River · Russia
Kolyma
The Kolyma is a long river in the far north-east of Siberia, in Russia. For about 250 days each year it lies frozen under thick ice before it flows into the East Siberian Sea.
Picture credit: Butorin (CC BY-SA 4.0) · AlGaman (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Kolyma?
The river starts here: Confluence of the Kulu and Ayan-Yuryakh rivers, north-eastern Siberia.
It ends in the Kolyma Gulf of the East Siberian Sea.
Countries on the river: Russia.
The story behind it
The Kolyma begins in the mountains of north-eastern Siberia, where two smaller rivers, the Kulu and the Ayan-Yuryakh, meet. In its upper part it rushes through narrow gorges with many rapids. Further north it slows down and winds across the wide, flat and swampy Kolyma Lowland. Here only tundra and thin, small trees grow, because the ground deep down stays frozen all year. This frozen ground is called permafrost. The ice on the river can be several metres thick, and boats can usually only sail from June to October. When the ice breaks up in spring, ice jams can cause big floods. At its end, the river spreads out into a delta about 150 km wide. Gold was found in the upper basin, and in Soviet times many prisoners had to dig for it in the bitter cold. Today Sakha and Even people live by fishing and hunting along the river.
Questions children ask
How long is the Kolyma?
The Kolyma is about 2 129 km long. If you measure from the start of its headstream, the Kulu, it is about 2 513 km long.
When is the Kolyma free of ice?
The Kolyma is frozen for about 250 days a year, often several metres deep. It is usually only free of ice from early June until October, so ships can only sail during these few months.
What did scientists find on the banks of the Kolyma?
Long ago, ground squirrels stored plant fruit in their burrows in the frozen ground near the lower Kolyma. In 2012 scientists reported that they had grown living plants from this fruit, which was about 30 000 years old.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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