}
The Ob (, ) is a major river in Russia. It is in western
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
; and together with
Irtysh forms the world's
seventh-longest river system, at . It forms at the confluence of the
Biya and
Katun
Katun may refer to:
Places
* Katun (river), a tributary of the Ob in Siberia, Russia
* Katun Mountains or Katun Alps, a mountain range in Russia, part of the Altai Mountains
* Katun (Vranje), a village in Vranje Municipality, Serbia
* Katun ( ...
which have their origins in the
Altai Mountains. It is the westernmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...
(the other two being the
Yenisei and the
Lena
Lena or LENA may refer to:
Places
* Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso
* Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada
* Lena, Norway, a village in ...
). Its flow is north-westward, then northward.
The main city on its banks is
Novosibirsk, the largest city in Siberia, and the
third-largest city in Russia. It is where the
Trans-Siberian Railway crosses the river.
The
Gulf of Ob is the world's longest
estuary
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...
.
Names
The internationally known name of the river is based on the Russian name ''Обь'' (''Obʹ'' ). Possibly from
Proto-Indo-Iranian ''
*Hā́p-'', "river, water" (compare
Vedic Sanskrit ''áp-'',
Persian ''āb'',
Tajik ''ob'', and
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...
''obə'', "water"). Katz (1990) proposes
Komi ''ob'' 'river' as the immediate source of derivation for the Russian name. Katz's proposal of a common Finno-Ugric root, borrowed early on from a pre-Indo-Iranian source related to Sanskrit ''ambhas-'' 'water' is deemed improbable by Rédei (1992), who prefers to analyse this as a later loan from a descendant of the non-nasal root form ''*Hā́p-''.
The Ob is known to the
Khanty people
The Khanty ( Khanty: ханти, ''hanti''), also known in older literature as Ostyaks (russian: остяки) are a Ugric indigenous people, living in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a region historically known as " Yugra" in Russia, togeth ...
as the ''As'' (the source of the name "
Ostyak"), ''Yag'', ''Kolta'' and ''Yema''; to the
Nenets people as the ''Kolta'' or ''Kuay''; and to the
Siberian Tatars
Siberian Tatars ( sty, , ), the ethnographic and ethnoterritorial group of Tatars of Western Siberia, the indigenous Turkic-speaking population of the forests and steppes of Western Siberia, originate in areas stretching from somewhat east ...
as the ''Umar'' or ''Omass''.
Geography
The Ob forms southwest of
Biysk in
Altai Krai at the confluence of the
Biya and
Katun
Katun may refer to:
Places
* Katun (river), a tributary of the Ob in Siberia, Russia
* Katun Mountains or Katun Alps, a mountain range in Russia, part of the Altai Mountains
* Katun (Vranje), a village in Vranje Municipality, Serbia
* Katun ( ...
rivers. Both these streams have their origin in the
Altai Mountains, which gradually give way to the
Ob Plateau.
[Приобское плато](_blank)
; ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia
The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...
'' in 30 vols. — Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov. – 3rd ed. – M. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969–1978. The Biya has its sources in
Lake Teletskoye
Lake Teletskoye (russian: Телецкое озеро, lit=the lake of the ; ) is the largest lake in the Altai Mountains and the Altai Republic, Russia, and has depth up to 325 meters.
Situated at a height of above the sea level, the lake is ...
and the long Katun in a glacier on
Mount Byelukha
Belukha Mountain (russian: Белуха, lit=whitey; Altai: Ӱч-Сӱмер, lit. 'three peaks'; kk, Мұзтау Шыңы, lit=icemount peak), located in the Katun Mountains, is the highest peak of the Altai Mountains in Russia and the highe ...
.
The Ob itself is in Russia. Its tributaries extend into northern
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, a western corner of China and a tiny upland parcel of the western tip of Mongolia, where the wider borders match the drainage basin almost precisely. The river splits into more than one arm after the large
Irtysh flows into it at about 69° E. Originating in China, the Irtysh is the furthest source of the Ob. From their respective sources to the confluence, the Irtysh measures 4,248 kilometers (2,640 mi) and the Ob 2,538 km (1,577 mi). Other noteworthy tributaries are: from the east, the
Tom,
Chulym,
Ket
Kentucky Educational Television (KET) is a state network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is operated by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Kentucky state governme ...
,
Tym and
Vakh rivers; and, from the west and south, the
Vasyugan, Irtysh (with the
Ishim and
Tobol rivers), and
Severnaya Sosva.
The Ob zigzags west and north until it reaches 55° N, where it curves to the northwest, south of the
Siberian Uvaly, at the western end of which it bends northwards, wheeling finally eastwards into the
Gulf of Ob, a bay of the
Kara Sea
The Kara Sea (russian: Ка́рское мо́ре, ''Karskoye more'') is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipel ...
, separating the
Yamal Peninsula from the
Gyda Peninsula
The Gyda Peninsula () is a geographical feature of the Siberian coast in the Kara Sea. It takes its name from the river Gyda, that flows on the peninsula. It is roughly 400 km long and 360 km wide. This wide peninsula lies between th ...
.
The combined Ob-Irtysh system, the
fourth-longest river system of Asia (after
Yenisei, and China's
Yangzi and
Yellow
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In th ...
rivers), is long, and the area of its basin .
The river basin of the Ob consists mostly of
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate gras ...
,
taiga
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, sp ...
, swamps,
tundra, and
semi-desert topography. The floodplains of the Ob are characterised by many tributaries and lakes.
The Ob is icebound at southern
Barnaul from early in November to near the end of April, and at northern
Salekhard, above its mouth, from the end of October to the beginning of June.
The Ob River crosses several climatic zones. The upper Ob valley, in the south, supports grapes, melons and watermelons, whereas the lower reaches of the Ob are Arctic tundra. The most temperate climates on the Ob are at
Biysk, Barnaul, and
Novosibirsk.
Human use
The Ob provides irrigation, drinking water, hydroelectric energy, and fishing (the river hosts more than 50 species of fish).
There are several hydroelectric power plants along the Ob river, the largest being Novosibirskaya GES.
The navigable waters within the Ob basin reach a total length of .
The importance of navigation in the Ob basin for transport was particularly great before the completion of the
Trans-Siberian Railway, since, despite the general south-to-north direction of the flow of Ob and most of its tributaries, the width of the Ob basin provided for (somewhat indirect) transport in the east–west direction as well.
Until the early 20th century, a particularly important western river-port was
Tyumen, located on the
Tura, a tributary of the
Tobol. Reached by an extension of the
Yekaterinburg–
Perm railway in 1885, and thus obtaining a rail link to the
Kama and
Volga
The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catch ...
rivers in the heart of Russia, Tyumen became an important railhead for some years until the railway extended further east. In the eastern reaches of the Ob basin,
Tomsk on the
Tom functioned as an important terminus.
Tyumen had its first
steamboat in 1836, and steamboats have navigated the middle reaches of the Ob since 1845. In 1916, there were 49 steamers on the Ob; 10 on the Yenisei.
In an attempt to extend the Ob navigable system even further, a
system of canals, utilising the
Ket
Kentucky Educational Television (KET) is a state network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is operated by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Kentucky state governme ...
, long in all, was built in the late 19th-century to connect the Ob with the
Yenisei, but soon abandoned as being uncompetitive with the
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...
.
The Trans-Siberian Railway, once completed, provided for more direct, year-round transport in the east–west direction. But the Ob river-system still remained important for connecting the huge expanses of
Tyumen Oblast and
Tomsk Oblast with the major cities along the Trans-Siberian route, such as Novosibirsk or
Omsk. In the second half of the 20th century, construction of rail links to
Labytnangi
Labytnangi (russian: Лабытна́нги; from Khanty: ; lit. ''seven larches''; Nenets: Лабытнаӈгы. ''Labytnaŋgy'') is a town in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on the left bank of the Ob River, northwest of Salek ...
,
Tobolsk
Tobolsk (russian: Тобо́льск) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1590, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, ...
, and the oil and gas cities of
Surgut
Surgut ( rus, Сургу́т, p=sʊrˈgut; Khanty: Сәрханӆ, ''Sərhanł'') is a city in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on the Ob River near its junction with the Irtysh River. It is one of the few cities in Russia to be ...
, and
Nizhnevartovsk provided more railheads, but did not diminish the importance of the waterways for reaching places still not served by the rail.
A dam built near Novosibirsk in 1956 created the then-largest artificial lake in
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
, called
Novosibirsk Reservoir.
From the 1960s through 1980s, Soviet engineers and administrators contemplated a gigantic project to
divert some of the waters of Ob and Irtysh to
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
and the Soviet
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...
n republics, replenishing the
Aral Sea as well. The project never left the drawing board, abandoned in 1986 for economic and environmental considerations.
[Michael H. Glantz]
"Creeping Environmental Problems and Sustainable Development in the Aral Sea..."
. . p. 174
Pollution
Tributaries
The
Irtysh is the major
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...
of the Ob. The larger tributaries along its course are:
In addition, the
Nadym and the
Pur River flow into the
Gulf of Ob and the
Taz into the
Taz Estuary
The Taz Estuary (russian: Тазовская губа) is a long gulf formed by the Taz River. It consists of a roughly long estuary that begins in the area of the settlement of Tazovsky and ends in the Gulf of Ob, which is connected with th ...
, a side arm of the Gulf of Ob.
Cities
Cities along the river include:
*
Barnaul
*
Kamen-na-Obi
Kamen-na-Obi (russian: Ка́мень-на-Оби́), known until 1933 as Kamen (), is a town in Altai Krai, Russia, located on the left bank of the Ob River northwest of Barnaul, the administrative center of the krai. As of the 2010 Census, ...
*
Novosibirsk (Russia's third largest city and Siberia's largest by population)
*
Kolpashevo
*
Langepas
*
Megion
*
Nizhnevartovsk
*
Surgut
Surgut ( rus, Сургу́т, p=sʊrˈgut; Khanty: Сәрханӆ, ''Sərhanł'') is a city in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on the Ob River near its junction with the Irtysh River. It is one of the few cities in Russia to be ...
*
Khanty-Mansiysk
*
Beryozovo
*
Labytnangi
Labytnangi (russian: Лабытна́нги; from Khanty: ; lit. ''seven larches''; Nenets: Лабытнаӈгы. ''Labytnaŋgy'') is a town in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on the left bank of the Ob River, northwest of Salek ...
*
Salekhard
Bridges
From a confluence to a source:
*
Surgut Bridge
The Yugra Bridge (russian: Югорский мост; or Surgut Bridge, russian: links=no, Сургутский мост) is a cable-stayed bridge across the Ob River at Surgut, Russia. It is one of the longest in Siberia. The bridge is long and ...
*Railway bridge in
Surgut
Surgut ( rus, Сургу́т, p=sʊrˈgut; Khanty: Сәрханӆ, ''Sərhanł'') is a city in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on the Ob River near its junction with the Irtysh River. It is one of the few cities in Russia to be ...
*Shegarsky bridge
*The bridge of "northern bypass" of
Novosibirsk
*
Dimitrov bridge in Novosibirsk
*First railway bridge across the Ob (
Trans-Siberian Railway)
*
Communal (October) bridge in Novosibirsk
*
Metro bridge in Novosibirsk – longest
Metro Bridge in the world
*
Bugrinsky Bridge
The Bugrinsky Bridge (russian: Бугри́нский мост, ''Bugrinsky Most'') is a road bridge over the Ob River in Novosibirsk, Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe ...
*Komsomol railway bridge in Novosibirsk
*The bridge above the lock of Novosibirskaya HPP
*Railway bridge in
Kamen-na-Obi
Kamen-na-Obi (russian: Ка́мень-на-Оби́), known until 1933 as Kamen (), is a town in Altai Krai, Russia, located on the left bank of the Ob River northwest of Barnaul, the administrative center of the krai. As of the 2010 Census, ...
*Communal bridge (railway, automobile) in
Barnaul
*New bridge in Barnaul
See also
*
List of rivers of Russia
Russia can be divided into a European and an Asian part. The dividing line is generally considered to be the Ural Mountains. The European part is drained into the Arctic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, and Caspian Sea. The Asian part is draine ...
References
*
External links
The Top Ten: Longest Rivers of the World
{{Authority control
Rivers of Altai Krai
Rivers of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug
Rivers of Novosibirsk Oblast
Rivers of Tomsk Oblast
Rivers of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
Rivers of Novosibirsk
Geography of Siberia
Braided rivers in Russia
West Siberian Plain