The Khatyrka (russian: Хатырка; ckt, Ватыркан) is a river in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug,

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 ...

. The length of the river is and the area of is

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

. The name of the river comes from the Chukot ''"vatyrkan"'' ''(Ватыркан)'', meaning "dry, depleted place".

Course

The Khatyrka has its source in the

Koryak Highlands The Koryak Mountains or Koryak Highlands () are an area of mountain ranges in Far-Eastern Siberia, Russia, located in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and in Kamchatka Krai, with a small part in Magadan Oblast. The highest point in the system is the Mou ...

. It first flows in an ENE direction along the northern slopes of the Komeutyuyam Range as a mountain river within a narrow valley. It bends to the SSE at the northeastern end of the range and the valley expands, the river dividing into channels. In its lower course it flows along a marshy

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 ...

.Atlas of Russia
/ref> A stretch of the river forms the border with the

Olyutorsky District Olyutorsky District (russian: Олю́торский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #46 and municipalLaw #339-oz district (raion) of Koryak Okrug of Kamchatka Krai, Russia, one of the eleven in the krai. It is located in the northeast of t ...

of Kamchatka Krai. Its mouth is in an

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

that is separated by a narrow landspit from the Bering Sea. Khatyrka village lies at the mouth of the estuary. Google EarthWater of Russia - Хатырка
/ref>

Tributaries

The main tributary of the Khatyrka is the long

Iomrautvaam The Iomrautvaam (russian: Иомраутваам; ckt, Емрауткенваам) is a river in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. The length of the river is and the area of is drainage basin . The Iomrautvaam is the longest tributary of the ...

(Иомраутваам), joining it from the right. A unique-type of meteorite fell in the area of the Iomrautvaam river basin and was buried in a 7,000-year-old layer of dirt. It was found during an expedition to Chukotka in the summer of 2011.

Flora and fauna

The river basin is characterized by

tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...

vegetation, including mosses, lichens, dwarf shrubs, and

sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus '' Carex'' ...

s.V. Yu. Neshataeva, ''Vegetation cover of the North of the Kamchatka Okrug (Kamchatsky Krai) and its geobotanical zoning'' // Ecology and geography of plants and plant communities: Proceedings of the IV International Scientific Conference. - Yekaterinburg, 2018. - April 16. — ISBN 978-5-7741-0341-6 The inhabitants of the area are engaged in

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...

herding. River Khatyrka is a good place for fishing. Among the fish species found in the waters of the river the

pink salmon Pink salmon or humpback salmon (''Oncorhynchus gorbuscha'') is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. It is the smallest and most abundant of the Pacific salmon. The scientific species name is based on the Russian common name for ...

, chum salmon, sockeye salmon and

Chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus '' Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ...

deserve mention.

References

External links

Astronomy.com - An old meteor yields a new surprise: a never-before-seen materialCollisions in outer space produced an icosahedral phase in the Khatyrka meteorite never observed previously in the laboratoryThe Penzhina-West Kamchatka folded zone and the Ukelayat-Sredinnyi block in the structure of the Koryak Highland and Kamchatka
{{Portal bar, Russia Rivers of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Koryak Mountains

Course

Tributaries

Flora and fauna

See also

References

External links