Turgai River

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The Turgai (Russian Тургай; Kazakh Торғай, Torghai ) is a 825 km long river in north- western Kazakhstan.

Course

The actual Turgai arises in a confusing swamp area from the headwaters scarf Dama from the right and Kara- Turgai ( "Black Turgai " ) from the left. Both arise in turn from each of several smaller headwaters, the former have their origins in the plains area west and northwest of the city Arqalyq, already partly in the neighboring area Aqmola, while the sources of the Kara- Turgai at altitudes between 500 and 800 m in the northwest part of the Kazakh threshold, spring about halfway between Arqalyq and Schesqasghan in the west of the area Karaganda.

The Turgai first flows in a westerly to southwesterly direction and cuts in a wide, 20 to 75 km wide valley of tectonic origin, the Turgaisenke (Russian Turgaiskaja loschbina ), which also named after him Turgaiplateau. Especially on this section of river meanders strongly, forming a plurality of arms and small lakes surrounded by swamps. Overall, the first -carrying steppe-like landscape gradually assumes the character of a semi-desert; increasingly, salt lakes are common.

After leaving the area Qostanai the Turgai spent about 100 kilometers east of the village Irgis to the southeast, and later to the east, and finally empties into the located in the extreme northeast of the lowlands of Turan, 1800 km ² large salt lake Schalkartengis that leads only in spring water and is mainly fed by the Turgai. The lake is in an endorheic basin in the extreme southeast of the region Aktobe, about 200 kilometers northeast of the city of Aral.

The river is over its entire length barely wider than 50 meters, in the lower reaches more than 30 meters, at a depth of two meters. Where the flow rate is 0.2 m / s The most important tributaries are Ulkajak and Irgis, both from the right.

Hydrology

The catchment area of the river comprises 157,000 km ², according to other data, only 60,000 km ².

The mean annual runoff of the middle reaches of the level Tussum, 476 km above the mouth, 10.4 m³ / s From November to March / April, the river freezes over. It is fed mainly by snowmelt and therefore performs during the snowmelt in spring (April to May) flood.

The mineral content of the water varies between 300-600 mg / l during the spring flood and 1.5-2.0 mg / l during the summer and 1.5-2.0 mg / l during the winter low water. In the lower reaches the water of Turgai is salty in summer.

Use and infrastructure

The Turgai is not navigable. Its water is used on the middle reaches of the irrigation of agricultural land. The -carrying area is sparsely populated. The main towns and villages near the river are located near the origin of the river scarf Dama and Kara- Tugai Amangeldi and Torghai in Turgaisenke. Through both places, the road of Arqalyq after Irgis that follows the valley on the right side.

History

In the Paleocene some 60 million years ago was the place of today are traversed by Turgai in its southern part Turgaisenke the Turgaistraße, a strait that connected the southern Tethys Sea to the Arctic Ocean and Europe separated from Asia.

Already in the 19th century and concrete in the Soviet era, there were plans, some of the water of the great West Siberian rivers, especially the Ob and its tributary Irtysh by the Turgaisenke taking advantage of run of the Turgai in the dry endorheic basin of the lowlands of Turan specifically redirect to desiccating Aral Sea, to which it did not come for cost reasons and because of unpredictable environmental impacts. Consideration of these issues, however, up to now taken up again and again, most recently by the Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2010.

The river and named after him Plateau were named for the Oblast Turgai, a 1868-1920 existing administrative unit of the Russian Empire, and from 1970 for the same area of the Kazakh SSR of the Soviet Union, which in independent Kazakhstan area Torghai still up to administrative reform 1997 was.