The Bolshoy Patom (russian: Большой Патом), "Big Patom", is a river in
Irkutsk Oblast
Irkutsk Oblast (russian: Ирку́тская о́бласть, Irkutskaya oblast; bua, Эрхүү можо, Erkhüü mojo) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of the Angara, Lena, and Nizh ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. It is the 11th longest tributary of the
Lena
Lena or LENA may refer to:
Places
* Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso
* Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada
* Lena, Norway, a village in ...
with a length of
[ and a drainage basin area of .][Большой Патом](_blank)
''Great Soviet Encyclopedia
The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...
'' in 30 vols. — Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov
Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov (born Alexander Michael Prochoroff, russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Про́хоров; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was an Australian-born Soviet-Russian physicist known ...
. - 3rd ed. - M. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.(in Russian)
Bolshoy Patom
The Bolshoy Patom (russian: Большой Патом), "Big Patom", is a river in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. It is the 11th longest tributary of the Lena with a length of and a drainage basin area of . village is located by the riverbank in its lower course. Tourists visit the Bolshoy Patom river mainly for rafting
Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...
and kayaking
Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits fac ...
. In the International scale of river difficulty the Bolshoy Patom is a Class III and IV river. There are picturesque white limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
cliffs flanking a number of stretches of the Bolshoy Patom.[Water of Russia - Большой Патом]
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Course
The Bolshoy Patom is a right tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...
of the Lena. It has its sources in the Patom Highlands
The Patom Highlands ( rus, Патомское нагорье) 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 Transbaikal Krai. ...
, roughly north of Bodaybo
Bodaybo ( rus, Бодайбо, p=bədɐjˈbo) is a town and the administrative center of Bodaybinsky District in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. It is located from Irkutsk, the administrative center of the oblast.
Geography
The town is located in the ...
. The river flows first in an approximately western direction across the highland area within a gorge
A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...
cut into the plateau bedrock
In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet.
Definition
Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...
. Near the slopes of the northern end of the Kropotkin Range
Kropotkin Range (russian: Хребет Кропоткина) is a mountain range in Bodaybinsky District, Irkutsk Oblast, Russian Federation. The settlements of Kropotkin, Irkutsk Oblast, Kropotkin and Artyomovsky, Irkutsk Oblast, Artyomovsky are ...
it bends and flows roughly northwards with many rapids
Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence.
Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...
. Then it bends slightly and flows northeastwards parallel to the Lena that skirts the highlands further to the west.
The area named "Forty Islands" ''(Сорок Островов)'' is located near the confluence of the Satalakh, from the mouth, where the river splits into channels, forming islands in between.
In its last major bend, the Bolshoy Patom heads eastwards. The river channel widens and the flow slows down in its last stretch across a wide floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
.
Finally the Bolshoy Patom meets the right bank of the Lena near at the border of the Sakha Republic
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 roughly 1 million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far Eas ...
(Yakutia), from its mouth. The town of Macha
Macha () was a sovereignty goddess of ancient Ireland associated with the province of Ulster, particularly the sites of Navan Fort (''Eamhain Mhacha'') and Armagh (''Ard Mhacha''), which are named after her.Koch, John T. ''Celtic Culture: A His ...
lies just a few miles downstream from the confluence.Google Earth
Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...
[
]
See also
*List of rivers of Russia
Russia can be divided into a European and an Asian part. The dividing line is generally considered to be the Ural Mountains. The European part is drained into the Arctic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, and Caspian Sea. The Asian part is drained into ...
References
External links
Река Большой ПатомБольшой-Патом (winter)р.Большой-Патом
{{Portal bar, Russia
Rivers of Irkutsk Oblast