Chara (river)

Chara
Yakut: Чаара
Chara; Yakut: Чаара
	View of the river and piece of charoite
	Location in the Sakha Republic, Russia
Location
Country	Yakutia, Russia
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Bolshoye Leprindo Lake
• coordinates	56°38′40″N 117°35′4″E / 56.64444°N 117.58444°E
• elevation	975 m (3,199 ft)
Mouth	Olyokma
• coordinates	60°19′10″N 120°52′28″E / 60.31944°N 120.87444°E
• elevation	126 m (413 ft)
Length	851 km (529 mi)
Basin size	87,600 km2 (33,800 sq mi)
Discharge
• average	638.83 m3/s (22,560 cu ft/s)
Basin features
Progression	Olyokma→ Lena→ Laptev Sea

The Chara (Russian: Ча́ра; Yakut: Чаара, Çaara) is a left tributary of the Olyokma in Eastern Siberia, Russia. It is 851 kilometres (529 mi) long, and has a drainage basin of 87,600 square kilometres (33,800 sq mi).^[1]

The Chara Sands, a small desert zone in Siberia, near the Chara River. The Kodar Mountains are in the background.

Together with the Olyokma, river Chara gives its name to the Olyokma-Chara Plateau (Олёкмо-Чарское плоскогорье), located to the east of its eastern bank.^[2]

History

The region is famous for a peculiar mountain where charoite has been mined for decades. This intensely purple mineral, named after the river, is only found here and was discovered in the 1940s when a rail tunnel was constructed. Part of the Russian governmental debt was paid in charoite and slabs of this now expensive ornamental material were stored in basements of houses of the Hungarian capital city, Budapest.

Course

The Chara begins as an outflow of Bolshoye Leprindo lake in the Kodar Mountains, Stanovoy Highlands in northern Zabaykalsky Krai. It flows through the Chara Basin between the Kodar and Kalar Mountains, passing the Chara Sands, a 37 square kilometres (14 sq mi) area of active sand dunes. It joins the left bank of the Olyokma not far from its mouth in the Lena. The Chara has 103 tributaries over 10 km (6.2 mi) in length. The most important are the Apsat and the Zhuya from the left and the Tokko from the right. The Sen River flows into the left bank of the Chara from the northern end of lake Nichatka.^[3]