The only body of water where rivers do not flow. Unusual rivers and lakes (5 photos). The only lake into which no river flows: name, where it is located on the world map, brief description

There are a huge number of lakes on our planet. They can differ strikingly from each other both in size, origin, and other indicators. Then how are they similar, and what is a lake in general?

It is not so easy to give a precise definition of this concept. For example, if we say that this is a body of water surrounded on all sides by land, then this will not be entirely correct. Since those into which rivers flow (or flow out of them) have a broken coastline.

If we say that this is a fresh body of water, then what about the Dead Sea and others in which the water is salty? We can say that they have no connection with the oceans. But the well-known one, located in South America, connects to the Caribbean Sea.

So what is a lake? It would be more correct to say that this is a body of natural origin on land. First of all, the lakes differ from each other in size. Sometimes in the mountains you can find small ones, only a few tens of meters long, while the largest lake on Earth - the Caspian Sea - has a length of more than 1000 kilometers.

Rainwater flows into lakes, rivers and streams flow into them, so they must be located at low points in the area. But this is not always observed. South American Lake Titicaca is located at an altitude of 3812 meters above sea level.

How are they formed?

To understand what a lake is, you need to find out how they arise. There are glacial reservoirs located in depressions of the earth's surface, formed under the enormous weight of an ancient glacier. These depressions gradually filled with melted glacial waters. Most often they are placed in large groups and have small sizes and depths. There are many of them in Finland, Canada, and Siberia.

Located in high mountain basins. Sometimes it happens that such a lake appears right before our eyes - during mountain falls, the river bed is blocked and water accumulates near the dam that has arisen. Usually they are short-lived, and water quickly erodes the barrier, but there are exceptions. An example is the Pamirs.

The lakes formed in are elongated, narrow and very deep. There are many of them in Africa: Tanganyika, Nyasa and others. This is also the deepest lake in the world, Lake Baikal.

Reservoirs of tectonic origin can also have a shallow depth, for example, the Khmelevsky lakes, which are located in the eastern part. Four closed reservoirs are filled; not a single stream flows into them and does not flow out either.

Alpine lakes filled with glacial water are only fresh. But the Dead Sea, located in a basin, is so salty that there is no life in it.

In some lakes, the water, due to the presence of a large number of impurities in its composition, is not only salty, but also cloudy, which gives it a different color. But most bodies of water, especially small ones, have fresh and clean water. For example, in the Leningrad region there is Lake Bezymyanny, which is considered one of the cleanest in Russia. The reason for this is the presence of a large number of springs and springs, constantly renewing and refreshing the water.

Some of the lakes regularly change their size, and their coastline is indicated conventionally on maps. Most often this depends on seasonal precipitation. Thus, Lake Chad on the African continent can change several times throughout the year.

Historical reference

The phrase “Red Sea” is a direct translation of the Greek “Erythra thalassa” (ancient Greek. Ἐρυθρὰ Θάλασσα ), Latin "Mare Rubrum", Arabic "El-Bahr El-Ahmar" (Arabic: البحر الأحمر‎), Somali " Badda Cas" and Tigrinya " Kay-Bahri"(ቀይሕባሕሪ). In modern Hebrew the sea is also called the Red Sea - “ ha-yam ha-adom”(‏הַיָּם הָאָדוֹם‏‎), but is traditionally identified with what is called in the Bible “Reed” (‏יַם סוּף‏‎).

There are several versions of the origin of the name of the Red Sea.

The first version explains the origin of the name of this sea from an incorrect reading of a Semitic word consisting of three letters: “x”, “m” and “r”. From these letters in ancient inscriptions the name of the Semitic people - the Himyarites - was made up, who lived in Southern Arabia before its conquest by the Arabs. In ancient South Arabian writing, short vowel sounds were not represented graphically in writing. Therefore, there was an assumption that when the Arabs deciphered the South Arabian inscriptions, the combination of “x”, “m” and “r” was read as the Arabic “ahmar” (red).

Another version makes the name of the sea dependent on one or another part of the world. In the mythical tales of many peoples of the world, the cardinal directions are associated with certain color shades. For example, red color symbolizes the south, white - the east, black (among a number of Asian peoples) - the north. Hence the name “Black Sea” does not mean “sea with dark, black water”, but “sea located in the north”. After all, the Turks called this sea Kara-Deniz, the ancient tribes who spoke Iranian languages ​​called it Akhshaena (dark), and the Scythians called it Tama, which is also associated with the meaning “dark”. As for the Red Sea, the word “red” seems to indicate its southern location, and not at all the color of the sea water.

According to another version, the sea was named so because of the seasonal bloom of microscopic algae Trichodesmium erythraeum near the surface of the water. An excess of the red pigment phycoerythrin in the alga causes a “blooming” of water in the Red Sea, and the latter becomes reddish-brown instead of blue-green.

One of the first descriptions of the Red Sea was made in the 2nd century BC. e. Greek historian and geographer Agatharchides of Knidos in his work “On the Red Sea (Erythraean).” In the 16th century the name was allowed "Suez" .

Physiographical sketch

General information

The Red Sea washes the shores of Asia and Africa: Egypt, Djibouti, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Jordan.

The area of ​​the Red Sea is 450,000 km², almost 2/3 of the sea lies in the tropical zone.

Volume - 251,000 km³.

According to various estimates, the length (in the north-south direction) ranges from 1932 to 2350 km, width - from 305 to 360 km. The shores are slightly indented, their outlines are mainly predetermined by fault tectonics, and almost along their entire length the eastern and western shores are parallel to each other.

The bottom topography includes: coastal shallows (up to a depth of 200 m), the widest in the southern part of the sea, with numerous coral and indigenous islands; so-called main trough- a narrow depression that occupies most of the seabed, on average to a depth of 1000 m; the axial trough is a narrow and deep trench, as if cut into the main trough, with a maximum depth, according to various sources, from 2604 to 3040 meters. The average sea depth is 437 m.

There are few islands in the northern part of the sea (for example: Tiran Island) and only south of 17° N. w. Several groups with numerous islands were formed: the Dahlak archipelago in the southwestern part of the sea is the largest, and the Farasan, Suakin, and Hanish archipelagos are smaller. There are also separate islands - for example, Kamaran.

In the north of the sea there are two gulfs: Suez and Aqaba, which is connected to the Red Sea through the Strait of Tiran. A fault runs through the Gulf of Aqaba, so the depth of this gulf reaches great values ​​(up to 1800 meters).

The peculiarity of the Red Sea is that not a single river flows into it, and rivers usually carry silt and sand with them, significantly reducing the transparency of sea water. Therefore, the water in the Red Sea is crystal clear.

The Red Sea is the saltiest sea in the World Ocean. 1 liter of water here contains 41 g of salts (in the open ocean - 34 g, in the Black Sea - 18, in the Baltic - only 5 grams of salts per liter of water). During the year, no more than 100 mm of atmospheric precipitation falls over the sea (and not everywhere and only in the winter months), while 20 times more evaporates in the same time - 2000 mm (this means that every day more than half a centimeter evaporates from the surface of the sea water). In the complete absence of water supply from land, this water deficit in the sea is compensated only by the supply of water from the Gulf of Aden. In the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, there are simultaneously currents entering and exiting the Red Sea. Over the course of a year, almost 1,000 km³ more water is brought into the sea than is taken out of it. It takes only 15 years for the Red Sea to completely exchange water.

In 1886, during an expedition on the Russian corvette “Vityaz” in the Red Sea, waters with an abnormally high temperature were discovered at a depth of 600 meters:21. The Swedish ship Albatross also discovered similar waters in 1948, moreover with abnormally high salinity. The presence of hot metal-bearing brines at great depths in the Red Sea was finally established in 1964 by an expedition on the American ship Discovery, when the water temperature from a depth of 2.2 km was 44 °C and its salinity was 261 grams per liter. By 1980, 15 places on the bottom of the Red Sea were discovered with similar waters, which, together with the adjacent bottom sediments, are highly enriched in metals: 33.

Geological structure and bottom topography

The Red Sea is very young. Its formation began about 25 million years ago, when a crack appeared in the earth's crust and the East African Rift Valley was formed. Under the influence of centrifugal force due to the rotation of the Earth, the African plate separated from the Arabian plate, and their reversal formed a “spiral” twisting to the northeast, and between them a gap formed in the earth’s crust, which gradually, over thousands of years, was filled with sea water. The plates are constantly moving - the relatively flat shores of the Red Sea are moving apart at a rate of 1 cm per year, or 1 m per century (Kendall F. Haven says that at this rate of expansion in the next 200 million years, the Red Sea will be as wide as the Atlantic Ocean) - but also at different speeds relative to each other: the movement of the African plate was very slow, while the Arabian plate moved much faster and, as a result, the Somali plate began to shift to the east. The spiral movement of the Arabian Plate led to the locking of part of the huge Tethys Ocean, which washed Africa, and subsequently the formation of the Mediterranean Sea. This is confirmed by the fact that rocks and minerals characteristic of the Mediterranean Sea are also found in the Red Sea. And further rotation of the Arabian and Somali plates opened a strait in the south, into which the waters of the Indian Ocean poured, ultimately leading to the formation of the Gulf of Aden. The movement of continental plates continued to influence the terrain. In the south, a large segment that broke off from the Arabian plate eventually closed the passage that formed between the African and Somali plates. The sea dried up here, and a valley was formed, known as the Afar Triangle. This geologically unique region has given scientists a lot of information about the history of the planet and the evolution of mankind. The lowest segment of the Afar Triangle is currently slowly sinking under water and will eventually fall back below sea level.

The changes, of course, affected not only this local area of ​​the earth's surface. The shift of the Syrian-African fault to the north led to the formation of the Bay of Suez. The Arabian and African plates continued to move at different speeds (this difference in speed was determined by the different distances of the plates from the axis of rotation). The inevitable friction between the plates formed another valley, very similar to the bed of the Red Sea. This fault starts from the Strait of Tiran and goes further north to the Gulf of Aqaba, as well as the valleys in which the Dead Sea and Arava lie. The end point of these valleys is Syria. Continuous tectonic activity shifted the Bay of Suez to the north - towards the Mediterranean Sea. Human intervention completed this process in 1869 with the opening of the Suez Canal. The waters of the Mediterranean Sea flowed into the Red Sea, and the migration of underwater flora and fauna began in both directions.

Hydrological regime

The Red Sea is the only body of water on Earth into which no river flows.

Strong evaporation of warm water turned the Red Sea into one of the saltiest on the globe: 38-42 grams of salts per liter.

There is intense water exchange between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. In winter, the South-West Monsoon Current is established in the Indian Ocean, starting in the Bay of Bengal, turning into the Western Current, which branches, and one branch goes north to the Red Sea. In summer, the monsoon current, which begins off the coast of Africa, is joined in the Gulf of Aden area by a current from the Red Sea. In addition, the Indian Ocean contains deep water masses formed by dense waters flowing from the Red Sea and the Gulf of Oman. Below 3.5-4 thousand meters, bottom water masses are common, forming from the Antarctic supercooled and dense salty waters of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. .

Climate

The climate on the coast of almost the entire Red Sea is tropical desert, and only the far north has a Mediterranean climate. The air temperature in the coldest period (December-January) during the day is +20-25 °C, and in the hottest month - August, it exceeds +35-40 °C and even sometimes reaches +50 °C. Thanks to the hot climate off the coast of Egypt, the water temperature does not drop below +20 °C even in winter, and reaches +27 °C in summer.

Bioresources

The Red Sea has no equal in the Northern Hemisphere for the quality and diversity of corals, marine flora and fauna. The tourism boom that has taken place in recent years [ When?] the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, is largely associated with the unique and incredibly rich underwater world of this tropical sea, the popularization of scuba diving.

The coral reefs stretching along the entire Egyptian coast are a kind of life center that attracts many fish. The variety of coral shapes is amazing, which can be round, flat, branched, and also have other fantastic shapes and colors - from soft yellow and pink to brown and blue. But only living corals retain color; after death, they lose their soft covering tissue and only a white calcium skeleton remains.

Bottlenose dolphins, various species of striped dolphins, and killer whales are common in the Red Sea. It is quite possible to meet underwater with a green turtle. Echinoderms live on the seabed - sea cucumbers. There are sharks; they have chosen the coast of Sudan. Moray eels, adapted to life on reefs, can reach 3 meters in length and have a rather terrifying appearance. Usually, if not teased, they are not dangerous to humans, but the bite of fish can be dangerous: cases of unprovoked attacks on scuba divers have been known.

Cities

Coastal cities:

• Aqaba (العقبة)
• Arkiko (ሕርጊጎ)
• Asseb (ዓሳብ)
• Dahab (دهب)
• Eilat (אילת)
• Halaib (حلايب)
• Hodeidah (الحديدة)
• Hurghada (الغردقة)
• Jeddah (جدة)
• Marsa al-Alam (مرسى علم)
• Massawa (ምጽዋ)
• Nuweiba (نويبع)
• Bur-Safaga (ميناء سفاجا)
• Port Sudan (بورت سودان)
• Sharm el-Sheikh (شرم الشيخ)
• Soma Bay (سوما باي)

What is the name of the only lake in the world into which about 300 rivers and streams flow, but only one flows out? Is it really one

When describing Lake Baikal, one always has to resort exclusively to superlatives. It is about 25 million years old and is undoubtedly the oldest lake on Earth (the second oldest Lake Tanganyika in Africa is only 2 million years old). It is the world's deepest freshwater lake (1620 m): it is 396 m deeper than the second deepest lake Tanganyika (1223 m). Its length is 636 km, its maximum width is 79 km, and its minimum is 25 km; the total length of the coastline is 1995 km.
On a global scale, the supply of drinking water in Lake Baikal, located on the territory of Russia, is 1/5 and exceeds the volume of water in the five Great Lakes of North America combined. In order to imagine how large the water reserve of this lake is, it is enough to say that to fill the lake basin, the deepest point of which lies 5-6 thousand meters below ocean level, all the rivers of the world would have to drain water here for 300 days. Baikal is one of the oldest lakes on the planet. Its age is estimated at 25 million years. Despite such a respectable age, he shows no signs of aging. 336 rivers flow into Baikal, but the main role in the water balance of the lake, namely, 50% of the annual influx of water, is played by the waters of the Selenga River. Once in Baikal, its upper 50-meter layer is repeatedly cleaned by the epishura crustaceans living in it, saturated with oxygen and settled for years. Water exchange in the northern basin of the lake occurs with a periodicity of 225 years, in the middle - 132 years, in the southern - 66 years, which makes it suitable for use as drinking water without any additional purification.
Only one flows out of it - the Angara, which ultimately flows into the Yenisei, which flows into the Kara Sea, located far beyond the Arctic Circle in the Arctic Ocean.

The water of Baikal and the Angara River flowing from it is probably the cleanest in Russia. However, it contains almost no useful substances: the content of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and bicarbonates is two to ten times lower than optimal, which is aggravated by a deficiency of microelements - iodine and fluorine.

A group of 5 karst lakes in the Chereksky district of Kabardino-Balkaria is located approximately 30 km south of Nalchik.

The lowest lake of this group is the most unique with a relatively small surface of 235 by 130 meters, its depth reaches 258 meters, and water saturated with hydrogen sulfide gives the lake a rich blue color.

The surface water temperature in winter and summer is about +9 degrees. This attracts divers from all over the world - a modern diving center has been built on the shores of the Lower Lake, which operates both in summer and winter.

Not a single stream or river flows into the lake, but about 70 million liters of water flow out every day. The lake level remains unchanged, which is explained by powerful underwater sources.

The nature here is quite picturesque: green hills, dense beech forests on steep slopes, and in the distance, in the blue haze, peaks sparkling in the sun.

2. Lake Khanka

Lake Khanka is located on the border of the Primorsky Territory of Russia and the Heilongjiang Province of China.

This is the largest freshwater body of water in the Far East. Area 4070 km² (at average water level), length 95 km.

24 rivers flow into the lake, and the Sungacha River flows into it.

The international Russian-Chinese Khanka Nature Reserve has been organized on the lake.

Due to its location, it attracts a large number of tourists who can get acquainted with the culture and customs of two countries at once. About 75 species of fish live in the waters of this lake, and even some of them are listed in the Red Book of Russia.

3. Seliger

Seliger is a system of lakes of glacial origin in the Tver and Novgorod regions of Russia. This lake is also called Ostashkovskoye, after the name of the city of Ostashkov, located on the lake shore.

The area of ​​the lake is 260 km². The area of ​​the entire basin is 2275 km².

Seliger receives 110 tributaries, and only one river, Selizharovka, flows out of it.

4. Topozero

Topozero is a crystal clear, deserted lake-sea, one of the largest lakes in Karelia.

It has an area of ​​986 sq. km, a length of 75.3 km, a width of 30.3 km, 144 islands with a total area of ​​63 sq. km. Topozero is part of the Kum reservoir system.

The rivers flowing into Topozero are Kizreka, Valazreka, Taka, the rivers flowing out are Pongoma, which flows into the White Sea, and Sofyanga, which flows into Pyaozero.

The nature and landscapes of Topozero are very beautiful. In the wide part of the lake, the opposite shores and chains of islands disappear beyond the horizon, the shores of the lake are often clad in sheer rocky embankments, but there are also real harbors with sandy beaches protected by cliffs. You can see extensive sandy and rocky shallows and swamps. There are a lot of berries in the swamps and forests: cloudberries, blueberries, blueberries, lingonberries.

Topozero keeps the secrets of history. Once upon a time, hermit monks lived on Zhiloi Island, spreading the Old Believer faith among the residents of villages on the shores of the lake.

The lake is ideal for sailing and kayaking routes. Numerous islands offer tired travelers overnight stops.

Fishing on Topozero is interesting and varied. The long rocky shallows are interesting for those who like to catch grayling; in the bays and lambins there are perch, roach and pike.

5. Raspberry Lake

One of the most beautiful places in Siberia is Raspberry Lake, Altai Territory. The reservoir is the largest bitter-salty lake among the Borovye lakes in this region. Its area is 11.4 square kilometers. Raspberry Lake may surprise you with the unusual color of its water. The reason for this is a branchial crustacean called Artemia salina, which lives in it. It produces a pink pigment that, when released into water, colors it. The color changes throughout the year. In spring it is the brightest and most saturated, and in autumn it turns brown. Since ancient times, the crustacean has been considered a food product, but today the crustacean is used only to feed fish fry.

Foreigners who were lucky enough to share a meal with the Great Empress Catherine II were surprised by the unusual pinkish-raspberry salt served to the table. They had never seen such a curiosity anywhere else. And the Russians knew that it was being brought from the far, far away Kulunda steppe, located at the foot of the Altai Mountains. But few could visit those distant places - it was so difficult to get there. There were only legends that there was a huge pink lake splashing there, and after swimming in it, motherless women soon gave birth to babies, and the pockmarked ones became prettier. And in the modern world, getting to those regions costs nothing, so many of our compatriots know for sure about the healing salty waters of Raspberry Lake. It really helps improve women’s health, has a beneficial effect on the skin (rejuvenates and cleanses it), relieves fatigue and muscle pain, treats inflammation, and swimming in the waters of this lake is a pleasure. There are also very beautiful landscapes here, so it’s an excellent place to relax and very popular among Siberians. However, tourists also come here from the European part of the country.

On today's World Water Monitoring Day, designed to draw people's attention to the serious problem of water pollution, we are talking about the most polluted water bodies in the world, seriously affected by human activity.

Citarum River, Indonesia

The first glance at this Indonesian river makes an indelible impression - it seems that there is no water in it at all, and streams of garbage flow steadily along the bed. Being one of the most important rivers in West Java, the Citarum has been recognized by many authorities since the early 2000s as one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world, but all the numerous grants and cash subsidies allocated for cleanup apparently end up in the pockets of local officials. Of course, the streams of garbage floating along the river provided some work for local teenagers, but considering that the waters of Citarum are used by more than five million people to support agriculture and water supply, the scale of the environmental disaster is serious.

Ganges River, India

The situation is very bad with the main water artery of both India and, perhaps, the whole of Southeast Asia. Moreover, the situation here in terms of the scale of the disaster is much worse than the Indonesian one - the low quality of the waters of the Ganges, recognized as one of the most polluted rivers in the world, directly threatens the life and health of five hundred million people. The waters of the Ganges do not carry floating landfills; industrial emissions, the economic activities of several hundred million people, and strange local traditions (for example, dead girls and children are thrown into the river without burning them) turned the riverbed into an area of ​​environmental disaster. All plans for the construction of treatment facilities did not yield any results due to demographic surges and urbanization, and if it were not for the amazing ability of the Ganges to self-purify, then today its banks would be a lifeless desert.

Yangtze River, China

In the overpopulated Celestial Empire, which has been struggling with industrial growth for a year, the environmental situation is generally difficult. And, as a rule, water bodies suffer the most from human activity, the most serious load of which falls on the waters of river arteries. The Songhua and the Yellow River are polluted beyond compare, but even they are far from the longest river in Eurasia - the Yangtze, on the banks of which there are seventeen thousand (!) large industrial cities, whose enterprises, without further ado, dump waste directly into the water. In water, which quenches the thirst of the entire population of 25 million Shanghai, for example.

Lake Victoria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

The natural border of three African countries is being diligently and intensively polluted by industrial enterprises and ordinary residents of all of them, who cannot agree on a common program for purifying the waters of one of the most famous reservoirs in the region. And it should be, given that the environmental situation here is worsening daily due to population growth - wastewater can provide the bather with a whole range of different diseases. And if you consider that a lot of equally polluted and life-threatening fish are caught in a polluted lake, then the situation appears very sad.

Mississippi River, USA

Not only developing and non-developing countries suffer from pollution; developed countries are still reaping the benefits of their industrial revolutions. The most famous river in the United States is also the dirtiest in the region. Nitrogen pollution, despite all the measures taken in recent years under pressure from environmentalists, is still carried in incredible quantities by the waters of the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico.

Royal River, Australia

The dirtiest body of water in Australia looks quite beautiful, meandering in a shallow channel between dense thickets of trees in the expanses of Tasmania, which boasts of its natural pristineness. But this is a misleading impression - mining enterprises annually dump millions of tons of sulfide waste into the river, causing irreparable damage to the ecology of the entire island.

Sarno River, Italy

And even seriously concerned under the pressure of numerous “green” groups, old Europe cannot, with the help of the entire European Union, radically change the slow environmental catastrophe on the most polluted body of water in the Old World - the Italian Sarno River. Agricultural waste still pollutes not only its bed, but also the waters of the picturesque and popular among tourists Bay of Naples. The situation is changing, but too slowly.

P.S.

The situation with water pollution in Russia still remains critical and threatens, if not to become even worse, then at least to remain at its current level. Almost every body of water has significant problems: the Ob, Lena and Yenisei threaten the ecology of the entire Arctic, the poisoned Miass is poisoning the residents of Chelyabinsk, the Volga and Kuban are doing poorly.

But the body of water that is really worth paying close attention to is unlikely to catch the eye of a casual traveler. We are talking about the famous “Black Hole” - a karst sinkhole filled with water at an industrial landfill near the town of Dzerzhinsk, which itself is the site of a local environmental disaster. The horror is that pollution from the chemical industry from this lake ends up in groundwater, and through it into the Oka.