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34-514: The isolated village of Russkoye Ustye , located on the delta of the Indigirka, is known for the unique traditional culture of the Russian settlers whose ancestors came there several centuries ago. Some historians have speculated that Russkoye Ustye was settled by Pomors in the early 17th century. In 1638 explorer Ivan Rebrov reached the Indigirka. In 1636–42 Elisei Buza pioneered the overland route to

68-469: A large delta , consisting of a number of streams (each one being labeled on Russian maps as a photo ka ( river arm )) and islands. About 100 kilometres (62 mi) before reaching the East Siberian Sea ( 70°48′45″N 148°54′58″E  /  70.8126°N 148.9162°E  / 70.8126; 148.9162 ), the river splits into two major northeast-flowing streams . The left (westernmost) arm

102-465: A locally recorded legend, the villagers' ancestors originally left European Russia during Ivan the Terrible 's persecution campaigns in the late 16th century, although, as Rasputin suggests, reaching the Indigirka may have taken them a long time. The first known record of the community of Russkoye Ustye is in the reports of the explorer Dmitry Laptev , who had to spend a winter there in 1739 when his boat

136-439: A result of river bifurcation and are often found where a river approaches a lake or an ocean and divides into distributary networks; as such they are a common feature of river deltas . They can also occur inland, on alluvial fans , or where a tributary stream bifurcates as it nears its confluence with a larger stream. In some cases, a minor distributary can divert so much water from the main channel that it can later become

170-572: A single localion, which was given the name Polyarnoye. However, the inhabitants continued to refer to it colloquially as Russkoye Ustye, and this name was officially restored in 1988. A Siberian writer, Valentin Rasputin , dedicated a chapter of his non-fiction book, " Siberia, Siberia " (originally published in 1991) to the people of this isolated traditional community. Even though the locals "seemed to be fashioned entirely out of prejudice", he favorably compares their ability to pass moral judgments with

204-480: Is a rural locality (a selo ), the only inhabited locality, and the administrative center of Russko-Ustinsky Rural Okrug of Allaikhovsky District in the Sakha Republic , Russia , located 120 kilometers (75 mi) from Chokurdakh , the administrative center of the district. Its population as of the 2010 Census was 157, down from 181 recorded during the 2002 Census . For several decades during

238-764: Is an inland distributary of the upper Orinoco , which flows southward into the Rio Negro , forming a unique natural canal between the Orinoco and Amazon river systems. It is the largest river on the planet that links two major river systems. The Huai River in China splits into three streams. The main stream passes through the Sanhe Sluice, goes out of the Sanhe river, and enters the Yangtze River through Baoying Lake and Gaoyou Lake . On

272-753: Is known as the Russko-Ustyinskaya Protoka ; the right arm, the Srednyaya Protoka (Russian for the "Middle Arm"). Further downstream, the third major arm, the Kolymskaya Protoka splits off the Srednyaya Protoka as its right (eastern) distributary, thus justifying the "middle" moniker for the Srednyaya Protoka. While Srednyaya Protoka means the "Middle Arm", the names of the main western and eastern arms indicate their relative location as well. The Kolymskaya Protoka , or Kolymskoye Ustye

306-565: Is the arm one located on the eastern side, i.e. the "Kolyma side" of the delta (the arm closest to the Kolyma , the eastern neighbor of the Indigirka). The Russko-Ustyinskaya Protoka , apparently known earlier as simply Russkoye Ustye is the arm one located on the western side, i.e. the "Russian side" of the delta (meaning, the side closest to the (European) Russia). These days the name of the Russko-Ustyinskaya Protoka appears as if it were formed from

340-626: The Chersky Range . At the point where it crosses the Chemalgin Range the river narrows and flows into a deep gorge, forming rapids. Where it is joined by the Moma river from the southeast, the Indigirka reaches the Momo-Selennyakh Depression, a wide intermontane basin and the middle course of the river begins, where its valley expands. Turning northwards, the Indigirka cuts deeply across

374-730: The Clutha River , splits into two arms, the Matau and the Koua , some 10 kilometres from the South Island's Pacific Coast. A large island, Inch Clutha , lies between the two arms. Many of the rivers crossing the Canterbury Plains in the central South Island are braided rivers , and several of these split into separate branches before reaching the coast. Notable among these is the Rangitata River ,

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408-589: The Fly River , which splits into three major and several minor rivers close to its mouth. The Bamu River splits into several channels close to its mouth, among them the Bebea , Bina , Dibiri , and Aramia . The Kikori River also splits into a multitude of channels as it crosses the plains close to the Gulf of Papua. The Purari River splits into three major channels as it approaches its mouth. New Zealand's second-longest river,

442-642: The Fraser River , separated by Annacis Island ). In Australia, the term anabranch is used to refer to a distributary that diverts from the main course of the river and rejoins it later. In North America such a branching river is called a braided river . In Louisiana , the Atchafalaya River is an important distributary of the Mississippi River . Because the Atchafalaya takes a steeper route to

476-657: The Gulf of Mexico than does the Mississippi, over several decades the Atchafalaya has captured more and more of the Mississippi's flow, after the Mississippi meandered into the Red River of the South . The Old River Control Structure , a dam which regulates the outflow from the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya, was completed by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1963. The dam is intended to prevent

510-757: The Moma Range and flows northeastwards meandering across the Aby Lowland and widening to 500 m (1,600 ft). After flowing between the neck formed by the eastern end of the Polousny Range and the western end of the Ulakhan-Chistay Range , it flows north with the Kondakov Plateau to the est across the Yana-Indigirka Lowland , part of the greater East Siberian Lowland . Further north, where

544-441: The moral relativism of the modern people. Russkoye Ustye has a tundra climate ( ET ) with short, chilly summers and long, bitterly cold winters. Distributary A distributary , or a distributary channel is a stream channel that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. It is the opposite of a tributary , a stream that flows towards and into another stream or river. Distributaries are

578-552: The Atchafalaya from capturing the main flow of the Mississippi and stranding the ports of Baton Rouge and New Orleans . In British Columbia , Canada, the Fraser River has numerous sloughs and side-channels which may be defined as distributaries. This river's final stretch has three main distributaries: the North Arm and the South Arm , and a few smaller ones adjoining them. Examples of inland distributaries: The Casiquiare canal

612-879: The Hongkou. The Tha Chin River and Noi River are distributaries of the Chao Phraya River in Thailand , splitting off from the latter about 200 kilometers upstream from the Bay of Bangkok . The Brantas River in East Java , Indonesia , branches off into two distributaries, Mas River , also known as Surabaya River, and Porong River . A number of the rivers that flow inland from Australia's Great Dividing Range form distributaries, most of which flow only intermittently during times of high river levels and end in shallow lakes or simply peter out in

646-409: The Indigirka are, from source to mouth: Main ports on the river are: 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 teems with a variety of fishes. Among the most valuable are several whitefish species, such as vendace , chir , muksun , inconnu ( nelma ), omul , etc. The Indigirka forms

680-507: 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. Zashiversk on the Indigirka was an important colonial outpost during the early days of Russian colonization. It

714-568: The Soviet era, it was officially called Polyarnoye ( Поля́рное ). The locality's name is probably based on the name of the river channel on which it is located, and which, too, has been known historically as the Russkoye Ustye . These days the channel is also known under the name Russko-Ustyinskaya Protoka that is formed from the locality's name. The original name of the channel, Russkoye Ustye, can be loosely translated as "the westernmost arm" [of

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748-613: The confluence of the 251 kilometres (156 mi) long Tuora-Yuryakh (also known as Khastakh, Khalkan or Kalkan) river and the 63 kilometres (39 mi) long Taryn-Yuryakh , both of which originate on the slopes of the Khalkan Range . In its higher course, the river flows northwestwards along the Yana-Oymyakon Highlands , through the lowest part of the Oymyakon Plateau . Turning north, it cuts through several subranges of

782-794: The deserts. Yarriambiack Creek , which flows from the Wimmera River into Lake Coorong, and Tyrrell Creek, which flows from the Avoca River into Lake Tyrrell , are two distributaries in Victoria . The Narran River flows from the Balonne River in Queensland into Narran Lake in New South Wales . Many of Papua New Guinea's major rivers flow into the Gulf of Papua through marshy, low-lying country, allowing for wide, many-branched deltas. These include

816-581: The east bank of Hongze Lake , another stream goes out of Gaoliangjian Gate and enters the Yellow Sea at the port of Bidan through Subei Guan'gai Zongqu, the main irrigation channel of Northern Jiangsu ); its total length is 168 kilometers. The third stream leaves the Erhe lock on the northeast bank of Hongze Lake, passes the Huaishuhe River to the north of Lianyungang city, and flows into Haizhou Bay through

850-663: The east). Russkoye Ustye is located in the delta of the Indigirka River , about 80 kilometers (50 mi) from the fall of the main western channel of the Indigirka's delta into the East Siberian Sea of the Arctic Ocean . Russkoye Ustye was settled several centuries ago by ethnic Russians, who mixed to some extent with the indigenous Even people . As no agriculture is possible at this Arctic location, they developed an economy based on hunting, fishing, and trapping. Since

884-624: The main route. Common terms to name individual river distributaries in English-speaking countries are arm and channel . These terms may refer to a distributary that does not rejoin the channel from which it has branched (e.g., the North, Middle, and South Arms of the Fraser River , or the West Channel of the Mackenzie River ), or to one that does (e.g. Annacis Channel and Annieville Channel of

918-477: The name of the old Russian village Russkoye Ustye situated there, but originally the opposite is likely to have been the case, the village is named after the river arm (the Russkoye Ustye ) on which it was located. Several flat islands are formed by the channels of the delta. Listed from the east to the west, the major ones are: Russkoye Ustye Russkoye Ustye ( Russian : Ру́сское У́стье ; Yakut : Русскай Устье , romanized:  Russkay ustye )

952-400: The national economy. The pelts of Arctic fox became the principal product sold by the residents to the outside world. Historically, the peoples of Russkoye Ustye were spread out over tens of kilometers, living in solitary houses or tiny hamlets of three to four houses (there were six houses in the hamlet where Zenzinov stayed). Around 1940–1942, the authorities arranged for them to move into

986-559: The place is north of the Arctic tree line , driftwood brought by the Indigirka was used for construction and for firewood. Due to the remarkable geographic isolation of the settlement, its residents preserved much of their ancestors' beliefs, customs, and folklore into the 19th and 20th century, which made Russkoye Ustye a favorite destination for Russian ethnographers and cultural anthropologists, such as Gerhard von Maydell . Linguists visited

1020-448: The place to study the local dialect of Russian, strongly influenced by the Even language . It is speculated that the original settlers, possibly of Pomor origin, arrived to the delta of the Indigirka as early as the first half of the 17th century. More skeptical researchers believe that the second half of the 17th century would be a more likely time for the initial settlement. According to

1054-484: The river delta], or the "westernmost river mouth". The noun ustye means "the river mouth" and the adjective Russkoye ("Russian") apparently refers to this channel's being the one located the farthest to the west (i.e., the one closest to [European] Russia). Similarly, the easternmost channel of the delta has been known as the Kolymskoye Ustye, i.e., the river mouth closest to the Kolyma (the Indigirka's neighbor to

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1088-519: The terrain becomes completely flat, the Indigirka divides into branches 130 km (81 mi) from the mouth, forming a 5,500 km (2,100 sq mi) wide delta. Its waters end up in the Kolyma Bay , East Siberian Sea . Gusinaya Bay is located to the northwest of the mouths of the Indigirka. The Indigirka freezes up in October and stays under the ice until May–June. The main tributaries of

1122-400: Was stuck in the ice. A Socialist Revolutionary Vladimir Zenzinov gave an account of his visit in the early 1900s during his Siberian exile. It was only between 1928 (when a schoolhouse was built and a schoolteacher arrived from the outside world) and the 1960s (the arrival of helicopters) that Russkoye Ustye became reconnected, to an extent, with the "mainland" culture and integrated into

1156-590: Was subsequently abandoned in the 19th century. Other historical settlements, now long abandoned, were Podshiversk and Uyandinskoye Zimov'ye. In 1892–94 Baron Eduard Von Toll carried out geological surveys in the basin of the Indigirka (among other Far-eastern Siberian rivers) on behalf of the Russian Academy of Sciences. During one year and two days the expedition covered 25,000 kilometres (16,000 mi), of which 4,200 kilometres (2,600 mi) were up rivers, carrying out geodesic surveys en route. It originates at

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