Usa River (Komi Republic)
| Usa | |
|---|---|
| Country | Komi Republic of Russia |
| Basin features | |
| Main source | The northern Ural Mountains |
| River mouth | Pechora River |
| Basin size | 93,600 km2 (36,100 sq mi) |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Length | 565 km (351 mi) |
| Discharge |
|
Usa (Russian: Уса́; Komi: Усва, Usva) is a river in the northeast corner of European Russia that drains the Polar Urals southwest into the Pechora River. The Polar Urals tend to the northeast and the Usa runs parallel to them. It is in the Komi Republic of Russia and the largest tributary of the Pechora River, which it joins from the . It is 565 kilometres (351 mi) long, with a drainage basin of 93,600 square kilometres (36,100 sq mi).
The Usa has an average discharge of 1,310 cubic metres per second (46,000 cu ft/s), but this varies from a maximum of 21,500 cubic metres per second (760,000 cu ft/s) in June to a minimum of 43.9 cubic metres per second (1,550 cu ft/s) in April. It freezes over in October or November and is icebound until the spring thaw begins in May or June. Its largest tributaries are, from the left: Yelets, Lemva, Bolshoy Kochmes and Kosyu, and from the right: Vorkuta, Seyda and Kolva.
The river has its sources in the northern Ural Mountains, and it flows towards the southwest, roughly parallel to the mountain range. The main river is formed by the confluence of the Bolshaya Usa (Large Usa) and the Malaya Usa (Little Usa) some 30 km east of Vorkuta. The two tributaries are steep, with many rapids and waterfalls. After the confluence the main river is calm, with only a few rapids in its upper sections. Its banks here are high and cliff-like, but further downriver they become lower, wooded and boggy, except for a section around the settlement of Adak (Russian: Адак), where the river cuts through the Chernyshov Hills.
Below the settlement of Sivomaskinsky (Russian: Сивомаскинский) the river gets much wider, and in its lower reaches it is from 700 to 2,000 metres (2,300 to 6,600 ft) wide. It also starts forming meanders and sand islands, and it keeps this appearance all the way to its mouth. Some 30 kilometres (19 mi) from its mouth lies the town of Usinsk and the river port of Parma. The Usa flows into the Pechora River at the settlement of Ust-Usa.
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Wikipedia