When and why Amur is poured?

In August 2013, there was a huge flood, which affected 98 thousand residents of the Russian Far East. Amur emerged from its banks - the largest river of these places. Flood scientists have called the largest in the last hundred years. The river flooded the territories that are thirty kilometers from its habitual channel.

The scale of the tragedy made many people think about why the Cupid is pouring, And whether it is possible to somehow prevent the disastrous consequences of the flood.

A bit of theory

Rivers that are in climatic zones with sharply pronounced seasons of the year or originate high in the mountains, among the glaciers, always have high water and low water. In nature, there is an eternal water exchange. Moisture, evaporating from the oceans, turns into clouds that carry sediments. The rain, falling to the ground, penetrates into the groundwater and sows the rivers, which, in turn, carry their waves into the sea. Therefore, before deciding why the Cupid is poured, You need to understand what he eats.

Specificity of the river

We are used to the fact that the floods in the rivers of Russia occur in the spring, since the overwhelming majority of them have snow feeding. When it becomes warm, thawed waters overflow the Volga, the Oka, the Dnieper and the like blue arteries. Mezhen (the shallowest water level) falls in them for the summer and the first half of the autumn, when precipitation falls very low. But Cupid is not such a typical river. It flows in the zone of the monsoon climate, characterized by the fact that in the summer here the eastern winds are blowing from the Pacific Ocean.

It is in the climatic features that the answer to the question of why Amur is poured out should be sought.

Winters in this region are severe, but not very snowy. Somewhere in November, in the Amur basin, as well as on its tributaries - Zee, Bureya, Ussuri and Sungari - ice starts, which is only opened in early May. For almost half a year these rivers receive only underground food - from groundwater and springs. Due to a snow-less winter, there is no spring flood on local rivers.

But when the summer monsoons start to blow, bringing down from the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan downpours and typhoons, the water level in the Amur And its tributaries sharply rises, since the food of these rivers is mostly rainwater.

Is it possible to prevent a catastrophe

If the floods in the Amur occur every summer, then why is it that August 2013 is inscribed in the history of Russia with a black date? There is also such a geographical concept as flood. It comes from the riot of elements and has a sudden, very harsh character. Flooding occurs because of strong and protracted showers (for example, when the monthly rainfall falls for 1-2 days) or because of the sharp melting of the snow in the mountains. And in 2013, the typhoon was added to the action of the wet summer monsoon. An important factor was that the storm on the Sea of Okhotsk drove back into the interior of the mainland river water from a shallow estuary. An oil poured into the fire and the breakthrough of the dam. Thus, it is not enough to know why the Cupid is pouring, it is also necessary to realize that August-September is the time of typhoons.

Is it possible to solve the problem? Yes, as the experience of many countries shows. The same Chinese, the territory of settlement which passes along the other bank of the Amur, invest a lot of money to strengthen it from erosion. In Europe, in the upper reaches of rivers and tributaries, a cascade of reservoirs is established. This saving chain makes it possible to accumulate excess water, so that it can be gradually lowered down during the intergeneration. This experience we need to adopt, and not be content with the fact that the level of the Amur today   Is within the norm.