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 N ...
,
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-eig ...
. 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
Kirensky District (russian: Ки́ренский райо́н) is an administrative district, one of the thirty-three in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia.Charter of Irkutsk Oblast, Article 13 Municipally, it is incorporated as Kirensky Municipal Di ...
, 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.
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 drai ...
of the Lena. It has its sources in an alpine lake of the Upper Angara Range
The Upper Angara Range (russian: Верхнеангарский хребет) is a mountain range in Buryatia and Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, part of the Stanovoy Highlands. Google Earth
The Baikal–Amur Mainline passes at the foot of the southern ...
. 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
The North Baikal Highlands ( rus, Северо-Байкальское нагорье; bua, Хойто-Байгалай хадалиг газар) within a narrow valley, with the Akitkan Range
The Akitkan Range (russian: хребет Акиткан; zh, 阿基特坎山) is a mountain range in Irkutsk Oblast and Buryatia, Russian Federation.Google Earth
The Paleoproterozoic Akitkan Orogen is named after the range. History
Between 1855 ...
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
Kirensk ( rus, Киренск, p=ˈkʲirʲɪnsk) is a town and the administrative center of Kirensky District in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kirenga and Lena Rivers, north of Irkutsk, the administrative center of th ...
,[ 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 fur ...
forests all along the banks of the Chaya, with Siberian spruce
''Picea obovata'', the Siberian spruce, is a spruce native to Siberia, from the Ural Mountains east to Magadan Oblast, and from the Arctic tree line south to the Altay Mountains in northwestern Mongolia.
Description and uses
It is a medium-size ...
in its lower course. Grayling, 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 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 drain ...
References
External links
*
Rivers of Buryatia
Rivers of Irkutsk Oblast
{{Russia-river-stub