are more than 100 thousand Kamchatka lakes, but their water surface area is only 2 percent of the entire area of the region. Only four lakes have an area of more than 50 square kilometers, and two - more than 100.

The lakes are varied and attractive. Often they represent a unique and amazing panorama.

Not far from the village of Semlyachiki there are remains of the old. Its top was demolished by a colossal volcanic explosion, and at an altitude of more than 500 meters a huge caldera (bowl) with an area of about 100 square kilometers was formed. On this area there are a lot of springs, rivers and small lakes. Many of them are filled with boiling water and are constantly bubbling, testifying to the violent activity of the volcano. In particular, one of them is remarkable - Fumarole. Its area is about 40 hectares. The water in it is always hot. Ducks and swans winter here.

There are many lakes like it. One of the most beautiful is Khangar. A huge stone bowl of the volcano of the same name rises to a height of 2000 meters. Climbing to its top is very difficult. It is even more difficult to go down to the lake along the steep walls of the crater. Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences A.E. Svyatlovsky, who overcame all these difficulties, traveled around the lake in a rubber inflatable boat and decided to measure the depth. However, the hundred-meter rope did not reach the bottom.

Tectonic processes - the ups and downs of individual sections of the earth's surface - led to the formation of a number of lakes. Tectonic origin lakes and near the village of Paratunka and one of the deepest and most beautiful lakes of Kamchatka - Kuril.

The largest lakes

Thanks to invaluable work, the ancient, fanned with poetry, legend of the Alaid volcano has come down to us:

"... The aforementioned mountain (Alaid) used to stand at the declared lake (Kuril); and since it took away the light from all other mountains with its height, they were constantly indignant at Alaid and quarreled with her, so that Alaid was forced to retire from anxiety and to become secluded at sea; however, in memory of her stay on the lake, she left her heart, which in Kuril is Uchichi, also Nukhguni, that is, Navel, and in Russian the Heart-stone is called, which stands in the middle of Kuril Lake and has a conical shape. Her path was the place where the Ozernaya River flows, which was caused by the occasion of this journey: for as the mountain rose from its place, the water from the lake rushed after it and paved its way to the sea.

Kurile Lake is the deepest on the peninsula (306 meters). Its bottom is below the ocean level.

A similar legend is recorded about the origin of another lake - Kronotsky. It is the largest freshwater lake in the region. By area it exceeds Avacha Bay. Greatest depth- 128 meters. It arose due to the fact that the colossal masses of lava, poured out from the nearest volcano, blocked the valley through which the rapids of the noisy Kronotskaya river runs, and formed a dam. According to legend, the lake was formed because he moved to a new place of residence and on the way carelessly broke the tops of two hills. "Traces" of his feet, filled with water, turned into lakes. In particular, they belong well known to residents village Klyuchi lakes Kharchinskoe and Kurazhechnoe.

In the lower reaches of the Kamchatka River lies the largest of the brackish lakes - Nerpichye, the remnant of the bay, which separated from the sea after the peninsula's shore slowly rose. Its depth is 12 meters. It consists of two lakes connected with each other, one of them is called Nerpichye, and the other - Kultuchnoe. The sea surf and the river took part in its origin. The name of the lake indicates that a sea animal is found here - a seal (a type of seal). Kultuchnoe comes from the Turkic word kultuk - lagoon.

Lagoon-type lakes are common on the western coast of the peninsula. They are formed at the mouths of almost all major rivers of the West Kamchatka Lowland. Lagoon lakes have an elongated shape.

The most numerous group of lakes are peat ones. Their concentrations can be found in the West Kamchatka lowland, Parapolsky valley and coastal plains. east coast. Such lakes, as a rule, are small, have a rounded shape and steep banks.

The lakes of Kamchatka are located at different heights above sea level and are heterogeneous in their temperature and water regime. They also have different freezing and opening times.

The greatest rise in the water level is observed in summer, when snow melts in the mountains. The height of the level of coastal lakes depends on the tidal sea currents. The largest amplitude of level fluctuations in the lagoons of the western coast reaches 4–5 meters. Lagoons and lakes sea coasts freeze in December - later than in the interior of the peninsula, and open in late May - early June, although some of them are cleared of ice only in July

The rivers of Kamchatka have enormous reserves of energy. Their abundance, high water content and mountainous nature create favorable conditions for the construction of hydroelectric power plants, but our rivers are mostly spawning grounds for such valuable fish species as salmon. And spawning grounds must be preserved.

The shallow lakes of Kamchatka, which warm up well, are used for breeding silver carp in them - a tasty and nutritious fish. Amur carp and sterlet are also bred here.

Most major rivers Kamchatka are reliable transport routes. Goods, materials, equipment, construction timber are transported through Kamchatka, Penzhina and some others.

Published in a collection
"Kamchatka region. Articles and essays on geography"
(Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, - 1966).

Kamchatka is characterized by a dense hydrographic network. More than 6 thousand large and small rivers flow on its territory, but only a few of them have a length of more than 200 km and only 7 - over 300 km. The largest river of the peninsula is Kamchatka, with a length of more than 750 km.

Many rivers along their entire length have stormy temper with rapids and waterfalls. The largest of them: Kamchatka and Bolshaya - are navigable only in the lower estuarine part, where sandy spits fenced off from the ocean form estuaries.

Volcanic regions are characterized by "dry" rivers, in which water appears only on a short time during the snowmelt period. Many rivers have long been chosen by lovers of water travel. The most popular are short rafting with fishing on the rivers: Kamchatka, Zhupanova, Bystraya (Malkinskaya), Kol, Karymchina, Left Avacha, Opala, Pymta, Elovka, Tigil ...

Other rivers: Right and Left Avacha, Fast (Essovskaya), Left Shchapina, Nalycheva are of sport interest for experienced tourists.

The lakes of the peninsula are numerous and diverse in their origin. Small swampy, often overgrown lakes are scattered on the lowlands and in the estuarine floodplains of some rivers. One of them is Lake Nalychevo.

Higher up, lakes are common, lying in depressions of a hilly relief formed by terminal moraines during the glaciation of Kamchatka. The largest of them are Lake Nachikinskoe and Dvuhyurtochnoe.

The formation of many lakes is associated with volcanic activity. Some of them are located in depressions during the lowering of individual sections earth's surface above devastated magma chambers or at the bottom of explosive funnels, such as lakes Kurilskoe and Karymskoe; lakes in volcanic craters: Ksudach, Khangar, Uzon; deep tectonic depressions, such as Lake Azhabachye.

Most large lake Kamchatka - Kronotskoye was formed in the river valley, blocked by powerful lava flows of the Krasheninnikov volcano.

A large amount of precipitation, the presence of permafrost, snow melting in the mountains for a long time, low evaporation, and mountainous relief cause the development of an exceptionally dense hydro network within the Kamchatka Territory.

There are 140,100 rivers and streams in Kamchatka, but only 105 of them are longer than 100 km. Despite the insignificant depth, the rivers are exceptionally full-flowing.

The Kamchatka River (758 km long) and the Penzhina River (713 km) stand out sharply in size. Most Kamchatka rivers flow in a latitudinal direction, which is due to the meridional nature of the main watersheds: the Sredinny and Vostochny ranges.

The Kamchatka rivers are mountainous in their upper reaches and calm in the plains. When flowing into the sea, many of them usually wash up spits, and at the mouths - underwater shafts, bars.

Within the mountains, rivers flow in relatively narrow V-shaped valleys with steep slopes and have a fast, often rapids flow. The bottom and slopes of the valleys are composed of coarse clastic material (boulders, pebbles, gravel). As the rivers approach the plains, the size of the material composing the valleys and river beds decreases; The flow of rivers slows down and becomes calmer.

In general terms, coastal lowlands are a combination of flat wetlands, concentrated mainly near the coast, undulating, hilly interfluve areas and wide river valleys. Within the hilly-ridged plains, the riverbeds branch into channels and branches, and on the coastal lowlands they form many bends and old rivers.

Mountain rivers are distributed exclusively within mountainous regions. Basically, they correspond to the upper sections of the rivers, however, this regularity is violated on large rivers. Often, when crossing the spurs of the ridges, the rivers in the middle and even the lower reaches acquire a mountainous character of the flow due to the large slopes of the valley.

Rivers within mountainous regions with maximum elevation differences have rapids-waterfall channels. They are characterized by the alternation of rapids and waterfalls with segments of stagnant zones. Such rivers are distinguished, as a rule, by their small size, flowing along the bottom of the ravines with steep slopes. The length of such sections ranges from a few percent of the entire length of the river (if the river flows downstream into the foothills and onto the plain) to 100% (small rivers and streams flowing throughout their entire length within mountainous regions).

With the gradual leveling of the relief, rapids and waterfalls disappear, but the nature of the current remains turbulent. In addition, as tributaries flow in, the size and flow of rivers (i.e., the amount of water flowing through the cross section of the river in a certain period of time) increase. For such rivers, the most characteristic is a rectilinear form of the channel with separate single islands and forced bends (bends of the river channel). The formation of such bends is due to the fact that the river flow tends to go around the rocky ledges, composed of strong, indestructible rocks, and thereby acquires a sinuous shape.

In some areas, mountain rivers form large erosion pits, the depth of which is tens of times greater than the average depth of the river. Such pits are good hiding places for fish, since the current speeds in them are sharply reduced.

On the large rivers of Kamchatka, one can also observe areas with a rapid flow of the stream. Narrow valleys with steep slopes, high flow velocities (> 1 m/s) may be due to the constriction of rivers by spurs of mountain ranges. On rivers that generally do not differ in deep and gentle channels, there are constantly areas with a significant slope, leading to a sharp increase in flow rates, which, due to the shallow depth and rockiness of the channels, makes the flow turbulent. Such rivers, as a rule, flow in a single channel and only a few islands divide the flow into branches. The islands here are high, they are clusters of large pebbles, overgrown with birch and alder bushes. Above and below the islands, open pebble banks form.

The most beautiful banks of mountain rivers attract attention. When approaching close to the ridges, they take the form of high rocky ledges. Mosses and lichens growing on them give the rocks a red-brown or green color.

When moving from mountain conditions to the plains, the steepness of the river valleys and the speed of the current sharply decrease. For these reasons, the flow power becomes insufficient to move river sediments (boulders, pebbles). This material is deposited directly in the river channel, forming a kind of islands, called cores. As a result, a bizarre and very dynamic pattern is formed from many ducts separated by islands. These types of channels are most common in the lower reaches. small rivers.

One more distinctive feature of these rivers is the presence of a large amount of driftwood (logs and branches of various sizes) in the channel, which is associated with the exit of the rivers into the forest area. During periods of spring snowmelt, as well as after heavy rains, the water level in the rivers and the speed of the current increase, the flow of water intensively erodes the banks. As a result, a huge amount of woody material enters the river and is deposited downstream on the shallows - near the islands or coastal spits. That is why the largest creases (clusters of branches, writhing, as well as whole tree trunks) lead to the breaking of the river into channels, some of which have a direction opposite to the main flow of the river.

thermal springs"Vilyuchinsky" consist of two groups of springs with water temperature from 40° to 60°C, located in the picturesque valley of the Vilyucha River among small-leaved forests and shrubs; the springs are decorated with travertine domes and dense colonies of thermophilic algae with specific biological communities; the slopes of the river valley are convenient for skiing; and just above the springs, the river forms a beautiful waterfall 40 m high.

The Nalychevo thermal springs, the largest thermal carbonic springs in Kamchatka, are discharged in the area between the Goryachaya and Zheltaya rivers over an area of more than 2 km 2 . At the foot of Mount Kruglaya, deposits of springs formed a huge travertine shield with an area of more than 50,000 km 2 with a dome composed of carbonate and ferruginous-arsenic sediments (the dome was called the "cauldron"). Along its periphery, many hot springs emerge, forming a stream. The dome is surrounded by thermal swamps.

In the Goryachaya floodplain, for 2.5 km, the outlets of the term are concentrated in the form of short hot streams flowing into a cold river, as well as in the form of small lakes, puddles and swamps. In these streams and lakes, extensive colonies of thermophilic algae have grown, forming multi-colored dense mats - pillows. The same sources are located on the Zheltaya River, 600 m from the mouth.

Talovye hot springs are located 6 km from Nalychevskie on the left side of the Porozhistaya valley. The exits are traced for 1 km, their temperature is 31-38°C, the total visible flow rate is 6 l/sec. Installed hidden unloading in alluvium. The main outlets of the springs - the so-called "Talovy boiler" - are located in a clearing in a dense birch forest. Here, at the foot of the hill, two bright orange travertine cones 45 m in diameter and 13 m high have formed. Warm streams flow down the surface of the travertines. The space between the domes and at the foot is swampy.

The water of the Talovye hot springs belongs to the same hydrochemical type as the Nalychevo springs, but the content of sulfate and bicarbonate in it is somewhat higher. In addition, arsenic deposits are more abundant in travertines from melted springs. Finally, unlike the water of the Nalychevo springs, the water of the Talovyh springs is pleasant to the taste.

Local history thermal springs come out along the banks of the Talovaya River 2 km upstream of its confluence with the Shaibnaya River. The distance to the Nalychevo springs is 8 km. exits thermal waters in the form of individual griffins and weak seeps can be traced in the swampy floodplain of the river for 100 m. The water temperature is 32-52 ° C, the total flow rate is 7 l / s, it tastes bitter-salty, and its composition is similar to the composition of the Nalychevskiye term, but with greater mineralization . Local lore baths do not deposit travertines; in their gas composition more nitrogen.

Verkhne-Zhirovsky steam jets and springs are located in the upper reaches of the Zhirovaya River, on its left bank. The area where sources and steam jets exit is a hard-to-reach gorge with very steep sides several hundred meters high. Thermal springs and steam jets are scattered over a large area. Almost all of them are located on steep slopes or in steeply falling gullies. Three areas are distinguished, in which, as in the areas of the Severo-Mutnovsky thermal baths, there are steam jets, and mud boilers, and heated areas with a boiling point, and down the slope, at the water's edge in the Zhirovaya River, there are springs with a temperature of 60-72 °C. Chemical composition steam condensate sulfate-calcium-sodium with a low total mineralization of 0.2-0.5 g / l.

More than six thousand large and small rivers flow through the territory of the Kamchatka Territory.

The Bolshaya River, which flows into the Sea of Okhotsk, is the second most important fishing river after the Kamchatka River. The history of the development of the peninsula as an administrative unit of the Russian Empire began with it.
Geography
The Bolshaya River is formed by the confluence of two large Kamchatka rivers: Bystraya and Plotnikova. The source of the river Bystroy is located on the northwestern spurs of the Ganalskie Vostryaki ridge, where two more large rivers, the Kamchatka and Avacha, originate from the slopes of the Bakening volcano, called the Kamchatka Peak. The length of the Bolshoi River (from the Bystraya River) is 275 km, the total fall is 1060 m.
First, the Bystraya flows south along the Sredinny Ridge, along the Ganal tundra, and after confluence with the river. Plotnikova, having already formed the river. Large, turns to the southwest. In the upper reaches of the river The ancient villages of Ganaly and Malki are located in Fast. Off the western coast of Kamchatka Bolshaya spills into a vast estuary and flows along the sea coast to the southeast, where it flows into the Sea of Okhotsk, forming a huge lake at the mouth. It is navigable from the mouth to the Oktyabrsky settlement.
Story
V. Martynenko in the book “Kamchatsky Shore. Historical Pilot (1991) writes: “The largest river of the Kamchatka western coast, Bolshaya, has been known to Russians since the end of the 17th century, since the famous campaign of the Pentecostal V. Atlasov, who marched with a detachment in 1697 along the western coast of the peninsula from the Ichi River to the Nynguchu River ( Golygina). In the “Drawing of the Kamchadal Lands Again” compiled at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, its author, the Siberian cartographer S. Remezov, based on the results of Atlasov’s campaign, plotted the Bolshaya River with an explanatory inscription: “fell into the Penzhina Sea by many mouths.” Penzhinsky or Lamsky was originally called the Sea of Okhotsk. In 1707, the Bolshaya River was noted in the report of the Cossack Rodion Presnetsov with a variant of the distorted local name - Kiksha. The toponym Kiksha (Kyksha) is also found on some old Russian drawings of Kamchatka and probably goes back to the Itelmen word "kyg", which means "river". The origin of the Russian name was explained later by S. Krasheninnikov: “Big is called because of all the rivers flowing into the Penzhina Sea, one can walk along it alone from the mouth to the very top.”
At the beginning of the XVIII century. Russia actively explored the Far Eastern borders of the empire. Russian sailors laid a sea route 603 miles long from Okhotsk to the mouth of the river. Large and in 1703-1704. built a winter hut a few tens of kilometers above the mouth, later called the Bolsheretsky prison. In those days, the river did not meander along the coast, but flowed straight downstream into the Sea of Okhotsk (Fig. 2). Near the mouth there was a large bay, elongated to the south (such bays in Kamchatka have long been called "kultuks", hence, by the way, the name of Lake Kultuchnoye in Petropavlovsk, it was once the bay of Avacha Bay).
Entrance of ships at the mouth of the river. Big in good weather and the high tide was safe enough, and ships that entered the bay were safely sheltered from storms.
We find in S. Krasheninnikov's "Description of the Land of Kamchatka":
“Chekavina, in Kamchatka, the Shkhvachu River, two versts from the mouth of Bolshaya ... It is worthy of note because sea vessels winter in it, which is why there are barracks for guards and storerooms from the Kamchatka expedition built. Vessels are launched into it during the rising water, and into the receding water it is so narrow that you can jump over it, and so shallow that the ships are lying on their sides, but there is no damage to them because its bottom is soft.
Thus, in those days, the Chekavinskaya harbor served not only as a haven for ships, but also served as a kind of dry dock.
For some historical information the mouth at Chekavka was dug artificially. Geologist by training and life traveler, German scientist Karl von Ditmar, being an official for special assignments for the mining part under the governor Vasily Stepanovich Zavoiko, was engaged in the study of Kamchatka.

Dietmar map. Reconstruction of Semenov.
Here is what he writes in his book "Trips and stay in Kamchatka in 1851-1855":
“October 3rd (1853 - author's note). They say that in the old pre-Russian times, a bag-shaped bay big river, currently going very far to the south, opened into the sea precisely at the southern end, but the Kamchadals, who then lived here, decided to dig a spit against the mouth of the river in order to arrange a closer and more convenient path for passing fish. It ended with the fact that during the work the dam suddenly burst, and many people died in the water that immediately gushed out. Soon after that, the old, southern, channel was completely swept away by the waves. Through a new, artificially made much more to the north, channel, then, in the early days of Russian rule - the time of the prosperity of Bolsheretsk - they entered the bay to the parking lot of ships, as if into a calm deep harbor. Against the mouth of this bay into the sea, on the side of the mainland, at the very confluence of the river. Bolshoy into the bay (Turn), a small village Chekavka arose, where goods were unloaded, assigned to Bolsheretsk. There were several residential buildings, many shops and a beacon with mica glass to indicate the mouth of the Bolshaya to ships. Chekavka was, in fact, the harbor of Bolsheretsk, located 20 versts above, and for many years served for Kamchatka as the only point through which the peninsula was in communication with Russia through Okhotsk.
It was from the Chekavinskaya harbor that the rebellious Kamchatka exiled settlers, led by the Polish confederate Maurycy Benievsky (Benevsky), captured the galliot “St. Peter", fled south, eventually reaching China, and then to France.
Naval historian A. Sgibnev in his work " Historical outline major events in Kamchatka from 1650 to 1856." writes:
“April 30 (1771 - ed.) Benievsky with his accomplices moved onto rafts and went down the river. Bystry to Chekavka (that was the name of the wintering place for ships near the mouth of the Bolshaya River, where two huts and a barn were built to store goods delivered from Okhotsk - author), taking with him all the people he arrested. Having taken possession of ships and a barn with government supplies on Chekavka, he ordered the vessel “St. Peter "as more reliable."
Ships that came from the Aleutian and Kuril Islands and Okhotsk or were heading there from Kamchatka defended themselves in the bay against Chekavka. The calm Chekavinskaya harbor was essentially a sea suburb of the Bolsheretsky prison. But already in the late 1850s. the channel leading to the sea was covered with sand, the river began to break into the ocean to the south and formed a new mouth there.
The German scientist and traveler Georg Adolf Erman, who was in Kamchatka 24 years earlier than K. Dietmar, put on his map a slightly different configuration of the mouth of the river. Large (Fig. 3). The names of the rivers Bolshaya, Bystraya, Utka, Kikhchik, Amchigacha, Nachilova, Goltsovka, Baanyu (once it was called Bannaya, and now Plotnikova) and others, mapped by A. Erman, have survived to our time. But r. The Chekavina at the mouth of the Bolshoy disappeared from the maps. We can safely assume that Chekavinskaya harbor became the first seaport of Kamchatka.
Mouth of the Bolshoi River
The entrance to the mouths of the Kamchatka rivers has always been unsafe for sailors. On the so-called "bars" (emphasis on the second letter "a"), where fast-flowing fresh waters and sea waves collide, there are always water rushes, rips, chaotic whirlpools, high waves, swell and unpredictable flow directions. Our rivers can suddenly change the fairway, and the sea can wash up sand where yesterday there was a deep channel.
Let us turn once again to the book of V. Martynenko:
“In the Russian history of Kamchatka, an overwhelming number of shipwrecks and emergencies are associated with the Bolsheretsky mouth. The first in this tragic series is the boat of the Second Kamchatka Expedition "Fortuna". Departing in 1737 at the direction of V. Bering from Okhotsk to explore the Avacha Bay, the ship under the command of the navigator E. Rodichev crashed when entering the mouth of the Bolshaya. Among the survivors was a student S. Krasheninnikov, a researcher of Kamchatka.
Seven years later, the fate of "Fortuna" was shared by the sloop "Bolsheretsk", a small boat built in Kamchatka from a birch forest and therefore called "birch". Launched in 1739 and assigned to the expedition of M. Spanberg, the ship in the same year sailed to the shores of unknown Japan, and in 1742 repeated this voyage. Upon returning from the Japanese campaign, the Bolsheretsk crashed at the mouth of the Bolshaya River.
In 1748, a similar tragedy happened to the Okhotsk galliot under the command of the navigator Bakhmetyev. The galliot, anchored against the Bolsheretsky mouth, was thrown ashore by an autumn storm and wrecked. Most of the crew, including the commander, died.
In October 1753, misfortune befell three ships of the detachment of Lieutenant V. Khmetevsky, sailing from Okhotsk to Bolsheretsk. Waiting for a favorable situation to enter the mouth of the packet boat "St. John", gookor "St. Peter" and the double-sloop "Nadezhda" were washed ashore by a storm in various areas of the west coast. It was possible to fix and launch only one of the ships - the gookor "St. Peter". It was the same ship that was built from the remains of the packet boat of the same name by V. Bering, sailors who survived the tragic winter. But the saved namesake of the famous ship, the captain-commander, was destined short life. Two years later, while sailing from Yamsk to Okhotsk, the gukor was driven back by a storm to the western coast of Kamchatka and finally wrecked near the mouth of the Vorovskaya River.
Forty years since the opening sea route from Okhotsk to Kamchatka, the Ust-Bolsheretsky coast turned into a real cemetery of ships. In 1766 the most major disaster, essentially dooming a major sea expedition under the command of P. Krenitsyn and M. Levashov to failure. The expedition began sailing from the port of Okhotsk on four ships on October 10, 1766.
crashes
Documents of those years provide a clear idea of the outcome of this expedition.
Brigantine "Saint Catherine". Commander 2nd-Class Captain P. Krenitsyn. Leaving Okhotsk in mid-October, together with three vessels, equipment for discoveries in the Eastern Ocean, they parted and were all washed ashore in different places. "Saint Catherine", which had a strong leak throughout the journey, upon arrival at the Kamchatka coast, already standing against the Bolsheretsk mouth with only one remaining anchor and two poles, with lowered yards and topmasts, on the night of October 25 was thrown ashore on its left side near the Utka River, two versts south of it ... and broken. With great difficulty, the team moved ashore, when the water had already drained, the commander was the last.
Gukor "Saint Paul". Commander Captain-Lieutenant M. Levashov. Upon arrival at Bolsheretsk, he stood at the mouth of the Bolshaya River in anticipation of full water and on the night of October 25, having both ropes broken, “with a common consultation with the servants” threw himself ashore at Amshigachev Yar to the north, seven miles from the mouth of the Bolshaya River.
Boat "Saint Gabriel". Commander - navigator Dudin 1st. Upon arrival at Bolsheretsk, he managed to enter the mouth of the Bolshaya River, but for further passage he expected full water and on the night of October 25 he was thrown ashore. Galliot "Saint Paul". Commander - navigator Dudin 2nd. Separating from three ships, he passed or was carried into the Eastern Ocean by the first Kuril Strait and on November 21 reached Avacha Bay, but, met here by ice, was again carried to the sea, wandered for a whole month, lost his bowsprit, yardarm, all sails and ropes, and, already having neither water nor firewood, he set off straight for the shore and jumped out on the seventh Kuril Island. In a quarter of an hour the ship was completely wrecked. 30 people were killed, and 13 were saved, including the commander. Affectionately received by the inhabitants, the unfortunate sufferers spent the winter on the island, eating whale oil, roots and shells, and the next year they moved to Bolsheretsk.
LIGHTHOUSE
Now the only Bolsheretsky lighthouse in the area, which is a high white tower with 5 black stripes, stands on the site of the former village of Zuikovo on the left bank of the river. Large one near its mouth (see Fig. 1). Igor Maltsev writes about life at this lighthouse (http://ruspioner.ru/university/m/single/2732).
A little personal
I have a lot of memories connected with the Bolshoi River and its mouth. For example, from July to the end of October 1972, I worked on the Kapitan Zagorsky sea tug of the Kamchatrybflot. By order of Kamchatrybprom, we were then engaged in towing pontoons with dismantled fish factory equipment from the disbanded Kikhchinsky fish processing plant to the village. October. Once a week, "Zagorsky" (draft 2.5 m) entered the mouth of the river. A large one with two heavily loaded 100-ton ponies dangling from the back on the "brags". To the credit of the captain, there were no incidents at the entrance to the bars during the three months of these "cruises". Getting out of the river into the sea with empty boats has always been a gamble too.
I remember the seals filling the bars with black dots of heads. Apparently, it was there that they were guaranteed a hearty lunch. In the 1980s, I was instructed to ferry the Ufa tanker from the village of Oktyabrsky to Petropavlovsk, which had stood for many years in the river near the village on “dead” anchors as a transshipment tank — a fuel oil bunker for the village’s boiler house. Once "Ufa" was "buried" here by its captain Radmir Alexandrovich Korenev, a famous Kamchatka writer.
With difficulty tearing the tanker off the coast, we sent it downstream to the mouth, where we stood offshore for three weeks to wait for the next double (sygysia) tide (simple tides in this area are small - up to a meter). Conclusion "Ufa" from the river. The big and further towing of the vessel to Petropavlovsk, and then to Thailand, where it was handed over for scrap (“for nails,” as they say among sailors), is worth a separate adventure story.
Another memory of the mouth of this river is associated with the work on compiling the "Information on Stability" for the modernized ships of the type MPS-80 and MPS-225, which belonged to the collective farm named after. October revolution. It was in the winter of 1977. A caravan of small fishing seiners was anchored at the mouth of the Bolshaya in the fall, before freezing. Then they froze into the ice. We, two designers of the Kamchatka branch of the TsPKTB VRPO "Dalryba" (there was such a powerful design bureau in Petropavlovsk at that time), had to incline the ships, that is, record their recovery curves on an even keel after an artificially created list using a special device - an inclinograph , and then, on the basis of the obtained sinusoids, calculate the behavior of the vessel for various options for its loading. It was possible to make an experience of heeling only on calm water, that is, during the “stopper”, when the tide “squeezes out” and stops the flow of the river. Hole-holes were cut in the ice, ice was scooped out of them with nets ... In general, the work that the crews of the ships and A. Avdashkin and I successfully coped with.
The agonizing expectation of "stoppers" was brightened up by cheerful fishing for smelt abounding there (the spinners were soldered themselves from brass hunting cases) and trips with shovels and sleds to the places of "burials" of canned fish from the October fish processing plant. In those days, any "substandard" jar of canned food (with a dent, scratch, and sometimes even with a crooked label or fuzzy lithography) was translated into "illiquid". These completely edible canned food were taken out to the spit closer to the mouth of the Bolshaya and dug into the sand with bulldozers. Here they are (flounder in oil or in tomato sauce, natural canned salmon, etc.) and ate fried smelt. Once a week a tractor with drags brought bread. This epic was especially remembered by a close acquaintance with a noble fisherman of Kamchatka, a holder of many orders, the famous captain of the MRS-433 and simply a good man Grigory Samsonovich Krikoryan.
Catfish
In the 1980s and 90s, many times in winter, my friend and I traveled from Petropavlovsk to the river. Big for smelt. More than 200 kilometers to the village of Oktyabrsky brightened up the stories of the then most popular G. Khazanov recorded on a tape recorder in an old "Moskvich" car. In the area of Oktyabrsky, there is a very large smelt - catfish. On successful trips, we brought home several hundred of this "cucumber" fish. The Bolshaya River is still a tasty place for lovers of winter fishing.

Rivers of Kamchatka

More than six thousand large and small rivers flow through the territory of the region, but only a few of them have a length of more than 200 km and only 7 - more than 300.
The largest rivers are: Kamchatka, Penzhina, Talovka, Vyvenka, Oklan River Penzhina, Tigil, Bolshaya (with Bystraya), Avacha.
The insignificant length of the Kamchatka rivers is explained by the close location of the main river watersheds from the sea coast.

There are two main ridges on the peninsula - Sredinny and Vostochny, which stretch in the meridional direction. From the outer (western) slope of the Sredinny Range the rivers flow into the Sea of Okhotsk, from the outer slope of the Eastern Range into the Pacific Ocean. And those that arise on the inner slopes of these ridges flow into the central valley, along the bottom of which the largest river of the peninsula, the Kamchatka, flows.

The rivers of our region, although shorter, are more full-flowing than the rivers of the European part of the USSR: from each square kilometer of the catchment area, they receive 15-25 liters of water per second - almost twice as much as European ones.

River types.

According to the nature of the flow of the river, the regions are divided into several groups. The most common are mountainous ones, the sources of which lie near the main watersheds. They are the largest on the peninsula and are formed from melting snow. However, they get most of their food from groundwater. Some of these rivers flow throughout the mountains, the other part - only in the upper reaches.

The upper reaches of Kamchatka, Avacha, Bystraya, Tigil, Penzhina and others are very characteristic of mountain rivers. The lowland rivers include Kamchatka, Penzhina and others in their middle and lower reaches.

The third group is dry rivers. They cut through the slopes of volcanoes and carry their waters to the receiving basins only in summer, during the melting of snow. During the rest of the year, water seeps into loose volcanic rocks and rivers disappear from the surface of the earth. Elizovskaya and Khalaktyrskaya can serve as an example.

The feeding of the rivers is mixed. Most of it is groundwater and water obtained from the melting of snow in the mountains and valleys. The role of groundwater nutrition increases in dry years, and snow, on the contrary, in high-water years. Rain feeding is essential for the rivers of the west coast, where its share in some years can be 20-30 percent. There are rain floods here in autumn, sometimes exceeding spring floods in height.

Freezing and opening. Due to the abundant ground supply, the freeze-up is unstable on many rivers, there are large non-freezing areas and polynyas. In winter, ice often appears only along the banks, places with a fast current and the middle of the river are usually free of ice. Freeze-up begins in November or even in December, and only in the north of the region a little earlier. In the north and northwest, where climatic conditions are more severe, medium and small rivers freeze to the bottom on riffles, forming icing.

Water content.

Its main indicator for rivers is the flow of water. It increases downstream as the basin grows. Thus, the average annual water flow in the upper reaches of the Kamchatka River is 91 cubic meters per second, in the lower reaches ten times more. Water content also depends on precipitation and the nature of the underlying surface. For example, the Penzhina River has a catchment area much larger than the Kamchatka River, but its average annual discharge is smaller.

The Kamchatka River flows through a lowland located between the Sredinny and Vostochny ranges. Having cut through the Kumroch ridge with a narrow valley - a site called "Cheeks" - it flows into the Kamchatka Bay of the Pacific Ocean.

Below the village of Pushchino, the current becomes smooth. The river becomes flat and begins to meander strongly. Its width near the village of Milkovo is 100-150 meters.

The further down, the wider and fuller it is. The wide floodplain, along which the river has laid its winding course with many branches, oxbow lakes, is covered with a green carpet of meadows interspersed with fields and forests. In many places the forest comes close to the river and forms a dense wall of green hedges. In the lower reaches, the Kamchatka River expands to 500-600 meters, and its depths range from 1 to 6 meters. Numerous rifts make the fairway of the river unstable. After big floods, it changes its position. This greatly complicates navigation.

The river freezes in November, and opens in late April - early May. Among the numerous tributaries, the largest are the Elovka, Tolbachik, Shchapina.

The settlements of Milkovo, Dolinovka, Shchapino, Kozyrevsk, Klyuchi, Ust-Kamchatsk and others are located along the banks of the river.

Kamchatka is the most important transport route of the peninsula. Passenger trams, boats, barges run along it. Shipping is carried out almost to Milkovo. Wood is rafted in large quantities. Salmon fish enter the river and its tributaries for spawning. The mighty northern beauty river is an interesting tourist route for summer hikes.

Lakes of Kamchatka

The lakes are varied and attractive. Often they represent a unique and amazing panorama.

Not far from the village of Semlyachiki there are the remains of the old volcano Uzon. Its top was demolished by a colossal volcanic explosion, and at an altitude of more than 500 meters a huge caldera (bowl) with an area of about 100 square kilometers was formed. On this area there are a lot of springs, rivers and small lakes. Many of them are filled with boiling water and are constantly bubbling, testifying to the violent activity of the volcano. In particular, one of them is remarkable - Fumarole. Its area is about 40 hectares. The water in it is always hot. Ducks and swans winter here.

Tectonic processes - the ups and downs of individual sections of the earth's surface - led to the formation of a number of lakes. The tectonic origin of the lakes Far and Near in the area of the village of Paratunka and one of the deepest and most beautiful lakes of Kamchatka - Kuril.

The largest lakes:

Name Location Mirror area (in sq. km)
Nerpichye(with Kultuchn) In the mouth part of the Kamchatka River 552
Kronotsky West of the Kronotsky Peninsula 245
Kuril In the south of the Kamchatka Peninsula 77.1
Azhabachye Near the village of Nizhnekamchatsk 63.9
big South of the village of Oktyabrsky 53.5

Thanks to the invaluable work of S.P. Krasheninnikov, an ancient, fanned with poetry, legend about the Alaid volcano has come down to us:

Kurile Lake is surrounded by volcanoes. Its banks are steep and steep. Numerous mountain streams and hot springs flow here, and only the Ozernaya River flows out, which freezes for a short time in winter. Kurile Lake is the deepest on the peninsula (306 meters). Its bottom is below the ocean level.

A similar legend was recorded by Krasheninnikov about the origin of another lake - Kronotsky. It is the largest freshwater lake in the region. By area it exceeds Avacha Bay. The greatest depth is 128 meters. It arose due to the fact that the colossal masses of lava, poured out from the nearest volcano, blocked the valley through which the rapids of the noisy Kronotskaya river runs, and formed a dam. According to legend, the lake was formed because the Shiveluch volcano moved to a new place of residence and on the way carelessly broke the tops of two hills. "Traces" of his feet, filled with water, turned into lakes. In particular, Kharchinskoye and Kurazhechnoye lakes, well-known to the inhabitants of the village of Klyuchi, belong to them.

In the lower reaches of the Kamchatka River lies the largest of the brackish lakes - Nerpichye, the remnant of the bay, which separated from the sea after the slow rise of the coast of the peninsula. Its depth is 12 meters. It consists of two lakes connected with each other, one of them is called Nerpichye, and the other - Kultuchnoe. The sea surf and the river took part in its origin. The name of the lake indicates that a sea animal, a seal (a type of seal), is found here. Kultuchnoe comes from the Turkic word kultuk - lagoon.

Lagoon-type lakes are common on the western coast of the peninsula. They are formed at the mouths of almost all major rivers of the West Kamchatka Lowland. Lagoon lakes have an elongated shape.

The most numerous group of lakes are peat ones. Their concentrations can be found in the West Kamchatka Lowland, Parapolsky Dole and the coastal plains of the eastern coast. Such lakes, as a rule, are small, have a rounded shape and steep banks.

The lakes of Kamchatka are located at different heights above sea level and are heterogeneous in their temperature and water regime. They also have different freezing and opening times.

The greatest rise in the water level is observed in summer, when snow melts in the mountains. The height of the level of coastal lakes depends on the tidal sea currents. The largest amplitude of level fluctuations in the lagoons of the western coast reaches 4-5 meters. The lagoons and lakes of the sea coasts freeze in December - later than in the interior of the peninsula, and open in late May - early June, although some of them are cleared of ice only in July

The shallow lakes of Kamchatka, which warm up well, are used for breeding silver carp in them - a tasty and nutritious fish. Amur carp and sterlet are also bred here.

The largest rivers of Kamchatka are reliable transport routes. Goods, materials, equipment, construction timber are transported through Kamchatka, Penzhina and some others.