The Korkodon (; ) is a river in

Magadan Oblast Magadan Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia. It is geographically located in the Russian Far East, Far East region of the country, and is administratively part of the Far Eastern Federal District. Magadan ...

Russian Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...

. It is a right tributary of the

Kolyma Kolyma (, ) or Kolyma Krai () is a historical region in the Russian Far East that includes the basin of Kolyma River and the northern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the Kolyma Mountains (the watershed of the two). It is bounded to ...

, with a length of 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, ...

of . The upper reaches of the river are in

Omsukchansky District Omsukchansky District () is an administrativeLaw #1292-OZ district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of Magadan Oblast, eight in Magadan Oblast, Russia. As a subdivisions of Russia#Municipal divisions, municipal division, it is incorpor ...

, then it flows across the

Srednekansky District Srednekansky District () is an administrative district (raion), one of the eight in Magadan Oblast, Russia.Law #1292-OZ As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Srednekansky Urban Okrug.Law #1842-OZ It is located in the central and northern ...

in its lower course.

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The name of the river originated in the Northern Yukaghir language. The Korkodon basin is a desolate area; there are no settlements, but since the lower reaches of the river are navigable;

timber rafting Timber rafting is a method of transporting felled tree trunks by tying them together to make rafts, which are then drifted or pulled downriver, or across a lake or other body of water. It is arguably, after log driving, the second cheapest mea ...

was carried out in the 20th century.

Course

The Korkodon is the fifth longest tributary of the Kolyma and the third in basin area. It has its sources in the

Korkodon Range The Korkodon (; ) is a river in Magadan Oblast, Russian Far East. It is a right tributary of the Kolyma (river), Kolyma, with a length of a drainage basin of . The upper reaches of the river are in Omsukchansky District, then it flows across the ...

of the

Kolyma Mountains The Kolyma Mountains or Kolyma Upland (), 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 Kolyma region. It constitutes the watershed between the ba ...

. It heads first roughly northwards within a swampy valley between the Korkodon Range to the west and the Molkaty and Kongin ranges to the east. Halfway through its course it bends and flows west and then southwestwards, fringing the

Yukaghir Highlands The Yukaghir Highlands () are a mountainous area in the Sakha Republic and Magadan Oblast, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia. The area is named after the Yukaghir people. Geography The Yukaghir Highlands are a mountain region located at the ...

. In its lower course it meanders and flows through a wide flat valley. Finally the river joins the right bank of the

from its mouth at an elevation of . The Korkodon has some very long tributaries. The most important ones are the long Bulun and the long Bolshoy Yarkodon from the right; and the long Pungali and the long Biliriken from the left. There are over 1,100 lakes in the Korkodon basin, most of them of the

thermokarst Thermokarst is a type of terrain characterised by very irregular surfaces of marshy hollows and small hummocks formed when ice-rich permafrost thaws. The land surface type occurs in Arctic areas, and on a smaller scale in mountainous areas such ...

type ( alas), as well as

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s. The river freezes between mid October and mid May, but

polynyas A polynya () is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. It is now used as a geographical term for an area of unfrozen seawater within otherwise contiguous pack ice or fast ice. It is a loanword from the Russian (), which refers to a n ...

may form in the lower reaches.

Fauna

Among the fish species found in the river

Arctic char The Arctic char or Arctic charr (''Salvelinus alpinus'') is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes, as well as Arctic and subarctic coastal waters in the Holarctic realm, Holarctic. Distribution and habitat It Spaw ...

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 ...

, sucker,

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 ...

and whitefish deserve mention.

References

External links

Kolyma - Modern Guidebook to Magadan Oblast
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723212452/http://magfer.ru/files/Kolyma/Kolyma-ENG.pdf , date=23 July 2018 Rivers of Magadan Oblast

Course

Fauna

See also

References

External links