Which Kazakh lake is the only one in the world that is half fresh and half salty? Lake with fresh and salt water

Like many branches of knowledge, the origins of modern cartography lie in the ancient world. The Greeks invented map projections and introduced meridians and parallels. The ancient Roman Empire was covered by a dense network of roads. It was possible to understand them only with the help of maps. It must be said that ancient Roman maps were specially adapted for travel. They were several meters long and about half a meter wide. Maps were rolled into rolls, which made them easier to use on the road. Cities, fortifications, encampments of Roman legions, roads, forests, rivers, and mountains were depicted on them.

The appearance of Arabic cards is completely unusual. The fact is that the Koran forbade depicting people and animals. This ban also affected maps that were drawn using compasses and a ruler. The seas looked geometrically correct, rivers and roads, regardless of their actual appearance, were depicted as straight lines. Countries and cities were indicated by circles or polygons.

In the Middle Ages, people traveled little. And the feudal lord could easily survey his possessions by climbing the castle tower. So in those days there was no special need for maps. But during the Renaissance, trade between East and West began to flourish. Long sea voyages are made. At this time, nautical charts - portolans - appeared. They were often drawn on parchment (for durability). They depicted the coastline very accurately and clearly, but the compilers were not interested in the “details” of the land.

After the invention of printing, engraving and printing of maps came into practice, which made it possible to publish them in thousands of pieces (before this, maps were copied by hand, which was very expensive and introduced errors). Maps became fashionable - they began to be inserted into beautiful frames, elegant inscriptions, drawings of caravels and sea monsters were made on them. Artistically executed maps decorated the walls of palaces and the offices of nobles. But gradually, they are increasingly becoming a “working tool” for travelers. All over the world, special expeditions were undertaken to compile new, accurate maps. True, the work of cartographers was not always met with gratitude. When French scientists in the 17th century, using precise measurements, concluded that the size of the state was greatly exaggerated, this displeased Louis XIV. “These scientists,” he exclaimed in irritation, “reduced the territory of France much more than my generals increased it!”

In Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov,” when the Tsar asked what his son was doing and what he had in his hands, Fyodor answered: “A drawing of the Moscow land.” “Drawing of the Moscow Land” is not a poetic image, but the name of one of the predecessors of the modern geographical map. Scientists suggest that “drawings” existed in Rus' already in the 13th century. The crowning achievement of Russian cartography of the 16th century was the “Big Drawing” compiled in the Razryadny Prikaz. It covered the territory from the Dnieper and Western Dvina to the Ob. Peter I attached great importance to the compilation of maps. He involved the Academy of Sciences in their production. And since then, maps of our country have been regularly compiled and updated. Today, the latest achievements of science and technology come to the aid of cartographers. Photographs of the Earth's surface taken from airplanes and satellites help create increasingly accurate and detailed maps.

A great variety of maps exist in the world. There are huge maps, one of them, compiled on a scale of 1:2500000, has 234 pages with a total area of ​​120 square meters. There are small, purely special maps, for example, dedicated to land reclamation in a particular area. The navigators of our ships heading to the Indian Ocean stock up on “health cards.” For each area of ​​the open ocean and its seas, they indicate the specific climatic conditions that can adversely affect the body, as well as the chemical composition of the water, poisonous or dangerous marine animals or fish. The maps were compiled by doctors based on the results of many years of observations.

There are even funny cards. A symposium of astrophysicists was held in Milan. During their leisure hours, scientists explored the city, and one astronomer had his camera stolen during an excursion. At the police station, where the victim went to complain about the incident, he joked: “It would be better if you issued a map indicating places that are dangerous for city guests.” These words made it into the newspapers, and the Milanese have already seriously demanded the creation of such a map. Soon it was published.

Do you know?

Which port is called the ocean gate of our country?

Nakhodka.

Which lands of Ukraine are named after the trees that grow there?

Bukovina.

Which city names contain salt?

Sol-Iletsk, Solikamsk, Solvychegodsk, Usolye-Sibirskoye.

What famous mountain range and river have the same name?

Ural.

Why is Lake Balkhash half salty and half fresh?

The Il, Karatal and other rivers flow into the western part of the lake, and they desalinate the water.

Arithmetic machine

In the spring of 1865, English Vice Admiral R. Fitzroy committed suicide. Upon learning of his death, the wife of a Scottish fisherman exclaimed in despair: “Who will take care of our husbands now?” The fact is that the admiral began in 1861 to compile maps, which he called synoptic. Sailors and fishermen were waiting for his storm warnings, his predictions were received in more than a hundred locations along the entire coast of England. But Fitzroy’s forecasts did not always come true: at that time there were only 11 weather stations operating in the entire country and there was not enough information to create an advance forecast. The critics did not have pity and often laughed at the admiral’s forecasts, but he was painfully worried about his mistakes, because sometimes the lives of fishermen were at the cost of them. And one day my nerves gave out...

Mathematician. Ancient engraving.

Time passed. The achievements of science and technology grew, and along with them the cost of error in all areas of human activity rapidly increased.

One of the most common names for the time in which we live is the “age of cybernetics.” And this name arose due to the widespread use of computer technology. The list of useful tasks performed by computers can be continued indefinitely. But if a person sitting at the computer console makes a mistake, then it can have the most unexpected consequences. The most costly mistake made when working with a computer was probably the omission of a hyphen in the program, because of which it was necessary to blow up the rocket launched from Cape Kennedy to Venus. And the rocket cost more than 18 million dollars!

Pascal's arithmetic machine. XVII century

The computer, this seemingly “most modern” invention, has its own ancient history.

Here are a few facts from the rich biography of the computer.

In the southwest of England, on the Salisbury Plain, there is Stonehenge - a structure made of huge stones arranged in a certain order. Its age is almost 4 thousand years! After much research, scientists have come to the conclusion that Stonehenge is the oldest human-made computing device on earth. The stones are arranged in such a way that they can be used to determine the seasons and predict solar and lunar eclipses.

Calculating machine of the first half of the 19th century.

In 1901, the National Museum in Athens received a mysterious shapeless bronze object discovered by sponge collectors among the wreckage of a sunken ancient Greek ship. The find was so destroyed by time, completely covered with corrosion and oxides, that initially the museum staff could not recognize what kind of object they had fallen into their hands; they determined only the time of its manufacture - the 1st century BC. In the middle of the century, scientists returned to this exhibit again. It took a lot of time and labor to carry out the appropriate processing and careful restoration of the mysterious object. Imagine the amazement of scientists when they managed to establish that the chaotic pile of bronze, damaged by sea water and time, was the remains of a rather complex mechanical computing machine of the ancient Greeks! It consisted of many gears, handles and tablets with astronomical symbols and inscriptions. Judging by these inscriptions, the machine was intended to calculate the sunrise and sunset, its eclipses, the phases of the moon, etc.

Which Kazakh lake is the only one in the world that is half fresh and half salty?

Lake Balkhash

Coordinates: 46-32′27″ N. w. 74-52′44″ in. d.

The large Ili River flows into the western part of Balkhash (80% of the total water inflow), and the small rivers Karatal, Aksu, Lepsy, Ayaguz and others flow into the eastern part.

The coastline is quite winding. The shores are dissected by numerous bays and bays. There are few islands, the largest are Basaral and Tasaral.

The climate in the lake area is desert. The average temperature in July is about 24 -C, in January about -8-C. Precipitation averages 120 mm per year. Relative air humidity 55-60%. The average annual wind speed is about 4.5-4.8 m/sec. The water temperature on the surface ranges from 0 -C in December to 28 -C in July; at depth it changes little (temperature difference is no more than 3.3 -C). The lake freezes every year; the ice usually lasts from November to March.

The currents are windy, in the western part they are constantly circular.

The fauna of Balkhash is quite rich: the benthos is represented by mollusks, larvae of aquatic insects and crustaceans; plankton is also quite abundant, especially in the western part.

The lake is home to 20 species of fish, of which 6 are characteristic of the lake itself (Ili and Balkhash marinka, Balkhash perch, spotted and monochromatic sloth fish and minnow), the rest are acclimatized in it by humans: carp, spike, eastern bream, Aral barbel, Siberian dace, carp , tench, pike perch, catfish, osman and others

The main commercial fish are carp, pike perch, Balkhash perch, marinka, and bream.

Balkhash- an endorheic semi-freshwater lake in the eastern part of Kazakhstan, the second largest non-drying salt lake (after the Caspian Sea), the thirteenth largest among all the lakes in the world. The lake is located at an altitude of 340 meters above sea level, the surface area of ​​the lake is above 18,000 km2, and its length is more than 600 km. Like all lowland lakes, its depth is small and averages only about 5 meters, the greatest is 26 m.

The climate in the lake area is desert, precipitation is about 130 mm. The lake belongs to the Balkhash-Alakol water basin and is located in three regions of Kazakhstan: Almaty, Zhambyl and Karaganda. To the north of the lake lies the wide Kazakh small hills, to the west stretches Betpak-Dala, and to the south are the Chu-Ili mountains, the sands of Taukum and Saryesik-Atyrau. The Saryesik-Atyrau desert together with Balkhash and Lake Alakol make up the Balkhash-Alakol basin.

Balkhash is unique, and its uniqueness lies in the fact that it semi-freshwater, in other words, the eastern half of the lake is salty, and the western half is actually fresh. They are separated by the narrow isthmus Uzynaral, only 4 kilometers wide, due to which the water practically does not mix and has such a striking contrast of salinity.

A huge number of rivers flow into Balkhash, the largest of them is Libo, one of the largest rivers in Asia, the largest river of Semirechye, carrying its waters for almost one and a half thousand kilometers from the Tien Shan ridges. Or - the second factor determining why the western half of the lake is fresh. Other rivers are small, the largest of which are the Lepsy, Karatal and Aksu.

The fauna of the lake is very diverse. First of all, like all steppe lakes in Kazakhstan, Balkhash amazes with the variety of birds; the snow-white swan is the calling card of the lake. There is also the opportunity to meet snow-white pelicans, pheasants, golden eagles and others. There are 20 species of fish in the waters of Balkhash. Among them, 5 species are commercial. Thanks to this abundance, fishing and hunting tours have become widespread in Balkhash.

The shores of the lake are flat, so it is virtually impossible to see the panorama of the lake from the ground. This can only be done from the adjacent Bektau-Ata mountain range (up to 1000 meters above sea level); in clear weather the lake can be seen 100 km around.

Currently, Lake Balkhash is quickly becoming shallow and polluted. There is more salt water as the volume of the lake decreases. The reason is an increase in water intake from the Libo River by users, while the main runoff-forming part of the basin is located in China. As a result, Balkhash began to receive half the previous volume of water and, according to environmentalists, it is threatened by the fate of the virtually disappeared Aral Sea. Despite the huge number of agreements signed by Central Asian countries, the difficulties of transboundary watercourses are not being resolved. After 10 years of continuous consultations between Kazakhstan and China, the contours of the upcoming process of water allocation along transboundary watercourses have only been outlined.

About 3 million people live in the Ile-Balkhash basin region, and therefore water difficulties can lead to severe socio-economic consequences. Analyzing how the decisions of the international forum “Balkhash-2005” are being implemented, experts must admit that only part of the advice has been implemented: namely, the Ile-Balkhash Natural Park was not created, and the program for solving environmental and water problems of Balkhash for 2006-2009 was not received sufficient funding, turned out to be very short in terms of time and was in no way connected with regional and district development programs.

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Additionally on the site about lakes:

Why is half of the water in Lake Balkhash fresh and half salty?

Balkhash is an endorheic semi-freshwater lake in the eastern part of Kazakhstan, the second largest perennial salt lake (after the Caspian Sea), the thirteenth largest among all the lakes in the world. The lake is located at an altitude of 340 meters above sea level, the surface area of ​​the lake is above 18,000 km2, and its length is more than 600 km. Like all lowland lakes, its depth is shallow...