Water resources of Kamchatka. Hydrography of Kamchatka: rivers, lakes, groundwater Large rivers of Kamchatka

Kamchatka is a river on the peninsula with the same name. It is located in the northeast of Eurasia.

Kamchatka River (description)

The river is the largest on the peninsula of the same name, located on Far East Russian Federation. The source and mouth of the Kamchatka River are 758 kilometers apart. The area of ​​the river basin is 55,900 square kilometers. The source of Kamchatka is located in the mountainous central part of the Kamchatka Peninsula, namely, in the southern part of the Sredinny Range. Before connecting with the tributary Pravaya Kamchatka, the river is called Ozernaya. After the confluence with Pravaya, along the bank of the river until it flows into the bay of the same name, there is a highway connecting Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky with Ust-Kamchatsky.

Different sections of the river

The upper reaches of Kamchatka are typical for a mountain river: green waters flow in a stormy stream from the Ganalsky and Sredinny ridges. The current is so violent that it carries large stones over vast distances. These boulders form rapids and riffles on the river. Having passed by the village of Pushchina, entering the Central Kamchatka Lowland, the river calms down and becomes a flat stream. 80 percent of the length of Kamchatka lies on the plain. The width also becomes more impressive - from 100 to 150 meters near the village of Milkovo. The further downstream, the wider and fuller the river. The riverbed is winding, has many branches and oxbow lakes, and forms meanders. The river's floodplain is occupied by green meadows, fields, and forests.

Sometimes the forest comes very close to the river, forming a “green hedge”. In the lower reaches of Kamchatka, the latitude reaches 600 meters and the depth reaches 6 meters. In some places navigation is possible, but due to floods these areas change their position, which is very inconvenient. The Kamchatka River delta consists of many channels, which are separated by spits of sand and pebbles. IN different times of the year general form delta is changing. Where the river flows into the bay, it is joined by a channel flowing from the largest lake on the peninsula called Nerpichye.

Mountains on the river's path

As already mentioned, the Kamchatka (river) begins in the southern part of the Sredinny Range. It is formed, thanks to the waters of melted snowfields, in a deep, bowl-shaped gorge. Further it flows between two ridges - Middle and Eastern. The average height of the Sredinny Range is from 1400 to 1800 meters, maximum height- 3621 meters. The average height of the Eastern Range is from 1200 to 1600 meters, and highest point- 2412 meters. Blocks waterway the huge volcano Klyuchevskaya Sopka. Going around it, the Kamchatka River then flows to the east. Where Klyuchevskaya Sopka is located can be understood from afar, thanks to the sparkling glaciers on the top of the volcanic mountain. Then, cutting through the Kumroch ridge, it flows through a narrow valley (the “Cheeks” gorge) and reaches the Pacific Ocean onto the coastal lowland, where it flows into the Kamchatka Bay, which belongs to the Bering Sea.

Big Cheeks Gorge

The flat bed of Kamchatka cuts through the Kumroch Mountains, passing through the Big Cheeks gorge. Its length is 23 kilometers and it ends 4 km from the former Nizhnekamchatsk. The river in this place gathers into one narrow channel, the flow speed increases. Previously, back in the 19th century, there was a fort here where the Itelmens, the indigenous people of the Kamchatka Peninsula, lived. And already in the next century, a fishing farm was formed here from the Lenin’s Path collective farm. The catch was supplied to a fish canning plant in Ust-Kamchatsk.

Hydrological regime

Kamchatka is a river that is one of the deepest. The average water consumption per year is 950 cubic meters per second. The river is fed mainly underground (35 percent), so rain moisture easily passes through volcanic rocks and feeds groundwater. Snow nutrition is 34 percent and ranks second. Then comes the glacial and completely a small share(3 percent) is rainfall. The hydrological regime is characterized by significant floods in spring and summer, which occurs due to the melting of snow and glaciers in the mountains.

It is at this time that 50 to 70 percent of the total annual flow occurs. The flood consists of two waves. The first wave comes when snow melts in the valley, and the second comes from the melting of mountain snowfields. After the period of high water, low water begins, which includes September and October. During this period, the river is very full due to incoming groundwater and glacial waters. Next comes winter low water, which lasts approximately 180 days. The ice on the river appears in November, and the river breaks up in April or May.

Altitudinal zone

Since the river basin is located partly in the mountains, it has developed altitudinal zone. In the upper reaches of the rivers that flow into Kamchatka, mountain tundras are widespread.

In the upper reaches of Kamchatka itself, mainly white and stone birch grow, and dry meadows are common. In the middle reaches there are larch forests with an admixture of spruce (Ayan spruce and Okhotsk larch). In the lower reaches there are alder-willow forests and shrubs, the area is swampy.

Tributaries

In the Kamchatka River basin there are 7,707 tributaries, the total length of which is 30,352 kilometers. But at the same time, 7105 of them are rivers with a length of less than 10 kilometers. Most long tributary- Elovka River (242 kilometers).

It is followed by Kozyrevka (222 kilometers), Shchapina (172 kilometers), Tolbachik (148 km), Kitilgina (140 km), Kirganik (121 km), Bolshaya Khapitsa (111 km), Kavycha (108 km), Vakhvina Levaya, Andrianovka , Rainbow, Right Kamchatka.

The influence of volcanic activity on the river

The Kamchatka River Valley is located in a zone of increased seismic activity and volcanic activity. When eruptions of nearby volcanoes sometimes occur such natural phenomena, as they sat down, due to the sharp melting of glaciers.

In 1956, there was a catastrophic eruption of the Bezymianny volcano. powerful flow mud and stones merged with the Bolshaya Khapitsa tributary, which fed the Kamchatka River. A photo of that eruption shows how large it was, the explosion destroyed half the cone. Therefore, after the awakening of volcanoes, the river becomes most turbid. Another phenomenon is that in some areas the river does not freeze in winter due to the release of thermal waters.

Animal world

There are a lot of fish in the river, they spawn valuable species salmon Here you can find the following species from the salmon family: pink salmon, chum salmon, sockeye salmon, coho salmon, Chinook salmon, and kunja. Also found: char, mykiss, grayling, and Dolly Varden. Fishing industry is developed. The following species are found in the river basin: Siberian mustachioed char, Amur carp, silver crucian carp. Water tourists from Ust-Kamchatsk often raft along the river.

The largest river in the region. Its length is more than 750 km, the Itelmen name is Uykoal, which means “Big River”. Kamchatka has two sources: the left one, originating in the Sredinny Range (Ozernaya Kamchatka River), and the right one in the eastern ridge (Pravaya Kamchatka River). Merging within the Ganal tundra, they give rise to the Kamchatka River itself. It flows north, but near the village of Klyuchi it sharply turns east and flows into the Kamchatka Bay, forming a wide mouth, the fairway of which is constantly changing.

Kamchatka - the only river edge, which has navigable significance. Currently, Kamchatka is used for shipping for 200 km. from the mouth. In the lower reaches, the depths on the reaches during low-water periods reach 5-6 m, on the rifts about 2 m.

The Kamchatka basin occupies the Central Kamchatka depression, between the Sredinny Range in the west and the Valaginsky Range in the east. Big sizes rivers are determined by the fact that more than 80% of its length falls on a flat bed. In the upper reaches the channel is mountainous and semi-mountainous, with numerous branches typical of Kamchatka rivers.

Within the flatbed there are several special and extremely intriguing areas. This is the famous Big Cheeks gorge, in which the river flows for 35 km and has almost sheer rocky banks, which can be the envy of any “promoted” canyon in North America. Their development here is associated with the river crossing the spurs of the Kamchatka Range. The river also very picturesquely crosses the spurs, where, already being a large flat river, it forms two large rapids - Krekurlinsky and Pingrinsky.

The Kamchatka River has the largest fish resources. All types of salmon fish come to spawn: pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), and brown trout (Salvelinus leucomaenis). A wide variety of fish of residential forms: char (Salvelinus), mykiss (Parasalmo mykiss), Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma), grayling (Thymallus arcticus pallasi), carp species, even sturgeon.

A huge number of tributaries flow into Kamchatka. The largest of them, Shchapina,. Kamchatka and its numerous tributaries carry large amounts of alluvial material.

The Kamchatka River is not only the most powerful water artery, but also the history of the region. Its valley has been densely populated since ancient times. The famous archaeologist N.N. Dikov, working in the valley, discovered ancient settlements. The greatest habitability of this river valley was also noted by Russian explorers. V. Atlasov in his “skasks” reported: “And as we sailed along Kamchatka, there were many foreigners on both sides of the river, great settlements.” The Cossacks sent on reconnaissance reported that from the mouth to the sea, in an area of ​​150 km, there were 160 forts, and in each of them 150 - 200 people lived in one or two yurts. According to the most conservative estimate, about 25 thousand people lived in the Kamchatka Valley.

Used sources:

Data collected and processed by Batalov D.

Use of all site materials is possible only with permissionAdministration of Topkam.ru, with a mandatory link to the portal page

The river is located within the Kamchatka Territory.

In the Itelmen language - “Uykoal” (“big river”). There are more than 20 versions of the origin of the toponym “Kamchatka”. According to one of them, the name of the peninsula comes from the Kamchatka River, which, in turn, was named after a Cossack who crossed the peninsula with his detachment in 1658–1660.

The length of the river is 758 km, the basin area is 55.9 thousand km 2, the average height of the basin is 560 m, the total fall of the river is 1200 m, the average slope is 1.58‰. In terms of basin area, Kamchatka ranks 2nd among the rivers of the Kamchatka Territory (after Penzhina) and 33rd in Russia. The Kamchatka River is formed from the melting of snowfields at the bottom of a deep bowl-shaped gorge in the southern part of the Sredinny Range. Most of the river is located within the Central Kamchatka Depression, which is limited on the left side by the Sredinny Ridge, and on the right by the Eastern Ridge. In the middle course, the river goes around the Klyuchevskaya group of volcanoes, and in the lower reaches it breaks through a narrow gorge (Big Shcheki) through the Kumroch ridge, reaches the coastal lowland and flows into the Kamchatka Gulf of the Pacific Ocean. When entering the sea, the mouth of the river is blocked by a mouth bar. At the mouth reach, the river is connected by a wide channel to the largest lake on the peninsula, Nerpichy Lake.

In the Kamchatka basin there are 7,707 rivers with a total length of 30,352 km, the average density of the river network is 0.54 km/km 2 . Most rivers (7105) are less than 10 km long. Main tributaries: Pravaya Kamchatka (30 km), Kavycha (108), Vakhvina Levaya (94 km), Kitilgina (140 km), Shchapina (172 km), Tolbachik (148 km), Bolshaya Khapitsa (111 km) (right); Andrianovka (92 km), Kirganik (121 km), Bolshaya Kimitina (105), Kozyrevka (222 km), Elovka (244 km), Raduga (84 km) (left).

The climate in the basin is close to temperate continental. There is great heterogeneity in the distribution of annual precipitation across the territory, which is caused, in addition to the general circulation of air masses, by the varied topography. The average annual precipitation varies from 440 mm in the middle reaches of the river (Kozyrevsk) to 600–800 mm in its upper reaches (Milkovo and Pushchino, respectively) and 710 mm in the lower part of the basin (Ust-Kamchatsk). Modern glaciation in the river basin is developed mainly on the tops and slopes of high volcanic mountains, especially in the Klyuchevskaya group of volcanoes.

The river basin has a well-defined altitudinal zone. In the lower reaches, the river flows through a swampy lowland composed of light brown loams and sandy loams, peat-gley and peat soils. The vegetation cover within its boundaries is represented by alder-willow forest and shrubs. In the middle reaches of the river there are larch forests mixed with spruce and white birch. The upper reaches are dominated by sparse groves of white and stone birch with dry meadows on slightly podzolic soils. In the upper reaches of the tributaries of the river. Kamchatka is inhabited by mountain tundras.

The Kamchatka River is predominantly underground (50–60% of the annual volume) and snow fed. The main phase of its water regime is the spring-summer flood, during which 50–75% of the annual flow passes. Flood usually occurs in two waves. The first is caused by the melting of snow in the valley, and the second by the melting of snowfields in the mountains. After the flood, a relatively high-water stable low-water period occurs (September–October). The increased water content of this period is caused by abundant ground nutrition and the continuing melting of glaciers and snowfields. Winter low water begins at end of October, ends at the end of April - beginning of May; its average duration is 170–180 days.

In the upper reaches of the river, the annual runoff modules are quite large and amount to about 20–26 l/(sq.km). In the middle and lower reaches of the river, the runoff modules are noticeably smaller - about 16 l/(sq.km). The average long-term volume of water flow at the mouth of Kamchatka is 30.4 km 3 , in the area of ​​the Bolshie Shcheki station – 28.1 km 3 . About half is the underground component.

The average long-term turbidity of Kamchatka water in the upper reaches is 50 g/m 3 , in the middle reaches – 130–170 g/m 3 , in the lower reaches – 85–90 g/m 3 . The average long-term module of the river sediment runoff is about 99.4 t/km 2 ∙year. A significant amount of suspended material comes with the waters of right-bank tributaries flowing down the slopes active volcanoes. Therefore, after the activation of volcanoes, the turbidity of water and sediment runoff in the Kamchatka River usually increase noticeably (as was the case after the largest eruptions of Bezymyanny and Shiveluch volcanoes in the 20th century in 1956 and 1964, respectively). In the Kamchatka basin, there are frequent cases of derailment mudflows. The most significant was the mud-stone flow that descended along the bed of Bolshaya Khapitsa after the catastrophic eruption of the Bezymianny volcano in March 1956.

Mineralization of river water ranges from 35–100 mg/l during high water to 200 mg/l during low water. The water in the river belongs to the hydrocarbonate class; during the flood period it has a weakly expressed sulfate character. The population and production facilities in the Kamchatka basin are supplied with water mainly from underground sources.

The large villages of Milkovo, Kozyrevsk, Klyuchi and Ust-Kamchatsk are located on the river. In the middle of the 20th century. navigation in Kamchatka was carried out until the village. Milkovo (576 km from the mouth). It usually lasted from May to October. To date, after completion of construction highway, which connected Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky with all the villages on the Kamchatka River, river navigation virtually ceased. In the village Ust-Kamchatsk has a port that accepts sea vessels with a shallow draft. There is only one hydroelectric power station in the river basin – the diversion “Bystrinskaya”. The Kamchatka River with its tributaries is the most important center of reproduction salmon fish(chum salmon, sockeye salmon, coho salmon, chinook salmon and pink salmon) in the region.

Kamchatka is a peninsula in the northeastern part of the Eurasian continent on the territory of the Russian Federation, stretching meridional direction for 1200 km, with a total area of ​​472.3 thousand km.

It is washed from the west by the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, from the east by the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean, and the rugged shores of the peninsula form large bays: Avachinsky, Kronotsky, Kamchatsky, Ozernoy, Karaginsky, Korfa, as well as bays: Avachinskaya, Karaga, Ossora, etc. In the central part of the peninsula there are two parallel ridges - the Sredinny Ridge and the Eastern Ridge, and between them is the Central Kamchatka Lowland, where the most big river peninsula - Kamchatka.

The main watershed is the Sredinny Range, where the rivers originate. From the western slopes of the Sredinny Range flow rivers belonging to the basin of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and from the eastern slopes of the ridge flow rivers of the Bering Sea basin or flowing into Pacific Ocean. The rivers of the peninsula are divided into: ridge, key and tundra. The ridge rivers are mountainous in nature, receive their nutrition from the melting of snow and glaciers, and are characterized by very high water content. Key rivers have low water flows and do not freeze in winter. Tundra rivers flow through swampy lowlands. Kamchatka rivers have slow self-purification processes, so the discharge of untreated Wastewater containing organic contaminants should be prohibited.

  • Fishing at permanent camps
  • Fishing at fishing bases
  • Sea fishing
  • For fishermen
    • How to book a tour
    • How to get there
    • Required equipment
    • Catch and release rules
    • About bears
    • Memo to the fisherman
    • Fisherman's calendar
  • Helpful information
    • Fishing rules
    • Hotels
    • Articles about fishing in Kamchatka
  • Guestbook
  • English
  • About Kamchatka

    Rivers and lakes of Kamchatka

    Rivers

    Large amounts of precipitation, presence permafrost Long melting snow in the mountains, low evaporation, and mountainous terrain are the reasons for the development of an exceptionally dense hydraulic network within the Kamchatka Territory.
    In Kamchatka there are 140,100 rivers and streams, but only 105 of them have a length of over 100 km. Despite their insignificant depth, the rivers are extremely deep.
    The Kamchatka River (length 758 km) 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: Sredinny and Eastern ranges.

    Kamchatka rivers They have a mountainous character in the upper reaches and a calm character within the plains. When they flow into the sea, many of them usually form spits, and at their mouths there are underwater shafts and 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 large coarse clastic material (boulders, pebbles, gravel). As 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 outline The coastal lowlands are a combination of flat wetlands concentrated mainly near the coast, undulating, hilly interfluves and wide river valleys. Within the hilly plains, river channels 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 rivers, but on large rivers this pattern is violated. Often, when crossing the spurs of ridges, rivers in the middle and even lower reaches acquire a mountainous 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 alternating rapids and waterfalls with segments of stagnant zones. Such rivers are usually small in size and flow along the bottom of valleys with steep slopes. The length of such sections ranges from a few percent of the entire length of the river (if the river downstream flows into the foothills and plains) to 100% (small rivers and streams flowing throughout their entire length within mountainous regions).
    As the relief gradually flattens out, the rapids and waterfalls disappear, but the nature of the flow still remains turbulent. In addition, as tributaries flow in, the size and water content of rivers (i.e., the amount of water flowing through a cross-section of a river in a certain period of time) increase. Such rivers are most characterized by a rectilinear channel shape with separate single islands and forced bends (bends in the river channel). The formation of such bends is due to the fact that the river flow tends to go around rocky ledges, composed of strong, indestructible rocks. rocks, and thereby acquires a tortuous shape.
    In some areas, mountain rivers form large erosion holes, the depth of which is tens of times greater than the average depth of the river. Such holes are good refuges for fish, since the current speeds in them are sharply reduced.

    On the large rivers of Kamchatka you can also observe areas with rapid flow. Narrow valleys with steep slopes and high current speeds (> 1 m/s) may be due to the restriction of rivers by spurs of mountain ranges. On rivers that, in general, do not have a deep and flat channel, there are always sections with a significant slope, leading to a sharp increase in flow speeds, 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 and represent clusters of large pebbles, overgrown with birch and alder bushes. Open pebble banks form above and below the islands.
    The most beautiful shores attract attention mountain rivers. When approaching the ridges they take on the appearance of high rocky ledges. The mosses and lichens growing on them give the rocks a red-brown or green color.
    When moving from mountainous to flat conditions, the steepness of river valleys and the flow speed sharply decrease. For these reasons, the flow power becomes insufficient to move river sediments (boulders, pebbles). This material is deposited directly in the river bed, forming peculiar islands called sedges. 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 of small rivers.
    One more distinctive feature of these rivers is the presence large quantity driftwood (various sizes of logs and branches) in the riverbed, which is associated with the exit of rivers into the forest area. During periods of spring snowmelt, as well as after heavy rains, the water level in rivers and flow speeds increase, and the flow of water intensively erodes the banks. As a result, a huge number wood material falls into the river and is deposited downstream in the shallows - near islands or coastal spits. That is why the largest creases (accumulations of branches, cramps, as well as entire tree trunks) lead to the splitting of the river into channels, some of which have the opposite direction to the main flow of the river. As a result, the use of rivers for rafting purposes along almost their entire length turns out to be impossible.

    Distribution of rivers by basin. All rivers of the Kamchatka Territory belong to the basins of the Okhotsk and Bering Seas and the Pacific Ocean.
    The rivers of western Kamchatka flow into Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Most originate in Sredinny ridge. A smaller part originates in its foothills or peat bogs. In the upper reaches they flow in narrow gorges with numerous rapids and waterfalls; on the plain their valleys become wide (up to 5-6 km), the banks are low, and the flow is slow. The rivers form channels and are replete with sandbanks.
    Swamp rivers represent a sharp contrast to clear, rapid mountain streams. Their bed is mostly narrow and deeply cut into the peat. The water, as always in swamp streams, is dark brown in color and the flow is slow. After rains they swell greatly. They usually start in small oval or round shape lakes
    The largest of the rivers flowing into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is Penzhina river(713 km). The river originates in Kolyma ridge and flows into Penzhinskaya Bay. Largest tributaries Penzhiny - Oklan and Chernaya rivers. Other rivers in the western part of Kamchatka include: Bolshaya, Tigil, Icha, Vorovskaya, Krutogorova.
    The rivers flowing into the Bering Sea are even shorter than the rivers of western Kamchatka. Most of them have a pronounced mountain character all the way to the mouth. The largest rivers originate in the Sredinny Range: Ozernaya(length 199 km), Ivashka, Karaga, Anapka, Valovayam. WITH Koryak Highlands flow into the Bering Sea Vivenka, Pakhacha, Apuka.
    Directly to Pacific Ocean The rivers of south-eastern Kamchatka flow into them. Of these, the largest are Zhupanova, Avacha And Kamchatka.
    The largest river in the region Kamchatka(length 758 km, drainage area 55.9 thousand sq. km), unlike other Kamchatka rivers, it flows along a large section of its length Central Kamchatka plain and has a mountainous character only in the upper reaches. The river has many tributaries. Of these, the largest: left - Kozyrevka, Fast, Elovka; right - Shchapina And Big Khapitsa.

    The rivers of Kamchatka are surrounded by a landscape that is completely unique in terms of vegetation. In conditions high humidity, which is typical for flooded floodplains, grass grows of truly monstrous size, in which an adult person disappears headlong. They are accompanied by bushes, all together creating a truly impassable thicket.
    Another one characteristic floodplain landscape - animal trails. Even in the most wild places along water bodies there are trodden paths along which you can move freely (unless you meet a four-legged club-footed friend on it).

    Lakes

    In Kamchatka from above 100 thousand large and small lakes. By nature they can be divided into six types. Each type is confined to a specific region of the region.
    1. Numerous crater and dammed lakes are common in areas of ancient and modern volcanism. Crater (sometimes with hot water) lakes are small in size and located at a considerable altitude. Dammed lakes were formed as a result of the blocking of rivers by lava flows (Lake Palanskoye).
    Small pools often form where hot springs emerge hot water. Lakes associated with volcanism also include large caldera lakes (Lake Kurilskoe).
    2. Oxbow lakes form the second large group. They are located mainly in the valley of the Kamchatka River.
    3. On the coasts, mainly in the estuarine parts of rivers, there are lagoon lakes, separated from the sea by spits. They are of considerable size. Lake Nerpichye, for example, is the most large lake Kamchatka. Its area is 448 square meters. km, depths range from 4 to 13 m.
    4. Discharge lakes were formed as a result of the splitting and subsidence of individual sections of the earth’s crust. They are characterized by the simplicity of the outline of the banks. (Lake Dalnee near the village of Paratunki).
    5. Another type is formed by glacial lakes located at the foot of the ridges, where they sometimes form a typical landscape.
    6. Peat lakes are widespread within the region.

    Many lakes were formed under the influence of several factors and cannot be classified into any specific type.
    In small, well-warmed lakes there are goldfish, pike. In some lakes there is Amur carp.
    At the same time, the lakes are wonderful spawning grounds for salmon, and Lake Kurilskoe And Nerpichye are among the best spawning grounds in the world.
    Some lakes are an exceptional phenomenon. An example is Lake Kurilskoye, an ancient caldera filled with water. Among the volcanic lakes of Russia there is not a single one that is anything close to it in structure. With a relatively small size (77.1 sq. km), the lake has great depths (306 m) and belongs to the deepest lakes in Eurasia. The panorama of the lake is unique. It is surrounded on all sides by majestic volcanic cones. The shores and underwater slopes are steep and rocky. Ancient lake terraces are visible on the slopes of the volcanoes.
    Islands rise from the bottom in the form of peaks, one of the islands, a triangular Alaid rock.
    The lake is fed by numerous mountain streams mixed with the waters of hot springs. One weakly freezing river, Ozernaya, flows out of it. The lake is one of the most important spawning grounds for sockeye salmon.
    In the craters or calderas of many volcanoes there are lakes that do not freeze all winter, so ducks and swans often spend the winter on them.

    Views