The Mackenzie River is the great river of North America. In terms of average water consumption, it is not inferior to anyone in North America except Mississippi. Also, the river has found an unusual economic use: in addition to a shipping canal in summer, its bed is also used as an ice road in winter.
River length: 4,240 km.
Drainage basin area: 1,800,000 sq. km. This includes the Slave, Peace and Athabasca river basins, which flow into Great Slave Lake). In addition to the Great Slave Lake, the Mackenzie River basin also includes a number of large lakes in Canada: Wollaston, Claire, Athabasca, and Great Bear.
Characteristics of the Mackenzie River
Where does it occur: The Mackenzie rises from Great Slave Lake. Thanks to this, the Mackenzie can be compared to the Neva River, its source is Lake Ladoga. The direction of the river flow is predominantly northwestern. The river flows through a heavily swampy valley. Its banks are covered with dense spruce forest. By the nature of the flow, the Mackenzie is a flat river. It flows into the Gulf of the Botfort Sea of the Arctic Ocean, forming a delta with an area of 12,000 km. sq. In general, half of all Canadian rivers flow into the Arctic Ocean.
Nutrition: mixed, with a predominance of rain and snow feeding methods.
River mode: characterized by spring-summer floods caused by melting snow. The average water flow at the mouth is 10,700 m3/s. This figure could be higher, but the Rocky Mountains to the west greatly reduce the influence of the Pacific Ocean as a water source.
Freezing: Freeze-up lasts from September, sometimes from October to May. In the lower reaches, the opening occurs a little later - in early June.
Cities: Aklavik, Inuvik, Fort Norman, Fort Providence and the oil industry center of Norman Wells.
Main tributaries: Liard, Arctic Red River, Peel, Great Bear.
The river is navigable for 200 km, up to Waterways on the Athabasca River. Even further upstream from its source, the Athabasca River flows into Great Slave Lake.
Interesting facts:
1) The river was discovered and crossed in 1789 by the Scottish traveler A. Mackenzie. The first name of the river was Disappointment, which translated from English means “Disappointment”. The river probably did not make a very good impression on the researcher.
2) In the river delta, not far from Canada’s northernmost settlement of Tuktoyaktuk, there is a whole collection of hydrolaccolith or pingo. Pingos are cone-shaped mounds of gravel and other soil elements that have been literally forced to the surface by the pressure of the ice that lies below. These hills can reach 40 meters in height and 300 meters in width.
Expeditions and finds
A. Mackenzie spent 1791 in Scotland, where he studied topography and geography, preparing for a new big journey to find river routes leading from Athabasca to the Pacific Ocean. Returning to Canada in 1792, he walked from the river. St. Lawrence, using dry and river routes, to Lake Athabasca.
He chose for study a large river (Peace River), which flows from the west into Slave at its exit from the lake (at 59 ° N). He hoped that by going up this river he could get close to the Pacific Ocean. But the valley turned southwest, then straight south. So he sailed up the river until he reached 56° N. w. It was late in the year, and Mackenzie stopped for the winter near the mouth of the Smoky River.
At the beginning of May 1793, when the river opened up, A. Mackenzie with nine companions, including the “English Chief,” continued sailing up the Peace River in a large but very light Indian canoe. He walked about another 250 km and, after going around a 20 km long canyon, got back into the canoe. Having climbed the river to another canyon, cut by it in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, and dragging the boat through the canyon, the travelers reached 56 ° N. latitude, 124°w. d. two rivers flowing in exactly opposite directions - northern (Finley) and southern (Parsnip); they made up the Peace River here. Where to go - north or south?
After consulting with the local Indians, A. Mackenzie chose the southern direction and climbed the river. Parsnip to its source near 54° 30" N and 122° W. After reconnaissance, it turned out that in the south, behind a short and convenient portage, some river flows to the west, which brought it to another large and navigable river (Fraser), flowing behind the mountain range in a southerly direction. He hoped to go down along it to the Pacific Ocean and began rafting, overcoming the rapids. But after several tens of kilometers, the Indians warned him that further navigation was impossible because of the rapids. Then A. Mackenzie returned to the mouth of the West Road River (100 km upstream) and, accompanied by local Indians, followed it to its source.On rafts, he crossed the Dean River, and then turned south and, passing through a small valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains, the tops of which were hidden in the clouds, reached a new short river (Bella Coola). On Indian canoes, the detachment descended to its mouth (at 52 ° 30 "N), it flowed into a short branch of the fjord. In order to dispel all doubts, A. Mackenzie moved further to the southwest, two days later he reached the Pacific Ocean, to Queen Charlotte Sound, and made the inscription on the rock: “Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, July 22, 1793.”
During his first crossing of North America, he traced the entire river. Peace River (1923 km), crossed the Front and Coast Ranges of the Rocky Mountains, opening between them the Inland Plateau and the upper section of the river. Fraser. In September 1793, A. Mackenzie returned the same way to Lake Athabasca, and after wintering he arrived in 1794 on the river. St. Lawrence, having completed the second crossing of the mainland and having traveled more than 10 thousand km in both directions.
Discovery of the Mackenzie River
Scotsman Alexander Mackenzie moved to Montreal as a young man and entered the service of the fur company, which was soon absorbed by the North-West Company. In 1787, he, already an experienced agent, was sent to Lake Athabasca to replace P. Pond. They spent the winter together, and A. Mackenzie, with the participation of P. Pond, drew up a plan for further exploration of the “Cook River”.
In 1788, on behalf of A. Mackenzie, his cousin Roderick Mackenzie built near the mouth of the river. Athabascan Fort Chipewayan (moved to the mouth in 1804), where both wintered. On June 3, 1789, leaving Roderick as temporary commander of the fort, A. Mackenzie set out with 12 companions on a river trip in birch bark canoes.
The guide of the expedition was a Chipewyan Indian nicknamed “English Leader”, who took part in S. Herne’s campaign to the Arctic Ocean. On June 9, they reached Great Slave Lake, almost completely covered with ice, only a narrow strip of clear water was visible near the shore. Soon, under the rain and strong winds, the ice began to break, but so slowly that it took about two weeks to cross by canoe. A. Mackenzie spent another six days searching for a further route: the northern shore of Great Slave Lake is very dissected, especially in the north-west, where the river. The Marian flows into the long, narrow North Arm Bay. Only on June 29 did he find a mighty stream flowing from the western corner of the lake at the latitude of the “Cook River” and carrying its waters to the west. After a few days of sailing, A. Mackenzie met three groups of Indians, who told him terrible stories about the enormous length of the river, the impossibility of finding food in the lower reaches - and he barely managed to persuade his guides not to leave him.
350 km from the lake, the river turned sharply to the north and entered the mountainous region. On the left side, heights approached it (Mt. Mackenzie), on the right - other heights (Mount Franklin), which are at 65 ° N. w. were interrupted by a wide valley of a deep eastern tributary. A. Mackenzie did not explore this stream, which led him away from the main goal. At 67° N. w. the main river was lowland, but to the west there were mountains extending in a meridional direction (the Richardson Mountains).
On July 10, A. Mackenzie wrote: “It is absolutely clear that this river flows into the Great North Sea.” For three more days he descended along the river flowing in the low banks, from which numerous branches branched off on both sides. Instead of the Indian villages that had previously been occasionally found on its banks, here and there the dwellings of the Eskimos were visible. On July 13, at 69°30" N, from a hill on one of the delta islands, the traveler saw in the west a strip of open sea - the Mackenzie Bay of the Beaufort Sea, and in the east - a bay clogged with ice (maybe Eskimo Lake). At night, with the sun not setting, he watched the tide, in the morning saw whales playing in the water in the western bay. Undoubtedly, he reached the Arctic Ocean. But, since he did not trace the adjacent sections of the sea coast in both directions, the veracity of his message was doubted for a long time. A. Mackenzie himself justified by the fact that his provisions were running out. On July 16, he turned back; the ascent along the river, naturally, took much more strength, and the detachment moved twice as slow. Six days later, A. Mackenzie learned from the Indians he met that eight nine years ago, far in the west, the Eskimos had contact with white people who came on large ships and exchanged iron for skins.It is possible, as Canadian historical geographer Roy Daniells believes, that these were ships of Russian industrialists, and the meeting supposedly took place in the vicinity of Cape Barrow , the northernmost tip of the Alaska Peninsula (71°23" N. latitude, 156°12" W). In our historical and geographical literature there is no information or just mention of this outstanding achievement of domestic sailors.
A. Mackenzie completed his campaign to the Arctic Ocean on September 12, 1789 at Fort Chipewayan, having covered almost 5 thousand km in 102 days. The great stream flowing from Great Slave Lake and flowing into the Beaufort Sea was named the river. Mackenzie.
The Mackenzie is the longest river in Canada and the entire American North (including the Finley, Peace and Slave rivers). The Mackenzie River flows through the northwestern part of the country and, thanks to a large number of tributaries, is an extremely extensive river system, occupying up to 20% of Canada's territory. The Mackenzie Basin covers several Canadian provinces, including: in the southern part it is British Columbia. Alberta and Saskatchewan, in the northwestern - Yukon. River in the 18th century. Europeans became interested as a potential route to the Pacific Ocean, but Mackenzie could not lead discoverers to the Pacific coast; it is separated from it by mountains - to the south these are the ridges of the Rocky Mountains. and to the north are the Mackenzie Mountains.
Most of the way the river flows through the lands of the northwestern, subpolar region of the country, which is called the Northwest Territories. Its source is also located here - in the Great Slave Lake, although in fact the Mackenzie River begins in the Rocky Mountains from the source of the Finley River, which flows into the Peace River, and it in turn flows into Lake Athabasca, which through the Slave River connects with the Great Lake Slave Lake, thereby forming Canada's largest and second longest river system in North America after the Mississippi-Missouri. Great Slave Lake is the deepest (614 m) on the North American continent and is rightfully considered one of the wonders of local nature. Its name goes back to the designation of the local slave tribe - consonant with, but having nothing to do with the English word “slave” (“slave”, “slave”). The translation of the name of the lake as “Slave” is essentially erroneous. By the way, the descendants of the slaves were able to defend their right to the ancestral lands of the tribe, so a small community of Indians still lives on the shores of the lake named in their honor.
The river basin occupies the northern part of the Canadian (North American) platform. This is a Precambrian (previously 500 million years old) formation, the antiquity of which determined the presence of a number of minerals: rugelez, copper, nickel, uranium, gold, zinc, lead and other metals that lie in the foundation of the platform exposed in the north of the continent, and later The sedimentary cover of the platform contains deposits of oil, gas, coal, potassium and other salts. Thanks to their development, these inhospitable places became more habitable: for example, the discovery in the 1930s. gold in the Slave Lake area led to the birth of the city of Yellowknife, which later became the administrative capital of the Northwest Territories province and a gold mining center. Silver and uranium are also mined here, and since 1991, diamonds.
Flowing through the Northwest Territory, the Mackenzie, not far from its mouth, crosses the border of the Arctic Circle and, through the bay of the same name, flows into the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean. When it merges with the sea, it forms a vast delta, the soil of which, to a depth of 100 m, is bound by permafrost. The waters of the Mackenzie supply about 11% of the total river flow of the Arctic Ocean and play an important role in creating the microclimate in the delta region.
The river flows through a vast area of forests and tundra, with some heavily swampy areas. For most of its route, the Mackenzie has a fairly wide channel (from 2 to 5 km), along which the water flows slowly and calmly (the height difference from source to mouth is only 156 m). A delta up to 80 km wide is formed at the mouth. The banks are rocky and rugged in places, but swamps make up no more than 18% of the river basin area. Most of the basin is covered with forest-tundra and forests, of which 93% are uninhabited, untouched spaces. Food comes from rain and snow, and when snow and ice melt, serious floods occur. From September to May the river is hidden under ice.
The cold waters of the Mackenzie are home to 53 species of fish, some of which are endemic. Interestingly, many species of fish are genetically related to species found in the Mississippi: scientists suggest that these rivers may have previously been connected through a system of lakes and tributaries.
Exploring the basin of the inhospitable northern river threatened to become the deepest disappointment not only for Alexander Mackenzie, but also for other geographers and travelers who were primarily concerned with finding a river route to the Pacific Ocean. Over time, the river was appreciated and it immortalized the name of the discoverer.
The formation of lakes and rivers in this region dates back to the end of the last ice age - approximately 11,000 years ago. They began to study Mackenzie not so long ago. The first European who managed to reach the coast of the Arctic Ocean, making his way to it along the mainland, is considered to be the English trader and traveler Samuel Herne (1745-1792). And the first description of this river dates back to 1789 and belongs to the Scottish merchant and traveler Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820). However, according to the testimony of Mackenzie himself, around 1780, in the lower reaches of the river, the Indians were already exchanging some white skins for iron. It could have been Russian sailors. As an employee of the North-West Fur Company, Mackenzie achieved the organization of the expedition. Initially, she had to find a waterway to the Pacific Ocean, which the Indians talked about. It was precisely because the expedition found access not to the Pacific, but to the Arctic Ocean, that the river was first called “Disappointment,” which translated from English means “Disappointment.” The campaign began with the founding of Fort Chipewayan on the Athabasca River. The river expedition itself started on June 3, 1789. Information has been preserved about the guide - an Indian nicknamed “English leader”, who participated in the campaign to the Arctic Ocean S. Hern. Six days later, birch bark canoes approached Slave Lake, but only on June 29 Mackenzie found the river flowing towards the Pacific
(as he thought) an ocean river without a name. The Indians they met talked about the endless length of the river and the difficulties with food. The most unpleasant surprise was that the river turned due north, and on July 10 A. Mackenzie wrote: “It is absolutely clear that this river flows into the Great North Sea,” and on July 13 he saw the sea itself. The expedition did not explore its shores, but the night tides and whales frolicking in the bay made it clear that this was an ocean. Later, the English explorer of the Arctic John Franklin (1786-1847), having carried out in 1825-1826. expedition to this river, gave it, the mountains, and the bay, first explored by Mackenzie, the name of the “disappointed” Scot.
Mackenzie is navigable - the length of its shipping routes is 2200 km. The level of seasonal fluctuations in water is used to generate hydropower. In 1968, the Bennett Dam, one of the largest in the world, was built in the upper Mackenzie River on the Peace River, and it is not the only one here: dams have appeared in many places, both for hydropower and for flood control. Agriculture became possible in the south. In addition, there is an ambitious project to move Arctic fresh meltwater inland and beyond using the Mackenzie reservoir, irrigation and transport system.
It is not only people who use the river for their own purposes: the Mackenzie Delta, located at the junction of four major migratory routes of North American birds (in the fall, their number reaches a million), is an important transit point for them.
The construction of the dam caused significant damage to the river’s ecosystem and, in particular, its delta, which resulted in a significant reduction in migratory bird populations. According to the US Geological Survey, published in Forbes magazine in 2004, about a quarter of the world's oil and natural gas reserves are located in the Arctic. In particular, “the Mackenzie River Delta and adjacent offshore areas are extremely rich in natural gas, which will continue to be produced over the next decade.” Due to large-scale transformation of the area around the pipeline, many species may soon become extinct. Elsewhere in the river basin, oil, uranium, tungsten, gold and diamonds are mined, and timber is produced in the upper reaches of the river. In addition, the Mackenzie is the main transport artery: entire “trains” of barges move along its surface (in winter they travel along it on dog sleds and snowmobiles).
No matter how significant human activity has been on the river, only 1% of Canadians now live in its basin. The population of the basin is about 397,000 people (according to 2001 statistics), that is, the average population density is approximately 0.2 people per square kilometer, however, in recent years, tourism has begun to play an increasingly important role in the economy of the region; the city of Inuvik is the most visited populated a destination in the Arctic, a center of Inuit culture and a launching pad for many ecotourism routes. Scientific research - hydrographic and geological - is also of great importance.
Climate and weather
In the south of the basin it is temperate, in the north it is subarctic to arctic.
- Average annual water temperature: +3°С
- Average January temperature: from -16°C in the south to -28°C in the north
- Average July temperature: from +16°C in the south to +8°C in the north
Average annual precipitation: in the north less than 100 mm, in the south more than 300 mm, in the mountains up to 1000 mm.
Freeze-up: September-May/June (in the lower reaches).
Economy
- Minerals: natural gas, oil, uranium, tungsten, gold and diamonds
- Industry: hydropower, logging.
- Agriculture: greenhouse vegetable growing (in the south).
- Services sector: transport (shipping); tourism (hiking and water recreational or sports tourism, also excursions to gold rush sites, the city of Dawson).
Attractions of the Mackenzie River
- Natural. National Parks of Little Slave Lake and Hillyard Bay, Mackenzie Bison Reserve with a protected herd of 2000 animals (north of Yellowknife), the youngest Arctic National Park - Tuktut Nogate, Nahanni National Park (South Nahanni River Valley, south of the Mackenzie Mountains, founded in 1976) - a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 1978), Cameron Falls, pingo hydrolaccoliths (cone-shaped hills up to 40 m in height and up to 300 m in width, which appeared on the surface under the pressure of ice lying in the lower layers) .
- Cultural and historical. Bennett Dam (1968) on the Peace River (tributary) with a tour center.
- Inuvik City. Catholic Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary the Victorious (1958-1960), built in the form of an igloo.
- City of Yellowknife. Old Town including houseboat settlement, Prince of Wales Historic Center (Inuit and Dene Ethnographic Museum), Legislative Assembly (1993)
- Fort Providence. Dene Crafts Centre.
- Hay River Settlement. The main port of the Northwest Territories, home to the Dene people for more than 1,000 years.
Information
- Length: 1738 km
- Pool: 1,805,200 km²
- Water consumption: 10,700 m³/s
- Source: Great Slave Lake
- A country: Canada
- Region: Northwest Territories
The Mackenzie River is the largest in Canada. Her length is 4241 km. As a matter of fact, the water stream, which is called the Mackenzie, begins its journey from Great Slave Lake. It is considered the deepest in North America. The maximum depth of the reservoir reaches 614 meters, and the area is 28.4 thousand square meters. km. In spring, autumn and summer, the lake is covered with an ice crust. It is freed from it only in the summer months.
From the lake the water flows to the northwest and ends its path in Beaufort Sea. Its length is 1738 km. The river's water system itself begins River Finlay in central British Columbia. The source is in a small lake Tutade. These are the Omineca Mountains. The river flows south along the Rocky Mountains and empties into Williston Reservoir. The total length of Finlay is 420 km.
Mackenzie River on the map
The Peace River flows from the reservoir. This is a large water stream, the length of which is 1521 km. It flows into the Slave River, which flows out of Lake Athabasca. It is the latter that flows into Great Slave Lake. And the Mackenzie River already flows out of it and carries its waters to the Arctic Ocean. This gives us the figure of 4241 km.
Why such a strange name - "Slave"? The thing is that a tribe of Slavey Indians lived along the banks of the river and lake. So the lake with the river was called “Slave”. This is where the confusion comes from, since the English word "slave" means "slave". We wanted the best, but what happened was the Great Slave Lake and the Slave River. There is nothing you can do now, this is how things have historically developed.
The mighty northern river was discovered by Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820). In 1789, he moved along the waterway from Lake Athabasca towards the Arctic Ocean. In total, the traveler swam and walked 4.5 thousand km. People paid tribute to the courage of this man and immortalized his name in the name of the river.
It feeds from tributaries, lakes, rain and snow. The river floodplain is very swampy. All around are forests of black spruce, aspen and poplar. To the north comes the kingdom of dwarf birches, willows and numerous peat bogs. And, of course, permafrost. In the delta area its depth reaches 100 meters.
The largest lake, connected to the river through a channel, is called Big Bear. It is located in the Arctic Circle. The maximum depth is 413 meters. The area of the reservoir is 31.15 thousand square meters. km, which exceeds the area of Great Slave Lake. The channel, or more correctly, the river, is called the Big Bear and reaches a length of 113 km. Its depth is 6 meters and its width reaches 300 meters.
Mackenzie River in autumn
The Mackenzie itself is a wide and slow river. The height of the fall from source to mouth is 156 meters. The river has many shallows and side channels. The width ranges from 2 to 5 km. The depth is 8-9 meters. In some places, mountainous terrain causes the stream to narrow, and its width reaches 0.5 km. Accordingly, the flow speed increases.
This water river system covers 20% of the country's territory. In terms of length, it ranks 13th in the world among all great water systems and gives the Arctic Ocean 11% of the total drainage. The Mackenzie River begins to ice up in September. Ice drift begins in May, and in the lower reaches this period occurs in June.
The river basin is home to 397 thousand people, which is 1% of Canada's population. The bulk of the population is concentrated in the province of Alberta. But the Yukon and Northwest Territories are inhabited mainly by indigenous peoples. But there are many useful resources here: oil, gas, uranium, gold, tungsten, timber - the northern land is rich in all of this. The river has well-developed navigation. It covers 2200 km in summer. And in winter, ice roads, dog sleds and snowmobiles are practiced.
In a word, this is a real harsh north, in no way inferior to Taimyr or Chukotka. Although life in these places is not vibrant, it is reliably settled in rare settlements. You can call the village Fort Providence. It is inhabited mainly by the indigenous population of the northern lands. There are almost 800 residents.
But in Inuvik, which is the administrative center of the Northwest Territories, about 4 thousand people live. This is a stronghold of oil companies. It is from here that geological exploration of nearby lands is managed. You can also mention the village of Aklavik, Fort Norman, Norman Wells.
The Mackenzie River is a navigable river in summer
Concerning deltas the great northern river, then in winter, which is a whole 6 months, it is practically indistinguishable. Everything around comes to life after the ice drift begins. The ice disappears within a few days, and countless channels appear, separated by islands. The length of the delta is 160 km, and the width from edge to edge is 80 km.
There are many in the water pingo. These are earthen hills with a core of ice. This phenomenon is common in permafrost areas. Ice turns into water in the summer, but cannot escape to the surface. It then freezes, expands, and pushes soil up. There are more than 1,500 pingos in the delta region. This is the largest concentration of them in the world.
The mighty Nord Stream is rightfully considered the pride of Canada. It carries its waters into the Beaufort Sea slowly and solidly. But you can feel hidden strength and power in them. And this always arouses respect and interest in the greatest creations of nature, one of which is the Mackenzie River.
Stanislav Lopatin
The Mackenzie is the longest river in Canada and the entire American North (including the Finley, Peace and Slave rivers). The Mackenzie River flows through the northwestern part of the country and, thanks to a large number of tributaries, is an extremely extensive river system, occupying up to 20% of Canada's territory. The Mackenzie Basin covers several Canadian provinces, including: in the southern part it is Alberta and Saskatchewan, in the northwestern part it is Yukon. River in the 18th century. Europeans became interested as a potential route to the Pacific Ocean, but Mackenzie could not lead discoverers to the Pacific coast; it is separated from it by mountains - to the south are the ridges, and to the north are the Mackenzie Mountains.
Most of the way the river flows through the lands of the northwestern, subpolar region of the country, which is called the Northwest Territories. Its source is also located here - in the Great Slave Lake, although in fact the Mackenzie River begins in the Rocky Mountains from the source of the Finley River, which flows into the Peace River, and it in turn flows into Lake Athabasca, which through the Slave River connects with the Great Lake Slave Lake, thereby forming Canada's largest and second longest river system in North America after the Mississippi-Missouri. - the deepest (614 m) on the North American continent, it is rightfully considered one of the wonders of local nature. Its name goes back to the designation of the local slave tribe - consonant with, but having nothing to do with the English word “slave” (“slave”, “slave”). The translation of the name of the lake as “Slave” is essentially erroneous. By the way, the descendants of the slaves were able to defend their right to the ancestral lands of the tribe, so a small community of Indians still lives on the shores of the lake named in their honor.
The river basin occupies the northern part of the Canadian (North American) platform. This is a Precambrian (previously 500 million years old) formation, the antiquity of which determined the presence of a number of minerals: rugelez, copper, nickel, uranium, gold, zinc, lead and other metals that lie in the foundation of the platform exposed in the north of the continent, and later The sedimentary cover of the platform contains deposits of oil, gas, coal, potassium and other salts. Thanks to their development, these inhospitable places became more habitable: for example, the discovery in the 1930s. gold in the Slave Lake area led to the birth of the city of Yellowknife, which later became the administrative capital of the Northwest Territories province and a gold mining center. Silver and uranium are also mined here, and since 1991, diamonds.
Flowing through the Northwest Territory, the Mackenzie, not far from its mouth, crosses the border of the Arctic Circle and, through the bay of the same name, flows into the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean. When it merges with the sea, it forms a vast delta, the soil of which, to a depth of 100 m, is bound by permafrost. The waters of the Mackenzie supply about 11% of the total river flow of the Arctic Ocean and play an important role in creating the microclimate in the delta region.
The river flows through a vast area of forests and tundra, with some heavily swampy areas. For most of its route, the Mackenzie has a fairly wide channel (from 2 to 5 km), along which the water flows slowly and calmly (the height difference from source to mouth is only 156 m). A delta up to 80 km wide is formed at the mouth. The banks are rocky and rugged in places, but swamps make up no more than 18% of the river basin area. Most of the basin is covered with forest-tundra and forests, of which 93% are uninhabited, untouched spaces. Food comes from rain and snow, and when snow and ice melt, serious floods occur. From September to May the river is hidden under ice.
The cold waters of the Mackenzie are home to 53 species of fish, some of which are endemic. Interestingly, many species of fish are genetically related to species found in the Mississippi: scientists suggest that these rivers may have previously been connected through a system of lakes and tributaries.
Exploring the basin of the inhospitable northern river threatened to become the deepest disappointment not only for Alexander Mackenzie, but also for other geographers and travelers who were primarily concerned with finding a river route to the Pacific Ocean. Over time, the river was appreciated and it immortalized the name of the discoverer. 
The formation of lakes and rivers in this region dates back to the end of the last ice age - approximately 11,000 years ago. They began to study Mackenzie not so long ago. The first European who managed to reach the coast of the Arctic Ocean, making his way to it along the mainland, is considered to be the English trader and traveler Samuel Herne (1745-1792). And the first description of this river dates back to 1789 and belongs to the Scottish merchant and traveler Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820). However, according to the testimony of Mackenzie himself, around 1780, in the lower reaches of the river, the Indians were already exchanging some white skins for iron. It could have been Russian sailors. As an employee of the North-West Fur Company, Mackenzie achieved the organization of the expedition. Initially, she had to find a waterway to the Pacific Ocean, which the Indians talked about. It was precisely because the expedition found access not to the Pacific, but to the Arctic Ocean, that the river was first called “Disappointment,” which translated from English means “Disappointment.” The campaign began with the founding of Fort Chipewayan on the Athabasca River. The river expedition itself started on June 3, 1789. Information has been preserved about the guide - an Indian nicknamed “English leader”, who participated in the campaign to the Arctic Ocean S. Hern. Six days later, birch bark canoes approached Slave Lake, but only on June 29 Mackenzie found the river flowing towards the Pacific
(as he thought) an ocean river without a name. The Indians they met talked about the endless length of the river and the difficulties with food. The most unpleasant surprise was that the river turned due north, and on July 10 A. Mackenzie wrote: “It is absolutely clear that this river flows into the Great North Sea,” and on July 13 he saw the sea itself. The expedition did not explore its shores, but the night tides and whales frolicking in the bay made it clear that this was an ocean. Later, the English explorer of the Arctic John Franklin (1786-1847), having carried out in 1825-1826. expedition to this river, gave it, the mountains, and the bay, first explored by Mackenzie, the name of the “disappointed” Scot.
Mackenzie is navigable - the length of its shipping routes is 2200 km. The level of seasonal fluctuations in water is used to generate hydropower. In 1968, the Bennett Dam, one of the largest in the world, was built in the upper Mackenzie River on the Peace River, and it is not the only one here: dams have appeared in many places, both for hydropower and for flood control. Agriculture became possible in the south. In addition, there is an ambitious project to move Arctic fresh meltwater inland and beyond using the Mackenzie reservoir, irrigation and transport system.
It is not only people who use the river for their own purposes: the Mackenzie Delta, located at the junction of four major migratory routes of North American birds (in the fall, their number reaches a million), is an important transit point for them.
The construction of the dam caused significant damage to the river’s ecosystem and, in particular, its delta, which resulted in a significant reduction in migratory bird populations. According to the US Geological Survey, published in Forbes magazine in 2004, about a quarter of the world's oil and natural gas reserves are located in the Arctic. In particular, “the Mackenzie River Delta and adjacent offshore areas are extremely rich in natural gas, which will continue to be produced over the next decade.” Due to large-scale transformation of the area around the pipeline, many species may soon become extinct. Elsewhere in the river basin, oil, uranium, tungsten, gold and diamonds are mined, and timber is produced in the upper reaches of the river. In addition, the Mackenzie is the main transport artery: entire “trains” of barges move along its surface (in winter they travel along it on dog sleds and snowmobiles).
No matter how significant human activity has been on the river, only 1% of Canadians now live in its basin. The population of the basin is about 397,000 people (according to 2001 statistics), that is, the average population density is approximately 0.2 people per square kilometer, however, in recent years, tourism has begun to play an increasingly important role in the economy of the region; the city of Inuvik is the most visited populated a destination in the Arctic, a center of Inuit culture and a launching pad for many ecotourism routes. Scientific research - hydrographic and geological - is also of great importance.
general information
The longest river in Canada and the American North.Main tributaries:(left) Liard, Arctic Red River, Peel; (right) Big Bear.
Largest lakes: Great Slave, Athabasca, Williston, Clare.
Largest settlements: Inuvik, Norman Wells (oil center), Fort Providence.
Ethnic composition: Indians - 36%, descendants of the English -17%, descendants of the Scots and Irish - 26%, others (Eskimos/Inuit, French, Germans, mestizos, Ukrainians, etc.) - 1% (of all respondents, only 20% identify themselves as Canadians ).
Languages: English, Gwich'in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuktun, Cree, North and South Slave, Dogrib, French, Dene.
Religions: Catholicism - more than 50%, shamanism.
Ports: Hay River, Waterways, Taktoyaktuk.
Nearest airport: Yellowknife International Airport.
Numbers
Length: Mackenzie itself - 1738 km, together with the Finley, Peace River and Slave Rivers - 4241 km.Width: up to 5 km.
Average depth: 8-9 m.
Source height: Finley source - 1200 m, source from Great Slave Lake - 156 m.
Pool area: 1,805,200 km 2 .
Water flow at the mouth: average - 10,000 m 3 /sec, maximum - 31,800 m 3 /sec.
Solid runoff: 15 million tons/year.
Length of shipping routes: 2200 km.
Climate and weather
In the south of the basin it is temperate, in the north it is subarctic to arctic.Average annual water temperature:+3°C.
Average January temperature: from -16°C in the south to -28°C in the north.
Average temperature in July: from +16°С in the south to +8°С in the north.
Average annual precipitation: in the north less than 100 mm, in the south more than 300 mm, in the mountains up to 1000 mm.
Freeze-up: September-May/June (in the lower reaches).
Economy
Minerals: natural gas, oil, uranium, tungsten, gold and diamonds.Industry: hydropower, logging.
Agriculture: greenhouse vegetable growing (in the south).
Service sector: transport (shipping); tourism (hiking and water recreational or sports tourism, also excursions to gold rush sites, the city of Dawson).
Attractions
■ Natural: National parks of Little Slave Lake and Hillard Bay, Mackenzie bison reserve with a protected herd of 2000 animals (north of Yellowknife), the youngest national park in the Arctic - Tuktut Nogate, Nahanni national park (South Nahanni River valley, south of the Mackenzie Mountains , founded in 1976) - a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 1978), Cameron Falls, pingo hydrolaccoliths (cone-shaped hills up to 40 m in height and up to 300 m in width, which appeared on the surface under the pressure of ice lying in the lower layers ).■ Cultural and historical: Bennett Dam (1968) on the Peace River (tributary) with a tour center.
■ Inuvik City: Catholic Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary the Victorious (1958-1960), built in the form of an igloo.
■ City of Yellowknife: Old Town including houseboat settlement, Prince of Wales Historic Center (Inuit and Dene Ethnographic Museum), Legislative Assembly (1993)
■ Fort Providence: Center for Dene crafts.
■ Hay River Settlement: The main port of the Northwest Territories, home to the Dene people for over 1,000 years.
Curious facts
■ Samuel Hearne was accompanied on his campaign by an Indian guide, who, in turn, was accompanied by... eight wives.■ In winter, there are often blizzards that give the effect of “whiteout”, when, with a strong wind, the snow turns into a stream, within which the sense of depth of space is lost.
■ Canada's first casino, Gertie's Diamond Tooth, got its exotic name in honor of Gertie Lovejoy: the front teeth of this local dance hall queen from 1898 were adorned with a real diamond.
■ Taktoyaktuk is the northernmost settlement in Canada, a former whaling center.
■ The Mackenzie River ice road is approximately 3 m wide and the ice is up to 2.5 m thick, suitable for truck traffic. The driving speed should not exceed 75 km/h. However, there is a risk: if the car stalls, you can easily freeze in it, and the traffic on this icy highway between the city of Taktoyaktuk and the city of Inuvik cannot be called active, so there is nowhere to wait for help.
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