The Chaya (russian: Чая) is a river in
Buryatia and
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 ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
. It is the 26th 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 .][Чая (река, приток р. Лены)](_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) The Chaya flows across Kirensky District, there are no settlements on the banks of the river.[Water of Russia - Чая]
/ref>
In the International scale of river difficulty the Chaya is a Class IV-V destination 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 facin ...
.
Course
The Chaya 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 drainag ...
of the Lena. It has its sources in an alpine lake of the Upper Angara Range. It flows mainly northwards at the bottom of a glacial valley
U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...
in its upper course. Then it flows across the North Baikal Highlands within a narrow valley, with the Akitkan Range to the west, easing into the Prebaikal Depression in a roughly NNW direction, where its channel divides into branches. The riverbed is very rocky all along. Finally the Chaya meets the right bank of the Lena, about downstream from Kirensk,[ Google Earth] from the Lena's mouth in the Laptev Sea.[
]
Flora and fauna
There are larch
Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains furt ...
forests all along the banks of the Chaya, with Siberian spruce in its lower course. Grayling
Grayling or Greyling may refer to:
Animals Fish
* Grayling, generically, any fish of the genus ''Thymallus'' in the family Salmonidae
** European grayling (''Thymallus thymallus''), the European species of the genus ''Thymallus''
** Arctic grayli ...
, whitefish and lenok
Lenoks, otherwise known as Asiatic trout or Manchurian trout,James Card: Fly fishing in South Korea.' Retrieved 22 June 2015. are salmonid fish of the genus ''Brachymystax'', native to rivers and lakes in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, wider Siberia (incl ...
are among the fish species found in the waters of the river.[
]
See also
*List of rivers of Russia
Russia can be divided into a European Russia, European and an North Asia, 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. Th ...
References
External links
*
Rivers of Buryatia
Rivers of Irkutsk Oblast
{{Russia-river-stub