Geography, Ob River

Ob forms 16 miles (26 km) southwest of the Altai Krai in Biysk at the confluence of the Biya and Katun rivers. These two currents have their origin in the Altai Mountains, the Biya issuing from Lake Teletskoye that Katun, 700 km (430 miles) long, out of a glacier on Mount Byelukha.

The river splits into several branches, especially after joining the large Irtysh tributary at about 69 ° E. (From China, the Irtysh is longer than the Ob from the source to their confluence.) The source of the Irtysh to the mouth of the Ob, the river flow is the longest in Russia 5410 km (3360 km). Other noteworthy tributaries are: Eastern, Tom, Chulym, Ket, Tym Vakha and rivers, and west and south, Vasyugan, Irtysh (with Ichim and Tobol rivers), and rivers Sosva.

The Ob zigzags west and north until it reaches 55 ° N where it curves around the north-west and north again, Wheeling, and finally east into the Ob Bay, a 600-mile (970 km) long bay in the Kara Sea, Yamal peninsula separating from Gydan peninsula.

The combined Ob-Irtysh system, the third longest river in Asia (after China Yangtze and Yellow River), is 5410 kilometers (3360 miles) long, and the area of ​​its basin 2,990,000 km square (1, 15 million km ²). Ob basin consists mostly of steppe, taiga, swamps, tundra, and semi-desert topography. The floodplains of the Ob are characterized by many tributaries and lakes. The OB is south of Barnaul ice since early November near the end of April, and north of Salekhard, 100 miles (160 kilometers) above its mouth at the end of October early June Ob River passes through various climate zones. The high valley of the Ob, in the south, growing grapes, melons, while the lower Ob are the arctic tundra. The most pleasant weather for the rest of the Millennium - is Biisk, Barnaul and Novosibirsk.

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