The Penzhina (russian: Пенжина;
Koryak: Мыгыкивэем) is a
river
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 ...
in
Kamchatka Krai
Kamchatka Krai ( rus, Камча́тский край, r=Kamchatsky kray, p=kɐmˈtɕatskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), situated in the Russian Far East, and is administratively part of the Far Eastern Federal District. Its ...
,
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 ...
. It is long, and has a drainage basin of .
The name "Penzhina" originated the
Chukchi word ''"Pennyn"'', meaning "place of attack". In
Koryak it is known as ''"Wegykiveem"'' ''(Мыгыкивэем)'', meaning "stormy river".
[Leontiev V.V. , Novikova K.A. ''Toponymic dictionary of the North-East of the USSR'' / scientific. ed. G. A. Menovshchikov ; FEB AS USSR . North-East complex. Research Institute. Lab. archeology, history and ethnography. - Magadan: Magadan . book. publishing house , 1989. - S. 290. - 456 p. — ISBN 5-7581-0044-7 .]
Course
The source of the Penzhina is in the
Kolyma Mountains
The Kolyma Mountains or Kolyma Upland ( rus, Колымское нагорье, r=Kolymskoye Nagorye) is a system of mountain ranges in northeastern Siberia, lying mostly within the Magadan Oblast, along the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk in the Ko ...
, and it flows eastwards across the
Ichigem Range
The Ichigem Range (russian: Ичигемский Хребет) is a range of mountains in Magadan Oblast and Kamchatka Krai, Russian Far East.
Administratively most of the range falls within the Penzhinsky District of Kamchatka Krai, but the ...
. After bending southwards it enters a wide
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 ...
filled with lakes, finally flowing into the
Penzhina Bay
Penzhina Bay (russian: Пе́нжинская губа́, ''Penzhinskaya guba'') is a long and narrow bay off the northwestern coast of Kamchatka, Russia.
Geography
Penzhina Bay is the upper right arm of Shelikhov Bay in the northeastern corner o ...
of the
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...
.
[Пенжина]
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 ...
Google Earth
Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...
[Water of Russia - Пенжина](_blank)
/ref>
The villages of Kamenskoye, Oklan
The Oklan (russian: Оклан; Koryak: Ыӄлан) is a river in Kamchatka Krai, Russia. The length of the river is and the area of is drainage basin . It is the second most important tributary of the Penzhina after the Belaya.
The name of the ...
, Slautnoye and Ayanka are located by the river, as well as the seaport of Manily.
Its main tributaries are the Shayboveyem, Kondyreva and Oklan
The Oklan (russian: Оклан; Koryak: Ыӄлан) is a river in Kamchatka Krai, Russia. The length of the river is and the area of is drainage basin . It is the second most important tributary of the Penzhina after the Belaya.
The name of the ...
from the right, and the Ayanka, Chyornaya and Belaya from the left.[
]
Flora and fauna
Among the fish species in the river the Far Eastern brook lamprey, Pacific lamprey
The Pacific lamprey (''Entosphenus tridentatus'') is an anadromous parasitic lamprey from the Pacific Coast of North America and Asia. It is a member of the Petromyzontidae family. The Pacific lamprey is also known as the three-tooth lamprey and ...
, pike
Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to:
Fish
* Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus''
* Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes
* ''Esox'', genus of ...
, chir, Kamchatka grayling, 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
The chum salmon (''Oncorhynchus keta''), also known as dog salmon or keta salmon, is a species of anadromous salmonid fish from the genus '' Oncorhynchus'' (Pacific salmon) native to the coastal rivers of the North Pacific and the Beringian A ...
, coho salmon
The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family (biology), family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientif ...
, Dolly Varden trout
The Dolly Varden trout (''Salvelinus malma'') is a species of salmonid fish native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. It belongs to the genus '' Salvelinus'', or true chars, which includes 51 recognized ...
, kundzha
''Salvelinus leucomaenis'', the whitespotted char, is an East Asian trout in the genus ''Salvelinus'', called ''iwana'' in Japanese and ''kundzha'' (кунджа) in Russian. Both landlocked and ocean-run forms occur. The landlocked form typical ...
, Levanidov char and burbot
The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish
Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments di ...
deserve mention.
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 drained into ...
References
Rivers of Kamchatka Krai
Drainage basins of the Sea of Okhotsk
{{Russia-river-stub