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The Kolyma River




The Kolyma River
Length: 2 129 km
Area of ​​the pool: 643 000 km2

The Kolyma River is a river in Yakutia and the Magadan Region of Russia. Evens, on the territory of which the river flows, called it Kulu; Now the name Kulu was preserved only for the right component of Kolyma. Evenk. Kula (the bank of the river, facing the north, the northern slope), which could hardly give the name of a large river. Perhaps the borrowing of the name by the Evenaks from the Koryak-Chukot. Kuul (deep river), which is more convincing. The name of the lower reaches of the river is the explorer M. Stadukhin in the report 1643 mentions as Kovyma river, later Kolyma. The etymological relationship between Kulu and Kolyma is not established. There is also an opinion on the Yukagir origin of the Kolym hydronym, but this etymology has not yet been developed.

The Kolyma River
Geographical position

The river is formed from the confluence of the Ayan-Yuryakh and Kulu rivers, originating in the Okhotsk-Kolyma Highlands. The length of 2129 km (from the source of the Kenylici River, the right part of the Kulu River, is 2513 km), of which about 1,4 thousand km in the territory of the Magadan Region, the rest is in the territory of Yakutia. Area of ​​the basin 643 thousand km2. Flows into Kolyma Bay Of the East Siberian Sea Three main channels: Kolyma (Kamennaya), right, navigable, Pokhodskaya and Chukchiia. Length of the delta 110 km, area 3000 km2.

Hydrology of the river

The river feed is mixed: snow (47%), rain (42%) and underground (11%). Flood from mid-May to September. The swing of the level is up to 14 m. The average water discharge in Srednekolymsk (641 km from the mouth) is 2250 m3/ S, the highest is 25 100 m3/ S (June), the smallest - 23,5 m3/ S (April).

The Kolyma River

Annual flow at the mouth of 123 km (3900 m)3/from). The average annual run-off of sediments is 5,5 million tons. In summer, the water level in the Kolyma falls, and only during the rainy season there is a rise in water and formation of short-term floods. The water temperature in the river is low - 10-15 °, and only in quiet areas in late July - early August reaches 20-22. It freezes in the middle of October, less often at the end of September. Before freezing, ice drift and shugohod duration from 2 days to months, zazhory. In winter, ice, channel and extensive ground. Opens in the 2-th half of May-early June. Ice drifts last from 2 to 18 day, accompanied by congestion.

Economic use

Kolyma is navigable from the mouth of the river Bahapcha (regular navigation - from Seimchan); Navigation 4-5 months Main ports: Seymchan (Kolyma), Zyryanka and in the mouth of Chersky (Green Cape). The Kolyma HPP is on the river, which provides electricity for most of Magadan and Magadan, Ust-Srednekanskaya HPP is being built. In the Kolyma basin there are gold deposits. In the lower reaches of the fishery (ryadushka, muxun, whitefish, nelma, omul).

The Kolyma River



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