Lake Lama () is a large freshwater

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

(of tectonic origin) in

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai ( rus, Красноя́рский край, r=Krasnoyarskiy kray, p=krəsnɐˈjarskʲɪj ˈkraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), with its administrative center in the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Siber ...

, north-central part of

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 ...

Geography

Lake Lama is located in the

Putorana Plateau The Putorana Plateau () or the Putorana Mountains is a mountainous area in the Russian Federation. It is a large massif or plateau crossed by mountain ranges. The nearest large settlement is Norilsk, where foreign travel is restricted. The cit ...

area at , 140 km east off the city of

Norilsk Norilsk ( rus, Нори́льск, p=nɐˈrʲilʲsk, ''Norílʹsk'') is a closed city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located south of the western Taymyr Peninsula, around 90 km east of the Yenisey River and 1,500 km north of Krasnoyarsk. Norilsk i ...

, and has an area of 318 km² (other sources state 460 km²). It is 80 km long and up to 8 km wide (other sources state length of 100 km and width of 20 km) with a depth ranging from 300 to 600 m. Lake Lama is connected with Lake Melkoye by the

Lama River The Lama () is a river in the Moscow and Tver Oblasts in Russia, a tributary of the Shosha. The river is long. The area of its drainage basin is ."Lake Lama near Norilsk in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia"
Siberian Wonders, 30 Aug 2011. Retrieved 23 Oct 2014. The lake was surveyed and described for the first time by Russian scientist

Nikolay Urvantsev Nikolay Nikolayevich Urvantsev (russian: Николáй Николáевич Урвáнцев; – 20 February 1985) was a Soviet geologist and explorer. He was born in the town of Lukoyanov in the Lukoyanovsky Uyezd of the Nizhny Novgorod Gove ...

and his colleague Bazanov during an expedition in 1921.

Origin of the name

The

hydronym A hydronym (from el, ὕδρω, , "water" and , , "name") is a type of toponym that designates a proper name of a body of water. Hydronyms include the proper names of rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, swamps and marshes, seas and oceans. As a ...

''Lama'' comes from Tungusic word ''laamu'' where it mean ''sea'', ''ocean'', ''big water''. There was no lake named ''Lama'' on the map of Russian Asia published in 1911 by the Russian General staff. The lake was pictured very approximately and was named ''Davydovo''.

References

Lakes of Krasnoyarsk Krai {{KrasnoyarskKrai-geo-stub

Geography

Origin of the name

See also

References