Lika (river)

Lika
Lika River, near Kosinj
Location
Country	Croatia
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Velebit Mountains
• elevation	600 m (2,000 ft)
Mouth
• location	ponor
• coordinates	44°46′N 15°10′E
• elevation	480 m (1,570 ft)
Length	77 km (48 mi)
Basin size	1,014 km^2 (392 sq mi)
Discharge
• average	7.33 m^3/s (259 cu ft/s)

The Lika is a river in Croatia which gives its name to the Lika region. It is 77 kilometres (48 mi) long and it has a basin with an area of 1,014 square kilometres (392 sq mi). Its average discharge at the measurement station in Bilaj (covering 225 km² of the basin) is 7.33 m³/s, and it can go completely dry.^[1]

It is known as a sinking river because at the end of its course, it flows into a series of ponors or swallow-holes and disappears from the surface. The Lika River rises near the village of Kukljić at the foot of the Velebit Mountains, flows in a northwesterly direction past the town of Gospić, enters and leaves Lake Krušćica, and continues to the northwest until it sinks into the karst topography at ponors near Lipovo Polje.

Etymology and names

The name is mostly likely to derive from the Proto-Indo European root *u̯leiku̯- ‘to be(come) moist, to moisten’.^[2]

References

1. "Karakteristike značajnijih vodotoka". Vodnogospodarska osnova Hrvatske - Strategija upravljanja vodama (in Croatian). Croatian Parliament. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
2. Bichlmeier, H. (2023). The Croatian Hydronym and Choronym Líka and its Presumed Relatives Lech, Liẽkė, etc.. Folia onomastica Croatica, (32), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.21857/9e31lh642m

• Bonacci, Ognjen and Andric, Ivo. carsologica.zrc-sazu.si Sinking Karst Rivers Hydrology: Case of the Lika and Gacka (Croatia)