Mezen

• 1. River in the Komi Republic and the Arkhangelsk Oblast, in northwestern Russia. The length is 910 km (according to other sources, 966 km). The basin area is 76.5 thousand km², the average annual runoff is 29 km³. The river originates in the swamps on the western slopes of the Timan Ridge. It flows into Khaypudyr Bay of the White Sea. In the upper reaches, the shores are high and rocky, in the middle reaches there are many rapids, which impedes navigation. Below the mouth of the Vashka River, the channel is full of shoals and rapids. The mouth of M. is characterized by tides, reaching 7–12 m in height (tides reach the mouth of the Peza River, 64 km from the mouth). The river freezes in the upper reaches at the end of October and in the lower reaches by mid-November. The ice breaks in the end of April and beginning of May. Th river is navigable for 200 km from the mouth; in the spring it is navigable for 643 km. M. is the most abounding in the rivers flowing into the Mezen Gulf. The...