The Mama (russian: Мама) is a river in

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 ...

and

Buryatia Buryatia, officially the Republic of Buryatia (russian: Республика Бурятия, r=Respublika Buryatiya, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə bʊˈrʲætʲɪjə; bua, Буряад Улас, Buryaad Ulas, , mn, Буриад Улс, Buriad Uls), is ...

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-ei ...

. It is a left

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

Vitim Vitim (russian: Витим) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. Modern localities *Vitim, Sakha Republic, an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Lensky District of the Sakha Republic * Vitim, Republic of Buryatia, a ...

, the second largest in basin area after the

Tsipa The Tsipa (russian: Ципа) is the largest tributary of the Vitim in Buryatia, Russia. It is long, and has a drainage basin of . Maksim Perfilyev was the first Russian to reach the Tsipa in 1640. Perch, pike, lenok, grayling, taimen and w ...

. The river has a length of and a drainage basin of . The total length of the river including the Left Mama is . The

Mamsko-Chuysky District Mamsko-Chuysky District (russian: Ма́мско-Чу́йский райо́н) is an administrative district, one of the thirty-three in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia.Charter of Irkutsk Oblast Municipally, it is incorporated as Mamsko-Chuysky Municipal ...

of Irkutsk Oblast is named after rivers Mama and

Chuya The Chuya (russian: Чуя; alt, Чуй, ''Çuy'') is a river in the Altai Republic in Russia, a right tributary of the Katun ( Ob's basin). The Chuya is long, and its drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing ...

. The settlements of Bramya,

Slyudyanka Slyudyanka ( rus, Слюдянка, p=slʲʉˈdʲankə) is a town and the administrative center of Slyudyansky District of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located at the southern tip of Lake Baikal, south of Irkutsk, the administrative center of the o ...

, Lugovsky,

Zarya Zarya may refer to: *Zorya, personification of dawn in Slavic mythology * Zarya (antenna), a type of medium-wave broadcasting antenna used in former Soviet Union *Zarya (ISS module) is a module of the International Space Station. * ''Zarya'' (magazi ...

and

Mama Mama(s) or Mamma or Momma may refer to: Roles *Mother, a female parent * Mama-san, in Japan and East Asia, a woman in a position of authority *Mamas, a name for female associates of the Hells Angels Places * Mama, Russia, an urban-type settlemen ...

are located by the river.

Course

The river basin is located on the slopes and foothills 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 s ...

. Rivers Left Mama ''(Levaya Mama)'' and Right Mama ''(Pravaya Mama)'', which form the Mama river, have their sources in the heights of the range, at the first and at about the second. They are fast-flowing mountain rivers, with

rapids Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade' ...

and waterfalls. After the confluence the Mama flows roughly northeastwards across a fragmented

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 ...

slightly

meandering 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 ...

among rocky banks. The river is navigable downstream from the confluence of the Bramya, a small tributary. Finally the Mama meets the lower course of the Vitim from its mouth in the Lena.Mama - Water of Russia
/ref> The river is located in an area marked by

permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...

. Most of the territory adjacent to the river is covered by

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 ...

taiga Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, sp ...

and

Siberian pine ''Pinus sibirica'', or Siberian pine, in the family Pinaceae is a species of pine tree that occurs in Siberia from 58°E in the Ural Mountains east to 126°E in the Stanovoy Range in southern Sakha Republic, and from Igarka at 68°N in the lower ...

in the upper reaches, crowned by golets bare summits. The main tributaries of the Mama are the long Konkudera, the long Kaverga and the long Bolshoi Ugli.

References

{{reflist

External links

Мама (река)
Article in

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 ...

Rivers of Buryatia Rivers of Irkutsk Oblast