Sal River (Russia)

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Location of Sal in the catchment of Don

The Sal (Russian Сал ) is a left tributary of the Don in the south of the European part of Russia. Its length along the longest river source Dschurak - Sal is 798 km.

Course

The left frontal flow Dschurak - Sal Sal the results from a large number of small rivulets without pronounced source in 180 m altitude in the Jergenihügeln in the west of the Republic of Kalmykia, a few kilometers west of the capital, Elista. The Jergenihügel go over in this area over the running east -west direction Sal - Manytsch - back ( Salsko - Manytschkaja grjada ), which separates the basin of the Sal from that of the south -flowing ( Western ) Manytsch.

The Dschurak - Sal initially flows in a northwesterly, then mostly north through dry steppe region; reached here after a few dozen kilometers, the territory of the Rostov Oblast, through which it flows in its further course to the mouth. Later he devoted himself to the west, takes from the right by far shorter Kara- Sal ( "Black Sal" ) and is called from there as Sal. The western direction, approximately parallel to the Don in this section retains the Sal up to its confluence with the latter, it became a much more meandering. The mouth is located a few kilometers below Semikarakorsk, lying in a separate district. In estuaries near the Sal is about 50 meters wide and 1.5 meters deep; The flow rate is 0.1 m / s

Its most important tributaries are Kara- Sal and Jerik of right and Big Gashun ( Bolshoi Gashun, length 161 km), Small Kuberle ( Malaya Kuberle, 152 km), and Great Kuberle ( Bolschaja Kuberle ) from the left.

Besides Semikarakorsk in estuary near there at Sal no other cities, but a number of larger villages ( Selo ), including the Rajonverwaltungszentren Remontnoje, Dubowskoje and Bolschaja Martynovka.

Hydrology

The catchment area of the river comprises 21,300 km ². The mean annual runoff 205 km above the mouth is 9.9 m³ / s The Sal freezes from about mid- December to late March, the ice is irregular. In the upper reaches of the river may freeze through in some winters for up to 45 days to the bottom. In the dry summers upper and middle reaches of the river may dry for up to 200 days.

Use and infrastructure

The Sal is not navigable.

The almost everywhere agricultural, traversed by Sal area suffers from drought, so that its water is used from the middle reaches for irrigation. To this end, a series of canals was built, powered by the Sal River and its tributaries, the extending on the left (south ) side of the Saltales Upper Sal - channel ( Werchnesalski channel ). The lower reaches of the water from the Don Sal is supplied via the Don - Magistralkanal ( Donskoi magistralny channel ), which is taken from the Zimljansker reservoir. The canal crosses the Sal has a trough bridge in Yuzhny, then runs roughly parallel to the river on the south side and is a part of the water in the direction of Sal, a part also in the direction of the Manytsch from.

The Sal is on the railway line Volgograd - Krasnodar and crosses from the by this route at Krasnoarmeiski ( station Kuberle ) branching branch line to Wolgodonsk - Tikhoretskaya. The regional road network in the area is relatively dense. So crossing the river near the mouth of the left bank of the Don road leading upwards direction Wolgodonsk. Various running in the eastern part of the Rostov Oblast be tapped as well as in the direction of the Kalmyk capital, Elista roads also cross the river or follow its course sections.