The Sokoch (russian: Сокоч) is a river in the western
Kamchatka Peninsula
The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and we ...
, Russia, a right tributary of the
Plotnikova.
Course
The Sokoch, including its main branch the Right Sokoch, is long, and drains an area of . It has one tributary, the Left Sokoch, which joins it from its mouth.
The right branch of the river flows from the Bolshoi (Large) Sokoch lake, while the left branch flows from the southeastern spurs of the Sokoch Hill.
Lake Sokoch is in what was a proglacial basin between two terminal moraines from the
Last Glacial Maximum
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent.
Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...
.
Analysis of pollen from the lake sediments over the last 9600 years shows alternating warmer periods of forest cover and cooler periods of shubrlands, tundra and bogs.
The Sokoch enters the
Plotnikova from the right at from the Plotnikova's mouth.
The village of Sokoch is the administrative center of the
Nachikinskoe rural settlement.
It was formed in 1947 as a settlement under the Nachikinsky state farm on the Plotnikova River opposite the mouth of the Sokoch River, and named after the river in 1959.
Fish
The Sokoch is known for its
sockeye salmon
The sockeye salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a P ...
, which spawn in the upper river above the Sokoch Lake, and in the springs that the upper river and the lake, and in the Little Sokosh Lake upstream from the main lake.
Lakeshore spawning is important in the Kamchatka Peninsula, but the Bolhsaya River system has relatively few lakes. Nachikinsky Lake is important, as is the Sokoch lake area.
References
Sources
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Rivers of Kamchatka Krai
Tributaries of the Bolshaya