Chona

The Chona (Чона; Чуона, Çuona) is a river in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) and Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. It is a right hand tributary of the Vilyuy, and is 802 km long, with a drainage basin of 40600 km2.

The Russian Geographical Society organized an expedition in 1853–55 to survey the orography, geology and population of the Vilyuy and Chona basins.

Course
The river begins in the Lena Plateau, part of the Central Siberian Plateau, at an elevation of 317 m. It flows roughly northeastwards forming rapids which make the river not navigable. The lowest 170 km of its course were flooded by the Vilyuy Reservoir after the Vilyuy Dam was built in 1967. The river freezes between October and late May.

The main tributaries of the Chona are the 362 km long Vakunayka and the 105 km long Ichoda on the right, and the 158 km long Dekinde, the 122 km long Delinde and the 109 km long Markhaya on the left. There are no permanent settlements by the Chona.