Kolyma River
Kolyma at Debin, Rajon Yagodnoye, Magadan Oblast
Kolyma Omolon with creek
Tributaries of the Kolyma
Former Mine
Gold mine in a Gulag in Kolyma
Template: Infobox River / Obsolete
The Kolyma (Russian Колыма; Yakut Халыма ( Chalyma ) ) is a power in the Russian Far Eastern Federal District in Siberia and empties into the East Siberian Sea, a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. Nominally he is 2129 km long, hydrologically with its source river Kulu even 2513 km. The Kolyma flows through three Rajons Magadan Oblast and the three easternmost Ulusse the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia ).
River
The catchment area of the river has a size of 647,000 km ². The water supply from the Kolyma River on the lower reaches at Kolymskoje varies from minimum values in the winter when it is frozen to the depth ( 30.6 m³ / s in April 1979) and peaks in the short summers, when the permafrost thaws superficial ( 26,201 m³ / s in June 1985). In mid-October, more rarely the end of September, the Kolyma freezes and thaws completely in the second half of May until well into June on. The breaking of the ice takes two to eighteen days accompanied by massive ice and ice jams. The annual sediment load is 5.5 million tonnes.
Contrary to popular statements it originates not in Kolymagebirge, but at the interface between the Tscherskigebirge and the Suntar - Chajata Mountains. Your main source river Kulu arises at the northeast edge of the Suntar - Chajata Mountains. Two other rivers have their source on the southern edge of the highlands of Oymyakon on the southern slopes of the main mountain chain connection between the high mountains just mentioned.
The Kolyma was dammed in the time of the Gulag: The dam is above Debin, where the Kolymastraße of Magadan via Ust- Nera crossed the river to Yakutsk on the first of two bridges. From here it is to ride with smaller ships. The second bridge is at Ust- Srednekan where a port is located (particularly for coal shipment ). From here on the Kolyma River is navigable for larger boats.
From there, the Kolyma flows first a small piece to the southeast to kinking Aborigen to the northeast at the end of Tscherskigebirges and on the south side of spades. Henceforth, it flows northeast of the gold-rich Kolymagebirges further to the northeast. Northwest along the Jukagirenplateau fluently - - Then the river enters the East Siberian swampy lowlands, in which he still runs to the northeast. West of Anjuigebirges flows into the river in the Kolyma lowland with a 150 km wide and 100 km long estuary, in which the two main arms each of which forms an approximately equally long estuary in the East Siberian Sea.
Administratively, nominally have six, even seven hydrologically Rajons share of the river: The largest source river springs from Kulu to the north of Okhotsk Rajons of Krajs Khabarovsk. The rest of the headwaters of the source river Ajan - Jurjach is located in the west of Rajons Sussuman in the Magadan Oblast. From this it flows into the Rajon Nagodnoje with the place Debin at the Kolymastraße. As a third Rajon Oblast it flows through the Rajon Srednekan and then reaches the Sakha Republic. There it flows through the Ulus Werchnekolymsk and the Ulus Ulus Nischnekolymsk Srednekolymsk and reaches the sea.
Shipping
The boat trip on the Kolyma is possible roughly June to October. Then they can be ridden at a length of about 2000 km by inland waterway vessels and serves in this time of supply of the northern areas.
Reservoirs
In Kolyma hydro system 3.325 billion kWh generated annually ( 1970-1996 ).
Tributaries
The largest and longest tributary of the Kolyma is the right opening into the lower reaches of coming out of the Kolymagebirge Omolon.
Other major tributaries are ( in order from source to mouth ):
- From right: Bachaptscha, Bujunda, Balygytschan, Sugoi, Korkodon, Beryozovka and Anjui ( with Great and Small Anjui )
- From left: Popovka, Jassatschnaja, Syrjanka, Oschogina and Sededema
Landscape
The landscape along the Kolyma is dominated by the boreal forests of the taiga, which turns towards the coast in the forest-tundra and tundra. In the latter, the coldest inhabited climate zones can be because of the permafrost and the only low water content in the soil no tall plants, such as trees, develop, but it is dominated by lichens, mosses, shrubs and ferns.
Gold mining in prison camps
Especially at the Headwaters banks of the Kolyma River and in the local mountains - Kolymagebirge and Tscherskigebirge - were until 1987 several prison camps in which over many decades had to dig under inhumane conditions and especially in the freezing arctic cold for gold hundreds of thousands of prisoners; this happened both open pit and underground. These prisoners came not only from Russia but also from other countries, There were, for example, many prisoners of war of World War II, in the freezing cold arrived after hundreds of kilometers long marches there. Then they spent some many years or decades in the Siberian mountains to carry the coveted precious metal to light (see also: Gulag ).
In his Kolymageschichten sat Varlam Tichonowitsch Schalamow this period of Russian history, a literary monument. Also Yevgenia Ginzburg ( " balancing act " ) recounts her life in the Gulag system of the region during the 1940s. And Alexander Solzhenitsyn begins his autobiographical report Gulag Archipelago with the topic Kolyma dedicated Prolog.