Kamchatka (river)

The length of the river is 758 km, the basin area is 55,900 km², the average basin height is 560 meters above sea level, the total river fall is 1,200 m, and the average slope is 1,58 ‰ ^[3] . It originates in the mountains of the central part of the peninsula and before the confluence with the Right river is called Lake Kamchatka . From the place of confluence of Right and Lake Kamchatka to the 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 course, the river reaches the Central Kamchatka lowland and changes its character to a flat one. Kamchatka has a very winding channel on this site, in some places it is divided into sleeves. In the lower reaches, the river, rounding the Klyuchevskaya Sopka massif, turns east; in the lower reaches the Kumroch ridge.

At the mouth, the river forms a delta , consisting of numerous channels separated by sand and pebble spits. The delta configuration is constantly changing. At the confluence of the Kamchatka River into the ocean, it is connected by the Ozernaya channel with Lake Nerpichye , which is the largest lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula . The peninsula north of the delta is also named after the river - the Kamchatka Peninsula .

Tributaries

In the river basin, there are 7,707 smaller rivers with a total length of 30,352 km. Most of them are less than 10 km long. The vast majority of the tributaries of the Kamchatka River are spawning grounds for salmon and some other fish species ^[3] . The largest tributaries: Kensol , Andrianovka , Zhupanka , Kozyrevka , Kreruk , Fir-tree - left; Kavycha , Kitilgin , Vakhvin Left , Urz - right. The most significant of them is the Elovka River.

Some channels of the Kamchatka River are quite long, and are considered in the Water Cadastre as rivers, for example, the Kamenskaya Protoka , whose length is about 30 km.

Ust-Kamchatsk , Milkovo , the city of Nizhnekamchatsk (disappeared from 1968), Krachcha (abolished in 1974), the village of Kresty (empty after World War II), Birch Yar and Cherniy Yar .

Mixed food, with a predominance of underground - 35% (due to a significant part of the precipitation seeping into permeable volcanic rocks and replenishing groundwater reserves); snow is 34%, glacial - 28%, rain - 3% High water from May to September, from October to April low water. The average discharge at Nizhnekamchatsk (35 km from the mouth) is 965 m³ / s. It freezes in November, opens in April - May.

The river valley is located in a seismically active area with active volcanism . During volcanic eruptions, mudflows can flow due to melting glaciers into the river basin. The most significant was the mud-stone flow associated with the catastrophic eruption of Bezymyannyi volcano in March 1956, during which the mud spread along the Bolshaya Khapitsa River , one of the tributaries of Kamchatka. ^[4] In some places, due to the release of hot springs, the river does not freeze throughout the year.

Nature

The river is rich in fish; it is a spawning site for many valuable salmon species, including chinook salmon , so industrial and amateur fishing is underway. Introduced crucian carp , Amur carp , Siberian mustachioed char are also found in the Kamchatka basin. The river is often used by tourists for water trips from Ust-Kamchatsk .

The river valley is the most abundant coniferous forest on the Kamchatka Peninsula . The species growing here are Okhotsk larch ( Larix ochotensis ) and ayan spruce ( Picea ajanensis ).

Ichthyofauna

In the Kamchatka river basin, 24 species of freshwater, anadromous, and coastal fish and fish-like species live ^[3] :

• Kamchatka (river in the Kamchatka region) // Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 tons] / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
• Kamchatka // Dictionary of modern geographical names / Rus. geo about . Mosk. Centre; Under the total. ed. Acad. V.M. Kotlyakova . Institute of Geography RAS . - Yekaterinburg: U-Factoria, 2006.