Yenisei River

The Yenisei (???????) is the greatest river system flowing to the Arctic Ocean, slightly shorter but with 1.5 times the flow of the Mississippi-Missouri. Rising in Mongolia, it follows a northerly course to the Kara Sea, draining a large part of central Siberia, the longest stream following the Yenisei-Angara-Selenga being about 5500km.

Related Topics:
Arctic Ocean - Mississippi - Missouri - Mongolia - Kara Sea - Siberia

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The upper reaches, subject to rapids and flooding, pass through sparsely populated areas. The middle section is controlled by a series of massive hydroelectric dams fuelling significant Russian primary industry. Partly built by gulag labor in Soviet times, industrial contamination remains a serious problem in an area hard to police. Moving on through sparsely-populated taiga, the Yenisei swells with numerous tributaries and finally reaches the Kara Sea in desolate tundra where it is icebound for more than half the year. As with other Siberian rivers, the flow has increased recently, believed to be due to melting permafrost caused by global warming. A concern is that altered salinity in the Arctic may have a global impact on ocean currents.

Related Topics:
Gulag - Taiga - Tundra - Permafrost - Global warming

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