River Severnaya Dvina: location and general characteristics

The Northern Dvina River is the most important waterway of the Russian North. Where does it take its origin, where it flows and into what sea it flows into? The answers to all these questions can be found in this information article.

General characteristics of the Northern Dvina River

With a length of 744 kilometers, the river collects its waters from a huge area, which is 357,000 square kilometers. In administrative terms, this is the Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions of Russia. And if you take into account the rivers Sukhona and Vychegda, then the extent of this waterway will reach 1800 kilometers!

The river Severnaya Dvina takes on its way a large number of other rivers, streams and streams. Hydrographs counted only about a hundred tributaries of the second order of this river system. That is, these are the watercourses that flow directly into the Northern Dvina. Among them the largest tributaries are: Vaga, Vychegda, Pinega and Yumizh.

On the banks of the Northern Dvina there are seven Russian cities. This (in the direction from the source to the mouth): Great Ustyug, Krasavino, Kotlas, Solvychegodsk, Novodvinsk, Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk.

Features of water regime

The Northern Dvina River is distinguished by a traditional water regime for northern rivers. The food is mostly thawed snows, the maximum water consumption is observed in May and in June (up to 15 000 m ³ / s).

The river begins to become covered with ice already in the end of October, and it is opened approximately in the middle of April. Thus, the Northern Dvina "in ice" is almost half a year. It is worth noting that the period of ice drift on the river is, as a rule, very active. Quite often there are congestion.

Toponym etymology

Why was the Northern Dvina named like this? On this account, researchers and historians have several interpretations, but they all boil down to about the same thing. This hydrotoponym they decipher as a "double river". Several interpretations lead to this interpretation in their books. The fact is that the river Severnaya Dvina is formed as a result of the fusion of the other two waterways, so this etymology is quite logical and justified.

It is worth noting that some researchers (in particular A. Matveev) saw the origin of this name as Baltic roots. Thus, Matveyev believes that this toponym comes from the Lithuanian word "dvynai", which means "double".

It is interesting that the Northern Dvina is reflected in many literary works and poetry. So, for example, a fictional city in one of the novels of Kira Bulychev is located on the fictitious Gus River, which carries its waters to the Northern Dvina.

Long way to the sea ...

Where is the river Severnaya Dvina? It's easy to answer if you look at a detailed geographic map. It clearly shows that the source of the river Severnaya Dvina is located where the South and Sukhona merge into one. This occurs in the ancient Russian city of Veliky Ustyug, founded in the 12th century.

Further, the Northern Dvina carries its waters strictly to the north and, soon, takes over the river Vychegda. It is near the town of Kotlas. In this case, it is worth noting a curious fact: at the time of the merger Vychegda is a fuller river than the Northern Dvina.

Further, our waterway continues its way to the sea, gradually changing the north-west direction to the northern one. After passing a sufficiently long distance, the Northern Dvina takes over the waters of another large river - Pinega. Downstream, the huge delta of our river begins to form.

The historical fact that the source of the Northern Dvina River is described in detail in the so-called Ustyug chronicle is also interesting. It says that "the rivers of Sukhona and the South, which have merged into one another, have produced a third river ...".

The mouth of the Northern Dvina River

In hydrology, the mouth is the place where the river flows into the Ocean, the sea, the lake or another body of water. In this case, the Northern Dvina empties into the White Sea, or more precisely, into the Dvinskaya Bay. At the same time, the mouth looks like a huge delta, the area of which can be compared with the area of the city of Volgograd. It is approximately 900 square kilometers.

The delta of the Northern Dvina is a whole system of shallow channels, branches, straits and islands. At the same time, the width of the river valley increases to 18 kilometers.

Dvinskaya Bay is a large bay of the White Sea, in its southeastern part. Depths - within 120 meters (average values - about twenty meters). More than a dozen rivers flow into Dvinskaya Bay, including the Northern Dvina. It should be noted that this is the warmest place of the entire northern sea. Water in the Dvinskaya Bay warms up to +10 ... + 12 degrees in summer.

Navigation on the Northern Dvina

Shipping is possible throughout the entire length of this river. True, it is very difficult in the area of the city of Arkhangelsk. Thus, large-sized ships can not go far into the mouth. As a rule, they are serviced at the port of Savings. What is noteworthy, the plans to optimize navigation in the delta of the Northern Dvina were developed as far back as the 19th century, but they were never really implemented. The situation at the mouth is complicated by the fact that the river during the "high water" brings here a huge amount of sand and debris, which only complicates the passage of ships.

It is also worth mentioning that the steamer NV Gogol is still running along the river, the oldest one that is still in operation in the country. It was built in the distant 1911.

So you have learned about the features and location of the important waterway of the Russian North - the river of the Northern Dvina.