Lake Taymyr

Lake Taymyr
Lake Taymyr
	Location of Lake Taymyr in the center of the Taymyr Peninsula
	Lake Taymyr
Location	Taymyr Peninsula, Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia
Coordinates	74°32′34″N 101°38′39″E
Primary inflows	Zapadnaya, Severnaya, Bikada-Nguoma, Yamu-Tarida, Kalamissamo, Upper Taymyra
Primary outflows	Lower Taymyra
Catchment area	104,300 km2 (40,300 sq mi) [1]
Basin countries	Russia
Max. length	204 km (127 mi) [2]
Max. width	154 km (96 mi) [2]
Surface area	4,560 km2 (1,760 sq mi) [3]
Average depth	2.8 m (9.2 ft) [3]
Max. depth	26 m (85 ft) [3]
Water volume	12.8 km3 (3.1 cu mi)
Surface elevation	6 m (20 ft) [3]
Frozen	late September until June
Islands	20
Settlements	none

Lake Taymyr (Russian: Таймыр, Таймырское озеро, romanized: Taymyr, Taymyrskoye ozero) is a lake of the central regions of the Taymyr Peninsula in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russian Federation. It is located south of the Byrranga Mountains.

Geography

Lake Taymyr is large, with a length of 165 km roughly east-to-west. It has an irregular shape with many arms projecting in different directions that cover a wide region. Its maximum width, however, is only about 23 km in its broadest area which is towards the eastern end of the lake.

Lake Taymyr is covered with ice from late September until June. The main river flowing into its basin, from the west, is the Upper Taymyra. Other rivers flowing into it are the Zapadnaya, Severnaya, Bikada-Nguoma, Yamu-Tarida and Kalamissamo. The Lower Taymyra flows out of the lake northwards across the Byrranga mountain region.

The tundra areas south of Lake Taymyr are full of smaller lakes and marshes. There are two quite large lakes east and southeast of the easternmost part of Lake Taymyr, which is Yamuneru Bay: 33 km east is Lake Kungusalakh, and 72 km southeast is Lake Portnyagino. Both lakes are about 20 km across.

Ecology

Lake Taymyr is teeming with many kinds of fish typical of cold Arctic waters, such as loach, sig, and muksun. Salvelinus taimyricus, is a char species found in the lake.[4] There is overexploitation of some fish species despite the remoteness of the area.[5]

Slight plutonium contamination has been detected in the sediments of Lake Taymyr. This is perhaps a consequence of wind-carried particles after the numerous atmospheric nuclear tests in Novaya Zemlya during the Cold War.

Water temperatures

Average water temperature in August: +7 °C
During winter, water temperature is slightly above 1 °C

Lake Taymyr
Catchment Area
Lake Taymyr. US military map 1964 г.

References

Ministry for Natural Resources of the Russian Federation: Physico-geographical conditions of the Taimyr Reserve Archived 2005-02-22 at the Wayback Machine
measured from satellite image
Таймыр (озеро) (Lake Taymyr) in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969–1978 (in Russian)
Salvelinus taimyricus
Pospelova, Elena B.; Pospelov, Igor N.; Zhulidov, Alexander V.; Robarts, Richard D.; Zhulidova, Olga V.; Zhulidov, Daniel A.; Gurtovaya, Tatyana Yu. (12 October 2004). "Biogeography of the Byrranga Mountains, Taymyr Peninsula, Russian Arctic". Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/S0032247404003833.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] Ministry for Natural Resources of the Russian Federation: Physico-geographical conditions of the Taimyr Reserve Archived 2005-02-22 at the Wayback Machine

[SatImage-2] sured from satellite image

[RussEnc-3] Таймыр (озеро) (Lake Taymyr) in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969–1978 (in Russian)

[4] Salvelinus taimyricus

[5] Pospelova, Elena B.; Pospelov, Igor N.; Zhulidov, Alexander V.; Robarts, Richard D.; Zhulidova, Olga V.; Zhulidov, Daniel A.; Gurtovaya, Tatyana Yu. (12 October 2004). "Biogeography of the Byrranga Mountains, Taymyr Peninsula, Russian Arctic". Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/S0032247404003833.