The Chuya (), also known as Big Chuya () in its last stretch, is a river in

Buryatia Buryatia, officially the Republic of Buryatia, is a republic of Russia located in the Russian Far East. Formerly part of the Siberian Federal District, it has been administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District since 2018. To its nort ...

and

Irkutsk Oblast Irkutsk Oblast (; ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of the Angara River, Angara, Lena River, Lena, and Nizhnyaya Tunguska Rivers. The administrative center is ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It is the 13th longest tributary of the Lena and the 191st longest river in Russia, with a length of and a drainage basin area of . The

Mamsko-Chuysky District Mamsko-Chuysky District () 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 District.Law #63-oz The area of the district is . It ...

of Irkutsk Oblast is named after rivers

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 *Maternal uncle, in some parts of South Asia Places * Mama, Russia, an urban-type settlement in the Mam ...

and Chuya. The abolished district's settlement of

Chuya The Chuya (; , ''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 covers . The river freezes in October or early November and thaws in late April. The t ...

is located on the right bank of the Lena River at the confluence with the Chuya.Чуя (река в Бурятской АССР и Иркутской обл.)
''

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') 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 ''Great Russian Enc ...

'' in 30 vols. — Ch. ed.

A.M. Prokhorov Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov (born Alexander Michael Prochoroff, ; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was an Australian-born Russian physicist and researcher on lasers and masers, in the former Soviet Union. He shared the Nobel Prize in Ph ...

. - 3rd ed. - M. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.(in Russian)Water of Russia - Чуя
/ref>

History

In the 20th century there were

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into fragile elastic plates. This characteristic is described as ''perfect basal cleavage''. Mica is co ...

mining operations in the upper basin of the Chuya. Gorno-Chuysky was a settlement of workers on the right bank of the river. It had had over 4,000 inhabitants in 1970, but lost population following the

collapse of the USSR The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

and only a residual population remained. Finally it was abolished in 2019. Currently tourists visit the Chuya mainly for angling and

watersports Water sports or aquatic sports are sports activities conducted on waterbodies and can be categorized according to the degree of immersion by the participants. On the water * Boat racing, the use of powerboats to participate in races * Boatin ...

. The main fish species in the river are

dace A dace is a small fish that can be one of many different species. The unmodified name is usually a reference to the common dace (''Leuciscus leuciscus''). This, like most fish called "daces", belongs to the family Leuciscidae, mostly in subfami ...

lenok Lenoks, otherwise known as Asiatic trout or Manchurian trout,James Card: Fly fishing in South Korea.' Retrieved 22 June 2015. are salmonid fish of the genus ''Brachymystax'', native to rivers and lakes in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, wider Siberia (incl ...

, whitefish, grayling and

taimen ''Hucho'' is a genus of large piscivorous salmonid fish known as taimens (from Finnish , 'trout', through ), and is closely related to Pacific trout and lenoks (all belonging to the same tribe in the subfamily Salmoninae). Native to the cold ...

Course

The Chuya is a right

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''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 into which they ...

of the Lena, its 13th longest tributary. It has its sources in a small mountain lake of the Synnyr Massif of the North Baikal Highlands and flows in a roughly NNE direction across the highland area within the

North Baikal District Severo-Baykalsky District (; , ''Khoito-Baigalai aimag'') is an administrativeResolution #431 and municipalLaw #985-III district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of the Republic of Buryatia, twenty-one in the Republic of Buryatia, Russ ...

of Buryatia. Its channel is very stony and often divides into branches, with

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

s growing in the banks and in the islands. As it flows roughly northwards past the confluence of its Tukulakh tributary there is a long, tumultuous stretch with

rapids Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep stream gradient, gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Flow, gradient, constriction, and obstacles are four factors that are needed for a rapid t ...

and cascades. Downstream from the Gorno-Chuysky

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

zone the river proceeds along a narrow valley with riffles in the current. Further north there is another area of strong rapids. After it leaves the mountain area the Chuya river slows down, the river channel widens and it is joined by the Malaya Chuya on its left bank. In its last stretch the Chuya flows northwards across a

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

as the ''Bolshaya Chuya''.северное забайкалье р. л. мама - р. б. чуя
/ref> Finally the Chuya meets the right bank of the Lena by

village, at the border of the

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...

(Yakutia), from its mouth. The town of

Vitim Vitim () 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 rural locality (a ...

lies just a few miles downstream from the confluence.

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

The largest tributary of the Chuya is the long Malaya Chuya (Small Chuya) that joins it from the left and has a

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

area of . The river freezes between October and May.

Permafrost Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below ...

is distributed in the river basin in an uneven, discontinuous pattern.

References

External links

Иркутские взрывотехники устранили ледовый затор на реке Большая Чуя
(removing ice with explosives)
Идем на пороги. Горные реки Восточной Сибири
(Mountain rivers of Eastern Siberia)
Pictures - Baikal Nature
{{Portal bar, Russia Rivers of Buryatia Rivers of Irkutsk Oblast

History

Course

See also

References

External links