Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Great rivers
Yukon
Yukon (yOO'kon) [key], river, c.2,000 mi (3,220 km) long, rising in Atlin Lake, NW British Columbia, Canada, and receiving numerous headwater streams; one of the longest rivers of North America. It flows generally northwest, past Dawson and across the Alaska border, to Fort Yukon, thence generally southwest through central Alaska until, in a wide swing north, it enters Norton Sound of the Bering Sea through a delta that is 60 mi (97 km) wide. Its chief tributaries are the Teslin, Pelly, White, Stewart, Porcupine, Tanana, and Koyukuk rivers. The river is incised in the Yukon Plateau; marshy land borders much of its upper course. The Yukon is navigable for river boats three months of the year to Whitehorse, c.1,775 mi (2,860 km) upstream.
The Yukon basin is one of the most sparsely populated and least developed regions of North America. Much of its history, exploration, and development centers on the river system. Its lower reaches were explored (1836–37, 1843) by Russians, and in 1843 Robert Campbell of the Hudson's Bay Company explored the upper course. During the Klondike gold rush (1897–98) the Yukon was a major route to the gold fields. Greater development of the basin occurred in the mid-1900s due to its strategic location, and several military installations were later built.
The Yukon River is a major salmon-spawning ground, and salmon fishing is an important seasonal activity. The Yukon is used to generate hydroelectricity, but it remains one of the greatest undeveloped hydroelectric resources in North America. On the river's banks are fur-trading posts, missions, native villages, and towns with modern airports serving vast areas.
2,526,512 acres (1,022,879 hectares), E central Alaska. The preserve, which protects the two river basins, near the Canadian border, contains paleontological and archeological sites, as well as old cabins and relics from the gold rush of 1898. Proclaimed a national monument in 1978, it was designated a national preserve in 1980. The 88-mi (142-km) Charley Wild River,. authorized in 1980, lies entirely within the preserve. See National Parks and Monuments (table).Great rivers
Danube
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Dunaj" redirects here. For the Polish village, see Dunaj, Masovian Voivodeship.
"Donau" redirects here. For the German ship, see SS Donau.
This article is about the river. For other uses, see Danube (disambiguation).
| Danube | |
| Donau, Dunaj, Dunav, Duna, Дунав (Dunav), Dunărea, Дунáй (Dunay), Tuna | |
The Iron Gate, on the Romanian–Serbian border (Iron Gate natural park and Đerdap national park)
| |
| Cities | Ulm, Ingolstadt, Regensburg, Passau, Vienna, Bratislava, Esztergom, Budapest, Mohács, Vukovar, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Vidin, Lom, Svishtov |
|---|---|
| Primary source | Breg |
| - location | Martinskapelle, Black Forest, Germany |
| - elevation | 1,078 m (3,537 ft) |
| - length | 43 km (27 mi) |
| - coordinates | 48°05′44″N 08°09′18″E / 48.09556°N 8.155°E |
| Secondary source | Brigach |
| - location | St. Georgen, Black Forest, Germany |
| - elevation | 940 m (3,084 ft) |
| - length | 49 km (30 mi) |
| - coordinates | 48°06′24″N 08°16′51″E / 48.10667°N 8.28083°E |
| Source confluence | |
| - location | Donaueschingen |
| - coordinates | 47°57′03″N 08°31′13″E / 47.95083°N 8.52028°E |
| Mouth | Danube Delta |
| - coordinates | 45°13′3″N 29°45′41″E / 45.2175°N 29.76139°E |
| Length | 2,860 km (1,777 mi) |
| Basin | 817,000 km² (315,445 sq mi) |
| Discharge | for before delta |
| - average | 6,500 m³/s (229,545 cu ft/s) |
Danube River
| |
The Danube (pronounced /ˈdænjuːb/ in English) is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.
The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance of some 2850 km (1771 miles), passing through four Central and Eastern European capitals, before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.
Known to history as one of the long-standing frontiers of the Roman Empire, the river flows through — or forms a part of the borders of — ten countries: Germany (7.5%), Austria (10.3%), Slovakia (5.8%), Hungary (11.7%), Croatia (4.5%), Serbia (10.3%), Romania (28.9%), Bulgaria (5.2%), Moldova (1.7%), and Ukraine (3.8%).[citation needed]
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