Ural River

Urals
Bridge over the Urals in Orenburg
Features
Length	2 428 km
Basin	237 000 km 2
Sump	Urals
Average Flow	350 m 3 s -1
Plan	snow plain
Courses
Mouth	the Caspian Sea
Location	south-west of Atyrau
Contact	46 56'09 "N 51 37'46" E / 46.93583, 51.62944 (Mouthpiece - Ural (river))
Geography
Countries crossed	Russia Kazakhstan

The Urals (in Russian : ; in Kazakhstan : , is a river of Russia and Kazakhstan. The Ural called Yaik () until 1775.

Summary 1 Geography 2 Towns watered 3 Tributaries 4 Hydrology 5 Gallery 6 See also 7 Notes and references

Geography

It rises in the southern Ural Mountains and empties into the Caspian Sea. With a length of 2428 km, it forms part of the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia.

The source of the Urals lies about 150 km north of the city of Magnitogorsk. The river runs south, waters Magnitogorsk, bypassing the southern tip of the Ural Mountains and headed west for 300 miles, passing Orsk , where it receives the waters of the Gold and Orenburg , where he received those of Sakmara. After Orenburg, the river enters in Kazakhstan where he is heading back to the south, crossing a wide plain meandering to its mouth on the Caspian Sea, a few miles south of the city of Atyrau. Throwing himself into the Caspian Sea it forms a thin delta-shaped bridle. "

Cities watered

• Magnitogorsk
• Orsk
• Orenburg
• Oral
• Atyrau

Tributaries

• Sakmara

Hydrology

The flow of the Urals was observed Kouchoum to 521 km from its outlet in the Caspian Sea. It drains an area in this town of 190 000 sq km or 80% of its entire watershed. Inter-annual flow of the river there is 297 m / s. The sheet of water flow in the basin annual amounts therefore to 49 millimeters, which is very little, but explained very well in that most of its catchment area belongs to the steppe. The climate is arid and arid this is only accentuated in the south (we recorded 356 mm of rainfall per year in Orenburg and 163 mm in Atyrau), while evaporation increases. Otherwise it is in summer precipitation is most abundant, gold is the season when evaporation is most active. Only part of the basin in the domain of the Ural Mountains has more favorable conditions.

The river has a nival plain little weighted. Indeed 80% of the river waters that roll in the year flowing spring. We are witnessing a sharp rise of water levels in April and May when the snow melts. Then the recession starts very quickly. The river reached its lowest level in February. The monthly rate varies by a factor of 25 between the months of May (monthly flow of 1377 m / s) and February (monthly flow of 56 m / s). If we consider the record values, namely 4800 m / s to 12 m / s, the average monthly variations can know much more important. The river is caught in the ice from early November to early April in the upper part of its course and end-November to late March in the lower part.