Yana River

Yana
Basin of the Yana.
Native name	Дьааҥы/Džaangy
Country	Russia
Basin features
Main source	Confluence of Sartang and Dulgalakh
River mouth	Laptev Sea 0 m (0 ft)
Basin size	238,000 km2 (92,000 sq mi)
Physical characteristics
Length	872 km (542 mi)
Discharge	Average rate: 25 m3/s (880 cu ft/s)

The Yana River (Russian: Я́на; IPA: [ˈjanə]; Yakut: Дьааҥы, Cáŋı), is a river in Sakha in Russia, located between the Lena to the west and the Indigirka to the east.

It is 872 kilometres (542 mi) long, while the upper Yana is 1,320 kilometres (820 mi) long. Its drainage basin covers 238,000 square kilometres (92,000 sq mi), and its annual discharge totals approximately 25 cubic kilometres (20,000,000 acre·ft). Most of this discharge occurs in May and June as the ice on the river breaks up. The Yana freezes up on the surface in October and stays under the ice until late May or early June. In the Verkhoyansk area, it stays frozen to the bottom for 70 to 110 days, and partly frozen for 220 days of the year.

The river begins at the confluence of the rivers Sartang and Dulgalakh. As the Yana flows into the Yana Bay of the Laptev Sea, it forms a huge river delta covering 10,200 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi). Yarok is a large flat island located east of the main mouths of the Yana.

There are approximately 40,000 lakes in the Yana basin, including both alpine lakes formed from glaciation in the Verkhoyansk Mountains (lowlands were always too dry for glaciation) and overflow lakes on the marshy plains in the north of the basin. The whole Yana basin is under continuous permafrost and most is larch woodland grading to tundra north of about 70°N, though trees extend in suitable microhabitats right to the delta.