The amazing Khatanga River is formed by the confluence of the two circumpolar rivers Kheta and Kotui, located in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. This is one of the most unique corners of Siberian nature.
Khatanga River: photo, geographical location, characteristic of the area
The area of the Khatanga basin is 364,000 square meters. km., and the total length is 227 km. It flows in a wide valley of the North Siberian lowland. The waters of the river, spilling into numerous channels, flow into the Laptev Sea through the Khatanga Bay. The lower section of the valley is about 5 kilometers wide.
A feature of the riverbed is a large number of gravel islands. Many tundra lakes (a total of 112 thousand with an area of 11.6 thousand square kilometers) are concentrated throughout the Khatanga basin. The largest among them are Essei, Labaz and Dupkun.
The river freezes already in September-October, it opens in June. In winter, on flat areas, the ice thickness reaches two meters, and on the rapids, even in the most severe frosts, the surface does not freeze.
The Khatanga Valley, located on a plateau, often has canyon-like steep banks. The Khatanga basin is a sparsely populated region of the region.
Khatanga river navigable. There is a marina with the same name. Not far from the place where the confluence of Kotuy and Kheta occurs (the lower reaches of the river), the village of Khatanga (the district center of the Taimyr National District) is located. Here, at the berths of the river and seaports in the summer, there are vessels for loading and unloading.
On the river, local residents carry out industrial fishing: char, nelma, taimen, muksun, vendace and omul.
River tributaries, food
Khatanga is expanding meanders along the plain of the tundra. The main largest tributaries: the left - Malaya Balakhnya and Novaya, the right - Poligay, Prodigal and Lower. Khatanga is a river whose main food is snow (flood from late May to mid-August). The maximum water flow rate is 18300 m 3 / s, the average is 3320 m 3 / s.
History of the name of the river
According to Dolgan etymology, “Khatanga” sounds like a “birch river”. And this is true, because dwarf birch forests have advanced far north along the river valley .
Translated from Evenki words, "Khatanga" is translated as "a place where there is a lot of water (a lot of water)." And this is also true. Both translations reflect the unique natural features of this Siberian river.
Settlements
The Khatanga River, as noted above, is located on a sparsely populated territory. In addition to the village of the same name (210 km from the mouth of the river ), with a population of 2645 people, there are several more in the nearby territories. On the banks of the Kotui River (73 km from the mouth), the mining village of Kayak is located. The following villages are located on the banks of the Kheta River: Kresty (at the mouth), 2nd Kresty (from the mouth of 9 km) and Novaya (from the mouth of 42 km).
Ecology of the area
The Khatanga River and the surrounding territories are unsuitable for living. The conditions in the river basin are rather unfavorable. The main reason for the corresponding environmental situation is the presence in these places of the main environmental pollutant - the Khatanga Commercial Sea Port.
In this regard, the administration of the biosphere state Taimyr Nature Reserve was located in the village of Khatanga. It was created in 1979 with the aim of protecting the tundra, arctic deserts, the territory of the Laptev Sea. All this covers an area of 2,719,688 ha. There is also a training ground for musk ox acclimatization experiments.
A bit of history
Since 1936, the river has become navigable. The first steamboat this year for local residents brought manufactured goods. In 1939, the Khatanga Shipping Company was organized here. In the summer of 1952, for the first time, sea heavy vessels came to the village, in connection with which they began to build moorings and warehouses, which gave rise to the existence of a commercial sea port in the village of Khatanga.