Geography
The Volkhov flows out of Lake Ilmen north into Lake Ladoga, the largest lake of Europe. It is the second largest tributary of Lake Ladoga. It is navigable over its whole length. Discharge is highly variable depending primarily on the level of Lake Ilmen. The Volkhov is reported to reverse the direction of its flow in its upper section in exceptional circumstances. The river freezes up in late November, and breaks up in early April.
The level of water is regulated by the dam of the Volkhov hydroelectric plant (the first Soviet regional hydroelectric dam opened on December 19, 1926 in the framework of the GOELRO plan) situated 25 km upstream from the mouth of the river. Apart from hydroelectric generating purposes, the dam serves to facilitate navigation in the lower part of the river previously known for its rapids.
The upstream part of the Volkhov is connected to the Msta River by the Siversov Canal bypassing Lake Ilmen. The downstream part is connected with the Neva, the Syas River, and the Svir River by the New Ladoga Canal bypassing Lake Ladoga.
Main tributaries are: Vishera (right), joins the Maly Volkhovets armlet; Kerest (left); Oskuya (right); Pchezhva (right); Tigoda (left); Chyornaya (right); Vloya (left); Olomna (left).
Read more about this topic: Volkhov River
Famous quotes containing the word geography:
“The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)
“Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)