The Vitim (russian: Витим; evn, Витым, ; sah, Виитим, ; Buryat and mn, Витим, ''Vitim'') is a major

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 drainag ...

of the

Lena Lena or LENA may refer to: Places * Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso * Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada * Lena, Norway, a village in ...

. Its source is east of

Lake Baikal Lake Baikal (, russian: Oзеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal ); mn, Байгал нуур, Baigal nuur) is a rift lake in Russia. It is situated in southern Siberia, between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, I ...

, at the confluence of rivers Vitimkan from the west and China from the east. The Vitim flows first south, bends eastwards and then northward in the Vitim Plateau. Then it flows north through the Stanovoy Highlands and the town of Bodaybo. Including river Vitimkan, its western source, it is long, and has a drainage basin of .Витим (река в Бурят. АССР)

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 ...

It is navigable from the Lena to Bodaybo. Upstream, tugs can haul barges as far as the Baikal Amur Mainline (BAM), but this is becoming rare. The Vitim is an excellent place for adventure rafting, but is rarely visited because of its isolation.

Baissa The Zaza Formation is a geological formation located in Buryatia ( Russia). It dates to the Lower Cretaceous period. It is Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of th ...

, one of the famous localities of

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

is situated on the left bank of the Vitim River.

History

The first Russian to explore the river was probably Maksim Perfilyev in 1639–40, who brought back reports of the upper

Amur River The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China ( Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long ...

. Formerly, because of its swift current, goods were hauled overland from Chita to Romanovka. There boats were built, floated down the river, and broken up at their destination. This lasted until the late 1940s. The Vitim event occurred in the Vitim River basin near Bodaybo on 25 September 2002. The event was probably caused by a

bolide A bolide is normally taken to mean an exceptionally bright meteor, but the term is subject to more than one definition, according to context. It may refer to any large crater-forming body, or to one that explodes in the atmosphere. It can be a ...

. The event was similar to Tagish Lake.

Course

Going upstream: Vitim town where the Vitim joins the Lena. Mama and Mama Airport, about south of Vitim. A muscovite mica mine from 1705 until the late 1930s. Now a small settlement. Mamakan, on a west-flowing stretch south-southeast of Vitim. In 1963 a 86MW dam on the Mamakan River was completed, one of the first dams built on permafrost.Mamakan reservoir - Water of Russia
/ref> Bodaybo, just upstream, a gold mining center founded in 1864. Upstream, the port of Luzhki was the start of a road to the Lena gold fields. From here upstream the river goes crookedly east and then south. About upstream from Bodaybo are the Delyun-Uran Rapids and after more, the Parama Rapids. About or so upstream, the Vitim is crossed by the Baikal Amur Mainline between Taksimo and Kuanda. Upriver there are more rapids and goldfields. South through the Stanovoy Mountains toward Chita, then west into the Vitim Plateau east of

.Yates and Zvegentzov,'Siberian BAM Guide',2001 The river peaks in June and freezes from November to May.

Tributaries

The main tributaries of the Vitim are, from source to mouth: *

Konda Konda may refer to: *Kondia or Konda, 18th century Mansi principality, Russia *Konda (river) in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia * Konda (Vitim), river in Buryatia, Russia * Konda, Indonesia, a town in West Papua * Konda, Angola, municipal ...

(right) *

Karenga Karenga may refer to: *Karenga (river), Transbaikalia, Russia Places New Zealand * Karenga Park, a city park in Rotorua * Karenga Marae, a marae in Koutu, Rotorua Uganda *Karenga Community Wildlife Management Area, a locally managed conservation ...

(right) *

Kalakan Kalakan prs, کلکان, is a village located in the center of Kalakan District, Kabul Province, Afghanistan. See also *Kalakan District *Kabul Province Kabul (Persian: ), situated in the east of the country, is one of the thirty-four p ...

(right) * Kalar (right) * Tsipa (left) * Muya (left) * Bodaybo (right) * Mamakan (left) * Mama (left)

References

External links

A scary road bridge over the Vitim next to the BAM railway bridge
at ] {{Authority control Rivers of Irkutsk Oblast Rivers of Buryatia