Vitim River
Encyclopedia
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
of the Lena River
Lena River
The Lena is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean . It is the 11th longest river in the world and has the 9th largest watershed...
. With its source
Source (river or stream)
The source or headwaters of a river or stream is the place from which the water in the river or stream originates.-Definition:There is no universally agreed upon definition for determining a stream's source...
east of Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is the world's oldest at 30 million years old and deepest lake with an average depth of 744.4 metres.Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the...
, the Vitim flows 1,978 km north through the Transbaykalian Mountains and the town of Bodaybo
Bodaybo
Bodaybo is a town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Vitim River at its confluence with the Bodaybo River. Population: 12,800 ....
. The river peaks in June and freezes from November to May. It is navigable from the Lena to Bodaybo
Bodaybo
Bodaybo is a town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Vitim River at its confluence with the Bodaybo River. Population: 12,800 ....
. Upstream, tugs can haul barges as far as the BAM, but this is becoming rare. Formerly, because of its swift current, goods were hauled overland from Chita 144km to a place called Romanovka. There boats were built, floated down the river, and broken up at their destination. This lasted until the late 1940s. The Vitim is an excellent place for adventure rafting, but is rarely visited because of its isolation.
The first Russian to explore the river was probably Maksim Perfilyev
Maksim Perfilyev
Maksim Perfilyev was a Cossack explorer of Eastern Siberia and the first Russian to reach Transbaikalia. He was renowned for his diplomatic skills in negotiations with Tunguses, Mongols and Chinese....
in 1639-1640, who brought back reports of the upper Amur River.
Baissa
Baissa
Baissa is a lower Cretaceous locality in Siberia, on the left bank of the Vitim River. The Zaza Formation sediments exposed at Baissa are represented mostly by sandstones, siltstones, marls and bituminous shales. The total thickness if the section is about 80 m. Insect remains occur throughout...
, one of the famous localities of fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
insects is situated on the left bank of the Vitim River.
Along the Vitim
Going Upstream: VitimVitim
Vitim is an urban locality in Lensky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located on the left bank of the Lena River at the confluence with the Vitim River...
town: the Vitim joins the Lena. Mama and Mama Airport
Mama Airport
Mama Airport is an airport in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia located northwest of Mama on the Vitim River. It is a small airfield near the town center....
, about 130km south of Vitim. A muscovite mica mine from 1705 until the late 1930s. Now a small settlement. Mamakan, on an west-flowing stretch 200km south-southeast of Vitim. In 1961 a 86MW dam on a left tributary was completed, one of the first dams built on permafrost. Bodaybo
Bodaybo
Bodaybo is a town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Vitim River at its confluence with the Bodaybo River. Population: 12,800 ....
, just upstream, a gold mining center founded in 1864. Upstream, the port of Luzhki was the start of a road to the Lena gold fields. From here upstream the river goes crookedly east and then south. 240km upstream from Bodaybo are the Uronsky Rapids and after 140km more, the Parama Rapids. 40 km or so upstream, the Vitim is crossed by the Baikal Amur Mainline between Taksimo
Taksimo
Taksimo an urban locality and the administrative center of Muysky District of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located on the Muysk plateau in the far northeast of the republic, on the Muya River approximately east of Severobaykalsk on the Baikal Amur Mainline...
and Kuanda. Upriver there are more rapids and goldfields. South through the Stanovoy Mountains toward Chita, then west into the Vitim Plateau east of Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is the world's oldest at 30 million years old and deepest lake with an average depth of 744.4 metres.Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the...
Vitim event
A mysterious event called the Vitim eventVitim event
The Vitim event or Bodaybo event is believed to be an impact by a bolide or comet nucleus in the Vitim River basin. It occurred near the town of Bodaybo in the Mamsko-Chuisky district of Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia, Russia on September 25, 2002 at approximately 10:00 p.m....
on September 25, 2002 occurred in the Vitim River basin near the town
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
of Bodaybo
Bodaybo
Bodaybo is a town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Vitim River at its confluence with the Bodaybo River. Population: 12,800 ....
. The event was probably caused by a bolide or a comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
. The event was strikingly similar to that to the Tunguska event
Tunguska event
The Tunguska event, or Tunguska blast or Tunguska explosion, was an enormously powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, at about 7:14 a.m...
.
External links
- A scary road bridge over the Vitim next to the BAM railway bridge, at 56.224°N 115.733°W]