Vitim
Vitim is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 56.64°, 115.44°
About Vitim
The Vitim (Russian: Витим; Evenki: Витым, Witym; Yakut: Виитим, Viitim [local pronunciation]; Buryat and Mongolian: Витим, Vitim) is a major tributary of the Lena. Its source is east of Lake Baikal, at the confluence of rivers Vitimkan from the west and China from the east. The Vitim flows first south, bends eastwards and then northward in the Vitim Plateau. Then it flows north through the Stanovoy Highlands and the town of Bodaybo.
Including river Vitimkan, its western source, it is 1,978 kilometres (1,229 mi) long, and has a drainage basin of 225,000 square kilometres (87,000 sq mi).
It is navigable from the Lena to Bodaybo. Upstream, tugs can haul barges as far as the Baikal Amur Mainline (BAM), but this is becoming rare.
The Vitim is an excellent place for adventure rafting, but is rarely visited because of its isolation. Baissa, one of the famous localities of fossil insects is situated on the left bank of the Vitim River.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Vitim (river) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Vitim in Depth
Course
Going upstream: Vitim town where the Vitim joins the Lena. Mama and Mama Airport, about 130 kilometres (81 mi) south of Vitim. A muscovite mica mine from 1705 until the late 1930s. Now a small settlement. Mamakan, on a west-flowing stretch 200 kilometres (120 mi) south-southeast of Vitim. In 1963 a 86MW dam on the Mamakan River was completed, one of the first dams built on permafrost. Bodaybo, 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. About 240 kilometres (150 mi) upstream from Bodaybo are the Delyun-Uran Rapids and after 140 kilometres (87 mi) more, the Parama Rapids.
History
The first Russian to explore the river was probably Maksim Perfilyev in 1639–40, who brought back reports of the upper Amur River.
Formerly, because of its swift current, goods were hauled 144 kilometres (89 mi) overland from Chita to Romanovka. There boats were built, floated down the river, and broken up at their destination. This lasted until the late 1940s.
The Vitim event occurred in the Vitim River basin near Bodaybo on 25 September 2002. The event is described as to be caused by a bolide. The event was similar to Tagish Lake.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Vitim (river) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Vitim: Quick Answers
- Where is Vitim?
- Vitim is located in Russia, at 56.6411° N, 115.4355° E.
- Are there dams on the Vitim?
- No dam on the Vitim is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.