East Manych (russian: Восточный Маныч) is a river in the eastern and central part of the
Kuma–Manych Depression
The Kuma–Manych depression ( rus, Кумо–Манычская впадина, Kumo–Manychskaya vpadina), is a geological depression in southwestern Russia that separates the Russian Plain to the north from Ciscaucasia to the south. It is ...
in southern
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.
East Manych flows east through Kalmykia and along its border with the
Stavropol Krai
Stavropol Krai (russian: Ставропо́льский край, r=Stavropolsky kray, p=stəvrɐˈpolʲskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a Krais of Russia, krai) of Russia. It is geographically located in the North ...
, and ends in the Sostino Lakes (Состинские озёра). According to the Russian geographers, the East Manych is 141 km long; if one were to include the usually dry sections in its lower course, the total length would be over 220 km.
The
Chogray Reservoir
The Chogray Reservoir (russian: Чограйское водохранилище, ''Chograyskoye vodokhranilishche'') is an artificial reservoir on the East Manych River on the border of Stavropol Krai and Kalmykia in southern Russia.
The reservoi ...
(Чограйское водохранилище; ) was built on this river in 1969.East Manych (Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences) The reservoir receives water from the Terek and Kuma Rivers via the Terek–Kuma Canal (completed 1958) and the
Kuma–Manych Canal
The Kuma–Manych Canal (russian: Кумо–Манычский канал) is an irrigation canal in Russia's Stavropol Krai. The canal, completed in 1965,Kuma Region Irrigation
The common source
Formerly, the upper reaches of the East and
West Manych
The Manych (russian: Маныч) is a river in the Black Sea–Caspian Steppe of Southern Russia. It flows through the western and central part of the Kuma–Manych Depression. In ancient times, it was known as the Lik.
A tributary of the Don, it ...
were connected, at least in wet years or seasons. The
Kalaus River
The Kalaus (russian: Калаус) is a north-flowing river on the Black Sea-Caspian Steppe of southern Russia, in Stavropol Krai. It is long, and has a drainage basin of .
, when reaching the
thalweg
In geography and fluvial geomorphology, a thalweg or talweg () is the line of lowest elevation within a valley or watercourse.
Under international law, a thalweg is the middle of the primary navigable channel of a waterway that defines the bounda ...
of the Kuma-Manych Depression at , would
split
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Places
* Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia
* Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay
* Split Island, Falkland Islands
* Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua
Arts, enterta ...
: the left
distributary
A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Distributaries are a common feature of river deltas. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation. The opposite of a distributar ...
, flowing north and then west, toward Lake Manych-Gudilo, would become the source of the West Manych, while the right distributary, flowing south and then east, would become the headwaters of the East Manych. During the 20th century, most of the water went into the eastern distributary, until it was dammed. Later, a solid dam was built at this point, preventing any water from flowing from the Kalaus into the East Manych, thus making the Kalaus the source of only the West Manych.
Alexander Anatolievich Bazelyuk (Базелюк Александр Анатольевич), АНТРОПОГЕННОЕ ИЗМЕНЕНИЕ ГИДРОГРАФИЧЕСКОЙ СЕТИ КУМО-МАНЫЧСКОЙ ВПАДИНЫ " (Anthropogenic changes in the Hydrographic Network of the Kuma-Manych Depression), summary of the Cand. Sci. dissertation. Rostov-na-Donu, 2007.