Indigirka River
The Indigirka River (Russian: Индиги́рка; Yakut: Индигиир) is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana River and the Kolyma River. It is 1,726 kilometres (1,072 mi) long. The area of its basin is 360,000 square kilometres (140,000 sq mi). The river flows into the Kolyma Bay, East Siberian Sea.
It freezes up in October and stays under the ice until May–June.
Tributaries
The main tributaries are the:
Kuydusun River
Kyuente River
Elgi River
Nera River,
Moma River
Badyarikha River
Selennyakh River
Uyandina
Ports, settlements and economy
Main ports on the river are:
Khonuu
Druzhina
Chokurdakh
Tabor.
There is a gold prospecting industry in the Indigirka basin. Ust-Nera, a gold-mining center, is the largest settlement on the river.
The Indigirka River teems with a variety of fishes. Among the most valuable are several whitefish species, such as vendace, chir, muksun, inconnu (nelma), omul, etc.
History
In 1638 Ivan Rebrov reached the Indigirka. In 1636–42 Elisei Buza pioneered the overland route to the Indigirka river system. At about the same time, Poznik Ivanov ascended a tributary of the lower Lena, crossed the Verkhoyansk Range to the upper Yana and then crossed the Chersky Range to the Indigirka. In 1642 Mikhail Stadukhin reached the Indigirka overland from the Lena.