Angara River. Description

The Angara River flows all over Eastern Siberia. It is the only one flowing from Lake Baikal. It is also the largest tributary of the Yenisei. Its length is one thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine kilometers.

The catchment basin has an area of 1,040,000 square kilometers. The average water discharge is four thousand five hundred thirty cubic meters per second. Numerous reservoirs carry out seasonal and long-term flow regulation. In the basin there are about forty thousand different rivers and rivers. Their total length is more than one hundred and sixty thousand kilometers.

The source of the Angara, as already mentioned, is in Lake Baikal. Here, in the middle of the channel, the Shaman-stone sticks out from the water. It covers the channel, being a natural dam. There is a very beautiful legend about the origin of the river. The daughter of Baikal, escaping from his power, rushed to the Yenisei. An angry father tried to stop his daughter and threw a huge stone after her. Since that time, he is in line. There is an opinion that if it is removed, Baikal will flood everything around.

Before the confluence of the Yenisei, the Angara River flows along the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Irkutsk Region. At first it flows northwards mainly, then turns to the west (beyond Ust-Ilimsk). In the Yenisei it flows near Lesosibirsk.

Tributaries of the Angara: Oka, Irkut, Oia, Ilim, Taseeva. You can also take into account the upper Angara, Barguzin, Selengu flowing into Baikal.

Among the major cities on the coast are Angarsk, Usolye-Sibirskoe, Ust-Ilimsk, Bratsk, Boguchany and others.

The Angara River is distinguished by significant elevations - up to three hundred and eighty meters. However, it is quite full from the very beginning. Due to this, it has a huge hydropower potential. To implement it, the Angarsk cascade of stations was built: Ust-Ilim, Brat, Irkutsk. The construction of the fourth station - Boguchanskaya HPP - is nearing completion. The construction of the Nizhneangarsk cascade of power stations is also planned. So, the entire pool can become one cascade of power plants. In addition to electric power, the construction of stations will ensure the development of navigation throughout the entire length. It should be said that the reservoir from the Irkutsk power station in the upper reaches stretches for fifty-five kilometers.

It should be said that after the erection of the Irkutsk station in the river, the water level rose substantially. In connection with which, from the Shaman-stone there remained only the top, the height of which is a meter and a half. At one time, a project to undermine the stone was seriously discussed. In this case, the water would go unhindered to the turbines from Lake Baikal. However, the project was not implemented due to the fact that, according to ecologists, this would entail a geological displacement due to the destruction of the stone.

It must also be said that the Angara River is characterized by a relatively unfavorable ecological situation. It sends a huge amount of sewage. By their number the pool is inferior only to the Volga one. The water quality after the first major city of Irkutsk is estimated, ranging from moderately to very dirty.