Kolyma Lowland

Kolyma Lowland 

a lowlying plain in the northwestern Yakut ASSR in the basin of the Alazeia and Bol’shaia Chukoch’ia rivers and on the left bank of the lower reaches of the Kolyma River. The Kolyma Lowland stretches 750 km along the Kolyma River from the East Siberian Sea to the Cherskii Mountains, between the Alazeia and Iukagirskoe uplands. There are elevations of up to 100 m, with rare areas of coniform hills 200–300 m high. The lowland is made up of lake and river loams and sandy loams about 120 m thick.

The climate is subarctic. Characteristic of the lowland are permafrost and thermokarstic forms of terrain, with numerous lakes and swamps. In the south, swampy, sparse larch forests prevail. North of 69° N lat. there are shrubby-grassy tundras, which give way to the arctic tundra in the northwestern part of the lowland. Reindeer graze in the Kolyma Lowland.