The Mama (russian: Мама) is a river in

Irkutsk Oblast Irkutsk Oblast (russian: Ирку́тская о́бласть, Irkutskaya oblast; bua, Эрхүү можо, Erkhüü mojo) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of the Angara, Lena, and ...

and Buryatia,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

. It is a left

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 Vitim, the second largest in basin area after the Tsipa. The river has a length of and a drainage basin of . The total length of the river including the Left Mama is . The Mamsko-Chuysky District of Irkutsk Oblast is named after rivers Mama and

Chuya The Chuya (russian: Чуя; alt, Чуй, ''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 A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing ...

. The settlements of Bramya, Slyudyanka, Lugovsky, Zarya and Mama are located by the river.

Course

The river basin is located on the slopes and foothills of the Upper Angara Range. Rivers Left Mama ''(Levaya Mama)'' and Right Mama ''(Pravaya Mama)'', which form the Mama river, have their sources in the heights of the range, at the first and at about the second. They are fast-flowing mountain rivers, with

rapids Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade' ...

and waterfalls. After the confluence the Mama flows roughly northeastwards across a fragmented

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 ...

slightly meandering among rocky banks. The river is navigable downstream from the confluence of the Bramya, a small tributary. Finally the Mama meets the lower course of the Vitim from its mouth in the Lena.Mama - Water of Russia
/ref> The river is located in an area marked by

permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surfac ...

. Most of the territory adjacent to the river is covered by

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains furt ...

taiga Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces ...

and

Siberian pine ''Pinus sibirica'', or Siberian pine, in the family Pinaceae is a species of pine tree that occurs in Siberia from 58°E in the Ural Mountains east to 126°E in the Stanovoy Range in southern Sakha Republic, and from Igarka at 68°N in the lowe ...

in the upper reaches, crowned by

golets Golets may refer to: * Golets (geography), a type of mountain summit * Golets, Bulgaria, a village in Bulgaria *Arctic char The Arctic char or Arctic charr (''Salvelinus alpinus'') is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine ...

bare summits. The main tributaries of the Mama are the long Konkudera, the long Kaverga and the long Bolshoi Ugli.

References

{{reflist

External links

Мама (река)
Article in

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 ...

Rivers of Buryatia Rivers of Irkutsk Oblast