The Yana ( rus, Я́на, p=ˈjanə; ) is a river in
Sakha in
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 ...
, located between the
Lena to the west and the
Indigirka
The Indigirka (; ) is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana to the west and the Kolyma to the east. It is long. The area of its basin is .
History
The isolated village of Russkoye Ustye, located on the delta of the Indigi ...
to the east.
Course
It is long, and its
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, ...
covers .
Including its longest source river, the
Sartang, it is long.
Its annual discharge totals approximately . Most of this discharge occurs in May and June as the ice on the river breaks up. The Yana freezes up on the surface in October and stays under the ice until late May or early June. In the
Verkhoyansk area, it stays frozen to the bottom for 70 to 110 days, and partly frozen for 220 days of the year.
The river begins at the
confluence
In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...
of the rivers
Sartang and
Dulgalakh in the
Yana-Oymyakon Highlands
The Yana-Oymyakon Highlands (; ), also known as Oymyakon Highlands (),Soviet General Topographic Maps P-54-V,VI are a mountainous area in the Sakha Republic, Khabarovsk Krai and Magadan Oblast, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia.
The area i ...
. It flows north across the vast
Yana-Indigirka Lowland, part of the greater
East Siberian Lowland, shared with the
Indigirka
The Indigirka (; ) is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana to the west and the Kolyma to the east. It is long. The area of its basin is .
History
The isolated village of Russkoye Ustye, located on the delta of the Indigi ...
to the east. As the river flows into the
Yana Bay of the
Laptev Sea
The Laptev Sea () is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands. Its northern boundary passes from the Arctic Cape to a point with ...
, it forms a huge
river delta
A river delta is a landform, archetypically triangular, created by the deposition of the sediments that are carried by the waters of a river, where the river merges with a body of slow-moving water or with a body of stagnant water. The creat ...
covering .
[Яна]
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 ...
Yarok is a large flat island located east of the main mouths of the Yana.
There are approximately 40,000 lakes in the Yana basin, including both alpine lakes formed from
glaciation
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate be ...
in the
Verkhoyansk Mountains (lowlands were always too dry for glaciation) and overflow lakes on the marshy plains in the north of the basin. The whole Yana basin is under
continuous permafrost and most is
larch
Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, where they are found in lowland forests in the high la ...
woodland grading to
tundra
In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...
north of about 70°N, though trees extend into suitable microhabitats right to the delta.
Verkhoyansk,
Batagay,
Ust-Kuyga, and
Nizhneyansk are the main ports on the Yana.
[
The Yana basin is the site of the so-called ]Pole of Cold
Pole or poles may refer to:
People
*Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland
* Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist
...
of Russia, where the lowest recorded temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere are found. In the winter, temperatures in the centre of the basin average as low as and have reached as low as ; in the mountains it is believed that temperatures have reached . Yakut folklore
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
says that, at such temperatures, if you shout to a friend and they cannot hear you, it is because the words have frozen in the air. However, when spring comes the words "thaw" and one can hear everything that was said months ago.
Tributaries
The main tributaries
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 the ...
of the Yana are the Adycha
The Adycha (; ) is a river in the Republic of Sakha in Russia. It is a right hand tributary of the Yana, and is long, with a drainage basin of .
At the end of the Soviet period, a big dam with a hydroelectric station was planned to be built on ...
, Oldzho, Sartang and Abyrabyt from the right, and the Dulgalakh, Bytantay, Tykakh
The Tykakh (; , ''Tıkaax'') is a river in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russia. It is a tributary of the Yana. The river has a length of and a drainage basin area of .
The river flows just north of the Arctic Circle and there are no settlements ...
and Baky from the left.[ Most of these tributaries are short rivers flowing from the Verkhoyansk Mountains or the ]Chersky Range
The Chersky Range (, ) is a chain of mountains in northeastern Siberia between the Yana River, Yana and Indigirka River, Indigirka Rivers. Administratively, the area of the range belongs to the Sakha Republic, although a small section in the eas ...
, part of the East Siberian Mountains
The East Siberian Mountains or East Siberian Highlands () are one of the largest mountain systems of the Russia, Russian Federation. They are located between the Central Yakutian Lowland and the Bering Strait in Northeast Siberia. The area of th ...
.[Water of Russia - Яна](_blank)
/ref>
History
Evidence of modern human habitation was found in the delta at the Yana RHS (Rhinoceros Horn Site) as early as 32,000 years ago. These people, designated as "Ancient North Siberians”, genetically diverged 38,000 years ago from Western Eurasians, soon after the Western Eurasians split from East Asians.
In 1633–38 Ilya Perfilyev and Ivan Rebrov sailed down the Lena and east along the Arctic coast to the mouth of the Yana and reached the Indigirka
The Indigirka (; ) is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana to the west and the Kolyma to the east. It is long. The area of its basin is .
History
The isolated village of Russkoye Ustye, located on the delta of the Indigi ...
estuary. In 1636–42 Elisei Buza followed essentially the same route. In 1638–40, Poznik Ivanov ascended a tributary of the lower Lena, crossed the Verkhoyansk Range to the upper Yana and then crossed the Chersky Range
The Chersky Range (, ) is a chain of mountains in northeastern Siberia between the Yana River, Yana and Indigirka River, Indigirka Rivers. Administratively, the area of the range belongs to the Sakha Republic, although a small section in the eas ...
to the Indigirka.
In 1892–1894 Baron Eduard Von Toll, accompanied by expedition leader Alexander von Bunge
Alexander Georg von Bunge (; – ) was a Russian botanist. He is best remembered for scientific expeditions into Asia and especially Siberia.
Early life and education
Bunge was born under the name Alexander Andreevič von Bunge on in Kyiv as ...
, carried out geological surveys in the basin of the Yana (among other Far-eastern Siberian rivers) on behalf of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences. During one year and two days the expedition covered , of which were up rivers, carrying out geodesic surveys en route.
See also
*List of rivers of Russia
Russia can be divided into a European and an Asian part. The dividing line is generally considered to be the Ural Mountains. The European part is drained into the Arctic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, and Caspian Sea. The Asian part is drained i ...
*Yana Plateau
The Yana Plateau (, ) is a mountain plateau in the Sakha Republic, Far Eastern Federal District, Russia.Google Earth
The plateau lies in an uninhabited area where solitude prevails. It was first surveyed and mapped in 1868 by Gerhard von Mayde ...
References
{{Reflist
General References
*William Barr
William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served as United States Attorney General, United States attorney general in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and again in the first adminis ...
, Baron Eduard Von Toll's Last Expedition. Arctic, Sept 1980.
*Alexander von Bunge & Baron Eduard Von Toll, ''The Expedition to the New Siberian Islands and the Jana country, equipped by the Imperial Academy of Sciences.'' 1887.
Rivers of the Sakha Republic
East Siberian Lowland