The Akbastau (; ) is a river in

Karkaraly District Karkaraly District (, ) is a district of Karaganda Region in central Kazakhstan. The administrative center of the district is the town of Karkaraly. As of 2019, the district is home to a population of 36,025 people. Geography Karasor, an endorheic ...

Karaganda Region Karaganda Region (; ) is a region of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Karaganda. The region borders Akmola and Pavlodar Region to the north, Abai Region to the east, Jetisu, Almaty, and Zhambyl Regions to the south, and Kostanay and Ulytau regio ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. It is long and has a catchment area of .

Course

The Akbastau has its sources in a spring of the northern slopes of Zhaksy Karazhal mountains, at the northern end of

Shet District Shet District (, ) is a district of Karaganda Region in central Kazakhstan. The administrative center of the district is the village of Aksu-Ayuly. Population: Geography The Akbastau river has its sources at the northern end of Shet District. ...

. It heads northwards as a mountain river, forming

rapids Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep stream gradient, gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Flow, gradient, constriction, and obstacles are four factors that are needed for a rapid t ...

within a narrow valley. Towards the end it enters a

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

and its channel divides into branches and becomes sinuous, flowing roughly northwards all along. Finally it reaches the left bank of river Nura close to the western slopes of Mount Yegizkyzyl.

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

The Akbastau is fed by snow and

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

. It is frozen between early December and mid-April. Its main tributaries are the Ainasu and Kamystybulak from the left, and the Kaskakudyk from the right. The water of the river stays fresh all year round.''Kazakhstan National Encyclopedia'' Vol. 1 / Ch. ed. A. Nysanbayev. — Almaty: "Kazakh encyclopedia", 1998 ISBN 5-89800-123-9''Karaganda Region Encyclopedia.'' -

Almaty Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains ...

: Atamura, 2006. ISBN 9965-34-515-5

Ecology

The river basin is used as pasture for local cattle. Grasses,

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

thickets,

fescue ''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on every ...

and

sedges The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large; botanists have described some 5,500 known species in about 90 generathe largest being the "true sedges" (genu ...

grow near the banks.

References

{{Rivers of Kazakhstan Rivers of Kazakhstan Pavlodar Region Karaganda Region Tengiz basin

Course

Ecology

See also

References