Lena | |
---|---|
Native name | |
Location | |
Country | Russia |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | Baikal Mountains |
• location | Kachugsky District, Irkutsk Oblast |
• coordinates | 53°58′3″N107°52′56″E / 53.96750°N 107.88222°E (approximately) |
• elevation | 1,640 m (5,380 ft) |
Mouth | Lena Delta |
• location | Arctic Ocean, Laptev Sea |
• coordinates | 72°24′31″N126°41′05″E / 72.4087°N 126.6847°E |
• elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
Length | 4,294 km (2,668 mi) |
Basin size | 2,460,742 km2 (950,098 sq mi) to 2,490,000 km2 (960,000 sq mi) |
Width | |
• maximum | 10,000 m (33,000 ft) |
Depth | |
• maximum | 28 m (92 ft) |
Discharge | |
• location | Kyusyur, Russia (Basin size: 2,440,000 km2 (940,000 sq mi) to 2,418,974 km2 (933,971 sq mi) [1] |
• average | (Period of data: 1971-2015)17,773 m3/s (627,600 cu ft/s) [1] (Period of data: 1970-1999)17,067 m3/s (602,700 cu ft/s) [2] 15,500Contents
|
• minimum | 366 m3/s (12,900 cu ft/s) |
• maximum | 241,000 m3/s (8,500,000 cu ft/s) Lena Delta, Laptev Sea, Russia (Period of data: 1984-2018)577 km3/a (18,300 m3/s) [1] (Period of data: 1940-2019) 545.7 km3/a (17,290 m3/s) [4] |
Discharge | |
• location | Vilyuy |
• average | 12,100 m3/s (430,000 cu ft/s) Tabaga, Yakutsk (Basin size: 987,000 km2 (381,000 sq mi) (Period of data: 1967-2017) 7,453.2 m3/s (263,210 cu ft/s) [5] (max. 51,600 m3/s (1,820,000 cu ft/s)) [5] |
Discharge | |
• location | Olyokminsk |
• average | 4,500 m3/s (160,000 cu ft/s) |
Discharge | |
• location | Vitim |
• average | 1,700 m3/s (60,000 cu ft/s) |
Discharge | |
• location | Kirensk |
• average | 480 m3/s (17,000 cu ft/s) |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | Vilyuy |
• right | Kirenga, Vitim, Olyokma, Aldan |
The Lena [note 1] is a river in the Russian Far East, and is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean (the other two being the Ob and the Yenisey). The Lena is the eleventh-longest river in the world, and the longest river entirely within Russia, with a length of 4,294 km (2,668 mi) and a drainage basin of 2,490,000 km2 (960,000 sq mi). [6] Permafrost underlies most of the catchment, 20% of which is continuous.
Originating at an elevation of 1,640 meters (5,381 ft) at its source in the Baikal Mountains south of the Central Siberian Plateau, 7 kilometres (4 mi) west of Lake Baikal, the Lena flows northeast across the Lena-Angara Plateau, being joined by the Kirenga, Vitim and Olyokma. From Yakutsk it enters the Central Yakutian Lowland and flows north until joined by its right-hand tributary the Aldan and its most important left-hand tributary, the Vilyuy. After that, it bends westward and northward, flowing between the Kharaulakh Range, part of the Verkhoyansk Range, in the east and the Chekanovsky Ridge in the west. Making its way nearly due north it expands into a large delta and ends in the Laptev Sea, a division of the Arctic Ocean, south-west of the New Siberian Islands. The Lena Delta is 30,000 square kilometres (12,000 sq mi) in area, [7] being traversed by seven main branches, the most important being the Bykovsky channel, farthest east.
The area of the Lena river basin is calculated at 2,490,000 square kilometres (960,000 sq mi) and the mean annual discharge is 489 cubic kilometers per year. Gold is washed out of the sands of the Vitim and the Olyokma, and mammoth tusks have been dug out of the delta. There are numerous lakes in the floodplain of the river. Lakes Nedzheli and Ulakhan-Kyuel are the largest in the basin of the Lena.
The Kirenga flows north between the upper Lena River and Lake Baikal. The Vitim drains the area northeast of Lake Baikal. The Olyokma flows north. The Amga makes a long curve southeast and parallel to the Lena and flows into the Aldan. The Aldan also curves roughly parallel to the Lena until it turns east and flows into the Lena north of Yakutsk. The Maya, a tributary of the Aldan, drains an area almost to the Sea of Okhotsk. The T-shaped Chona-Vilyuy system drains most of the area to the west.
The main tributaries of the Lena are, from source to mouth:
Lena River from a source to Kachug |
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It is commonly believed that the Lena derives its name from the original Even-Evenk name Elyu-Ene, which means "the Large River".
According to folktales related a century later, in the years 1620–1623 a party of Russian fur hunters under the leadership of Demid Pyanda sailed up Nizhnyaya Tunguska, discovered the Lena, and either carried their boats there or built new ones. In 1623 Pyanda explored some 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mi) of the river from its upper reaches to the central Yakutia. [8] In 1628 Vasily Bugor and 10 men reached the Lena, collected 'yasak' (tribute) from the 'natives' and then founded Kirinsk in 1632. In 1631 the voyevoda of Yeniseysk sent Pyotr Beketov and 20 men to construct a fortress at Yakutsk (founded in 1632). From Yakutsk other expeditions spread out to the south and east. The Lena delta was reached in 1655.
Two of the three groups of survivors of the ill-fated Jeannette expedition reached Lena Delta in September, 1881. The one led by engineer George W. Melville was rescued by native Tungus huntsmen. Of the group led by Captain George W. De Long, only two of the men survived; the others died of starvation.
Baron Eduard Von Toll, accompanied by Alexander von Bunge, led an expedition that explored the Lena delta and the islands of New Siberia on behalf of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences in 1885. In 1886 they investigated the New Siberian Islands and the Yana River and its tributaries. During one year and two days the expedition covered 25,000 kilometres (16,000 mi), of which 4,200 kilometres (2,600 mi) were up rivers, carrying out geodesic surveys en route.
The Lena massacre was the name given to the 1912 shooting-down of striking goldminers and local citizens who protested at the working conditions in the mine near Bodaybo in northern Irkutsk. The incident was reported in the Duma (parliament) by Kerensky and is credited with stimulating revolutionary feeling in Russia.
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov may have taken his alias, Lenin, from the river Lena, when he was exiled to the Central Siberian Plateau.
At the end of the Lena River there is a large delta that extends 100 kilometres (62 mi) into the Laptev Sea and is about 400 km (250 mi) wide. The delta is frozen tundra for about seven months of the year, but in May the region is transformed into a lush wetland for a few months. Part of the area is protected as the Lena Delta Wildlife Reserve.
The Lena delta divides into a multitude of flat islands. The most important are (from west to east): Chychas Aryta, Petrushka, Sagastyr, Samakh Ary Diyete, Turkan Bel'keydere, Sasyllakh Ary, Kolkhoztakh Bel'keydere, Grigoriy Diyelyakh Bel'kee (Grigoriy Islands), Nerpa Uolun Aryta, Misha Bel'keydere, Atakhtay Bel'kedere, Arangastakh, Urdiuk Pastakh Bel'key, Agys Past' Aryta, Dallalakh Island, Otto Ary, Ullakhan Ary and Orto Ues Aryta.
Turukannakh-Kumaga is a long and narrow island off the Lena delta's western shore.
One of the Lena delta islands, Ostrov Amerika-Kuba-Aryta or Ostrov Kuba-Aryta, was named after the island of Cuba during Soviet times. It is on the northern edge of the delta. [9]
As Lena is located at remote and undeveloped regions of the Russian Far East, its fish resource is very well preserved. Some of the species found in the river include: Siberian taimen, Siberian sturgeon, Upper Yenisei grayling. [10] [11]
The Baikal–Amur Mainline is a 1,520 mm broad-gauge railway line in Russia. Traversing Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, the 4,324 km (2,687 mi)-long BAM runs about 610 to 770 km north of and parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far Eastern Federal District, and is the world's largest country subdivision, covering over 3,083,523 square kilometers (1,190,555 sq mi). Yakutsk, which is the world's coldest major city, is its capital and largest city.
The Laptev Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands. Its northern boundary passes from the Arctic Cape to a point with co-ordinates of 79°N and 139°E, and ends at the Anisiy Cape. The Kara Sea lies to the west, the East Siberian Sea to the east.
Yerofey Pavlovich Khabarov-Svyatitsky, was a Russian entrepreneur and adventurer, best known for his exploring the Amur river region and his attempts to colonize the area for Russia. For background, see Russian–Manchu border conflicts.
The Yana is a river in Sakha in Russia, located between the Lena to the west and the Indigirka to the east.
The Vilyuy is a river in Russia, the longest tributary of the Lena. About 2,650 kilometres (1,650 mi) long, it flows mostly within the Sakha Republic. Its basin covers about 454,000 square kilometres (175,000 sq mi).
The Olyokma is a tributary of the Lena in eastern Siberia.
The Vitim is a major tributary of the Lena. Its source is east of Lake Baikal, at the confluence of rivers Vitimkan from the west and China from the east. The Vitim flows first south, bends eastwards and then northward in the Vitim Plateau. Then it flows north through the Stanovoy Highlands and the town of Bodaybo. Including river Vitimkan, its western source, it is 1,978 kilometres (1,229 mi) long, and has a drainage basin of 225,000 square kilometres (87,000 sq mi).
The Olenyok is a major river in northern Siberian Russia, west of the lower Lena and east of the Anabar. It is 2,292 kilometres (1,424 mi) long, of which around 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) is navigable. Average water discharge is 1,210 cubic metres per second (43,000 cu ft/s).
Siberian River Routes were the main ways of communication in Russian Siberia before the 1730s, when roads began to be built. The rivers were also of primary importance in the process of Russian conquest and exploration of vast Siberian territories eastwards. Since the three great Siberian rivers, the Ob, the Yenisey, and the Lena all flow into the Arctic Ocean, the aim was to find parts or branches of these rivers that flow approximately east-west and find short portages between them. Since Siberia is relatively flat, portages were usually short. Despite resistance from the Siberian tribes, Russian Cossacks were able to expand from the Urals to the Pacific in only 57 years (1582-1639). These river routes were crucial in the first years of the Siberian fur trade as the furs were easier to transport over water than land. The rivers connected the major fur gathering centers and provided for relatively quick transport between them.
Demid Sofonovich Pyanda or, according to some sources, Panteley Demidovich Pyanda, also spelled Penda (Пенда) was among the first and most important Russian explorers of Siberia. According to few historical documents and later reconstructions based on them, Pyanda, in 1620–1623, while leading a party which was hunting for Siberian furs and buying them from the locals, became the first known Russian to ascend the Lower Tunguska River and reach the proximity of the Lena, one of the world's greatest rivers. According to later legendary accounts, collected a century after his journey, Pyanda allegedly discovered the Lena River, explored much of its length, and via the Angara River returned to the Yenisey, whence he came.
The Central Yakutian Lowland or the Central Yakutian Lowlands, also known as the Central Yakut Plain or the Vilyuy Lowland, is a low alluvial plain in Siberia, Russia.
The South Siberian Mountains are one of the largest mountain systems of the Russian Federation. The total area of the system of mountain ranges is more than 1.5 million km². The South Siberian Mountains are located in the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts of Russia, as well as partly in Mongolia. The territory of the mountain system is one of the Great Russian Regions.
The Patom Highlands are a mountainous area in Eastern Siberia, Russia. Administratively most of the territory of the uplands is part of Irkutsk Oblast, with a smaller section in northern Zabaykalsky Krai.
The Mamakan is a river in Irkutsk Oblast, southern East Siberia, Russia. It is a tributary of the Vitim of the Lena basin. The river is 209 kilometres (130 mi) long, and has a drainage basin of 9,460 square kilometres (3,650 sq mi). There are no settlements by the river, only Mamakan near its mouth by the Vitim.
The North Baikal Highlands are a mountainous area in Eastern Siberia, Russia. Administratively the territory of the uplands is part of Buryatia and Irkutsk Oblast.
The Chuya, also known as Big Chuya in its last 52 km (32 mi) stretch, is a river in Buryatia and Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. It is the 13th longest tributary of the Lena and the 191st longest river in Russia, with a length of 512 kilometres (318 mi) and a drainage basin area of 18,400 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi).
The Chekanovsky Ridge is a range of mountains in the Bulunsky District, Yakutia, Russian Federation. The area of the range is uninhabited.
The Akitkan Range is a mountain range in Irkutsk Oblast and Buryatia, Russian Federation.
The Kelimyar is a river in Yakutia, Russia. It is a tributary of the Olenyok with a length of 254 kilometres (158 mi) and a drainage basin area of 4,050 square kilometres (1,560 sq mi).