Rivers of Lithuania are typical lowland rivers: they are slow, they make

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...

s, the valleys are wide. Because of abundant precipitation, the river net is dense: on the average 0.99 km of rivers flow in 1 km² of the territory.The Republic of Lithuania
Fishery Country Profile,

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

of the United Nations, May 2005. Accessed June 9, 2006. However, the rivers are not evenly distributed. The highest density is in the

Samogitia Samogitia or Žemaitija ( Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five cultural regions of Lithuania and formerly one of the two core administrative divisions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

n Highlands where it rains more often and in the northern Lithuania where the soil has clay and it does not allow the water to drain underground. The lowest density is in the southeastern Lithuania where the soil has a lot sand and the rainwater quickly ooze into the underground. Almost 70% (some 49,600 km²) of the territory of Lithuania are drained by the

Neman River The Neman, Nioman, Nemunas or MemelTo bankside nations of the present: Lithuanian: be, Нёман, , ; russian: Неман, ''Neman''; past: ger, Memel (where touching Prussia only, otherwise Nieman); lv, Nemuna; et, Neemen; pl, Niemen; ...

and its tributaries. The other five river basins are small and located nears the borders:

Mūša Mūša ( lv, Mūsa; German: Muhsse) is a river in Northern Lithuania and Southern Latvia (Zemgale region). At its Confluence (geography), confluence with the river Nemunėlis ( lv, Mēmele) in Latvia, near city Bauska, the river Lielupe, Lielupė ...

Nemunėlis Nemunėlis () is a river in northern Lithuania and southern Latvia. It originates 6 km south of Rokiškis. It is 191 kilometres long (75 km in Lithuania, 76 km on the Latvia–Lithuania border and 40 km in Latvia) before its ...

(

Lielupe The Lielupe ( in Latvian literally: ''Large River'', lt, Lielupė, german: Kurländische Aa) is a river in central Latvia. Its length is (the length would reach if the Mēmele River were counted as part of the Lielupe). The surface area of ...

; 8,976 km²), Venta (5,140 km²),

Daugava , be, Заходняя Дзвіна (), liv, Vēna, et, Väina, german: Düna , image = Fluss-lv-Düna.png , image_caption = The drainage basin of the Daugava , source1_location = Valdai Hills, Russia , mouth_location = Gulf of Riga, Baltic Se ...

(1,857 km²), small rivers flowing into the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

(2,523 km²) and

Pregolya The Pregolya or Pregola (russian: Прего́ля; german: Pregel; lt, Prieglius; pl, Pregoła) is a river in the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast exclave. Name A possible ancient name by Ptolemy of the Pregolya River is Chronos (from Germanic *''h ...

(54 km²). During the winter all rivers freeze over. In the spring almost all rivers flood from melting snow and ice. However, usually only in the Neman River delta the water bursts out of the valley. Nowadays floods are controlled by dams and also due to drainage most rivers have lower water levels than they used to have. In the western Lithuania rivers tend to irregularly flood during the fall because of excessive rains. In the eastern Lithuania rivers tend to discharge a constant amount of water because they are regulated by flow-through lakes and sandy soil, which quickly absorbs any excess rain or snow water. During the Soviet times (1945-1990) rivers suffered much damage because of

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditio ...

. Many swamps were drained and now they cannot feed the rivers anymore. Other smaller rivers were straightened and turned into drainage canals.

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

counts around 29 thousand watercourses, longer than 0.25 km. The total length of all these watercourses would be around 65,000 km. The number of rivers and rivulets longer than 3 km has been calculated very precisely – 4,418. 758Stasys Vaitiekūnas, Elena Valančienė, Lietuvos geografija (Geography of Lithuania), Alma littera, 2004, page 65. rivers are longer than 10 km. Lithuania has 21 rivers longer than :

Longest rivers

The Virvyčia (99.7 km) is just shy of the 100 km limit. The length of the

Žeimena The Žeimena River is a river in Aukštaitija, eastern Lithuania, and right tributary of Neris River. Žeimena begins in Labanoras Forest and at Lake Žeimenys. Žeimena flows to the south passing Kaltanėnai town, Švenčionėliai city, and P ...

is an object of discussion; it could be up to 114 km. Note: length in Lithuania also includes the length of rivers when they serve as borders with neighboring countries.

Footnotes

References

List of lakes, dams, and rivers of national importanceLithuania Central Internet Gates - Waters
{{Lithuania topics *

Rivers A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

Longest rivers

See also

Footnotes

References