Free Courses Sale ends Soon, Get It Now


Kolyma River

30th December, 2023

Kolyma River

Disclaimer: Copyright infringement not intended.

Context

In an unusual incident, a Polar Airlines flight found itself making an inadvertent touchdown on the icy expanse of the Kolyma River in Russia's Far East.

About

  • Location: Rising in the Kolyma Mountains, the river flows across north eastern Siberia in far eastern Russia.
  • With a length of 2,129 km, it absorbs 647,000 square km.
  • Course: It passes through numerous rapids and small gorges in its upper course.
  • One of Siberia's longest mountain ranges, the magnificent Verkhoyansk Range, is traversed by the Kolyma River.
  • Its valley gradually opens up, flowing into the broad, level, marshy Kolyma Lowland until emptying into the marginal East Siberian Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean) in the northeast.
  • It is the biggest river system with permanent permafrost underneath.
  • The river is frozen to several metres below the surface for almost eight months of the year, from late September to early June.
  • Summer rainfall and spring melt are its main sources of nutrition.
  • There are very few people living in the basin, which is entirely covered in tundra or thin, stunted woodland.
  • The river is one of the six biggest rivers that empty into the Arctic Ocean, with a mean annual discharge of roughly 136 cubic kilometres of water.

PRACTICE QUESTION

Q) Kolyma River flows through which one of the following countries?

A) Russia

B) Serbia

C) Italy

D) Belarus

Answer: A