Lena River
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The LenaTemplate:NoteTag is a river in the Russian Far East and is the easternmost river of the three great rivers of Siberia which flow into the Arctic Ocean, the others being Ob and Yenisey. The Lena River is Template:Cvt long and has a capacious drainage basin of Template:Cvt; thus the Lena is the eleventh-longest river in the world and the longest river entirely within Russia.[1] Geographically, permafrost underlies all the Lena River's catchment and it is continuous in over 75 percent of the basin.[2]
Course
The Lena originates at Script error: No such module "convert". of elevation in the Baikal Mountains, Script error: No such module "convert". west of Lake Baikal, south of the Central Siberian Plateau. The Lena flows north-east and traverses the Lena-Angara Plateau, then is joined by three tributary rivers: (i) the Kirenga, (ii) the Vitim, and (iii) the Olyokma. From Yakutsk, the Lena River enters the Central Yakutian Lowland and flows north until joined by the eastern tributary, the Aldan River, and the western tributary, the Vilyuy River. Afterwards, the Lena bends westwards and northwards, flowing between the mountains of the Kharaulakh Range to the east (part of the Verkhoyansk Range) and the mountains of the Chekanovsky Ridge to the west. Travelling approximately due north, the Lena widens into a great river delta that merges into the Laptev Sea, a marginal region of the Arctic Ocean, south-west of the New Siberian Islands. The Lena Delta is Script error: No such module "convert". in area,[3] being traversed by seven main branches, the most important being the Bykovsky channel, farthest east.
The Lena is navigable over a length of 3540 kilometres. The annual navigation period, when ice is minimally present or absent, lasts about 70 days in the estuarine region and 125 days elsewhere.[4]
Basin
The area of the Lena River basin is calculated at Script error: No such module "convert". 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.
Tributaries
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:
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- Tutura (right)
- Ilga (left)
- Kuta (left)
- Tayura (right)
- Kirenga (right)
- Pilyuda (left)
- Chechuy (right)
- Ichera (left)
- Chaya (right)
- Chuya (right)
- Vitim (right)
- Peleduy (left)
- Nyuya (left)
- Derba (left)
- Ura (left)
- Bolshoy Patom (right)
- Cherendey (left)
- Biryuk (left)
- Olyokma (right)
- Markha (left)
- Markhachan (left)
- Tuolba (right)
- Sinyaya (left)
- Buotama (right)
- Menda (right)
- Myla (right)
- Tamma (right)
- Lyutenge (right)
- Suola (right)
- Aldan (right)
- Batamay (right)
- Belyanka (right)
- Lyapiske (right)
- Tympylykan (left)
- Dyanyshka (right)
- Tyugyuene (left)
- Sitte (left)
- Khanchaly (left)
- Kenkeme (left)
- Lungkha (left)
- Namana (left)
- Vilyuy (left)
- Linde (left)
- Undyulyung (right)
- Nuora (left)
- Begidyan (right)
- Khoruongka (left)
- Sobolokh-Mayan (right)
- Kyuelenke (left)
- Muna (left)
- Menkere (right)
- Motorchuna (left)
- Molodo (left)
- Natara (right)
- Uel-Siktyakh (right)
- Kuranakh-Siktyakh (right)
- Byosyuke (right)
- Tikyan (right)
- Eyekit (left)
- Bulkur (left)
History
Template:Lena River from a source to Kachug
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 Script error: No such module "convert". of the river from its upper reaches to the central Yakutia.[5] 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 Script error: No such module "convert"., of which Script error: No such module "convert". 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, when he was exiled to the Central Siberian Plateau, may have taken his alias, Lenin, from the Lena River.
Delta
At the end of the Lena River there is a large delta that extends Script error: No such module "convert". into the Laptev Sea and is about Script error: No such module "convert". 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. Fyodor Matisen mapped the delta.
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 perhaps named after the island of Cuba during Soviet times. It is on the northern edge of the delta.[6]Script error: No such module "Unsubst". If named before the Soviet times, it is possible that the islands were named after the American Swan, found in the area (Kuba being the Yakut term for 'swan').
Fish
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.[7][8]
See also
- Lena Cheeks
- Lena Pillars
- Lena Plateau
- List of rivers of Russia
- List of longest undammed rivers
- Tukulan
- William Barr, writer of The First Soviet Convoy to the Mouth of the Lena.
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Notes
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References
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Further reading
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- Alexander von Bunge & Eduard von Toll (1887), The Expedition to the New Siberian Islands and the Yana country, equipped by the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
- Jeffrey Tayler (2006), River of No Reprieve: Descending Siberia's Waterway of Exile, Death, and Destiny
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External links
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- Arctic Great Rivers Observatory (ArcticGRO)
- NASA Earth Observatory page on flooding on the Lena River
- Information and a map of the Lena's watershed
- Permafrost in the Lena Delta
- Alfred Wegner institute (AWI) Publications, Berichte zur Polar- und Meeresforschung (Reports on polar and marine research) - free, downloadable research reports on the biology, geology, oceanography, hydrology, paleontology, paleoclimatology, fauna, flora, soils, cryology, and so forth of the Lena Delta, Laptev Sea, and other parts of the Arctic Circle.
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