1.
Colombia
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Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a transcontinental country largely situated in the northwest of South America, with territories in Central America. Colombia shares a border to the northwest with Panama, to the east with Venezuela and Brazil and to the south with Ecuador and it shares its maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is a unitary, constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments, the territory of what is now Colombia was originally inhabited by indigenous peoples including the Muisca, the Quimbaya and the Tairona. The Spanish arrived in 1499 and initiated a period of conquest and colonization ultimately creating the Viceroyalty of New Granada, independence from Spain was won in 1819, but by 1830 the Gran Colombia Federation was dissolved. What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada, the new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation, and then the United States of Colombia, before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886. Since the 1960s the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict, Colombia is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries in the world, and thereby possesses a rich cultural heritage. Cultural diversity has also influenced by Colombias varied geography. The urban centres are located in the highlands of the Andes mountains. Colombian territory also encompasses Amazon rainforest, tropical grassland and both Caribbean and Pacific coastlines, ecologically, it is one of the worlds 17 megadiverse countries, and the most densely biodiverse of these per square kilometer. Colombia is a power and a regional actor with the fourth-largest economy in Latin America, is part of the CIVETS group of six leading emerging markets and is an accessing member to the OECD. Colombia has an economy with macroeconomic stability and favorable growth prospects in the long run. The name Colombia is derived from the last name of Christopher Columbus and it was conceived by the Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda as a reference to all the New World, but especially to those portions under Spanish and Portuguese rule. The name was adopted by the Republic of Colombia of 1819. When Venezuela, Ecuador and Cundinamarca came to exist as independent states, New Granada officially changed its name in 1858 to the Granadine Confederation. In 1863 the name was changed, this time to United States of Colombia. To refer to country, the Colombian government uses the terms Colombia. Owing to its location, the present territory of Colombia was a corridor of early human migration from Mesoamerica, the oldest archaeological finds are from the Pubenza and El Totumo sites in the Magdalena Valley 100 km southwest of Bogotá. These sites date from the Paleoindian period, at Puerto Hormiga and other sites, traces from the Archaic Period have been found
2.
Venezuela
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Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a federal republic located on the northern coast of South America. It is bordered by Colombia on the west, Brazil on the south, Guyana on the east, Venezuela covers 916,445 km2 and has an estimated population of 31775371. The territory now known as Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522 amid resistance from indigenous peoples and it gained full independence as a separate country in 1830. During the 19th century, Venezuela suffered political turmoil and autocracy, since 1958, the country has had a series of democratic governments. This new constitution changed the name of the country to República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Venezuela is a presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District. Venezuela also claims all Guyanese territory west of the Essequibo River, oil was discovered in the early 20th century, and Venezuela has the worlds largest known oil reserves and has been one of the worlds leading exporters of oil. Previously an underdeveloped exporter of commodities such as coffee and cocoa, oil quickly came to dominate exports. The recovery of oil prices in the early 2000s gave Venezuela oil funds not seen since the 1980s, the Venezuelan government then established populist policies that initially boosted the Venezuelan economy and increased social spending, significantly reducing economic inequality and poverty. However, such policies later became controversial since they destabilized the economy, resulting in hyperinflation, an economic depression. According to the most popular and accepted version, in 1499, the stilt houses in the area of Lake Maracaibo reminded the navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, of the city of Venice, so he named the region Veneziola Piccola Venezia. The name acquired its current spelling as a result of Spanish influence, where the suffix -uela is used as a term, thus. The German language 16th century-term for the area, Klein-Venedig, also means little Venice, however, Martín Fernández de Enciso, a member of the Vespucci and Ojeda crew, gave a different account. In his work Summa de geografía, he states that they found people who called themselves the Veneciuela. Thus, the name Venezuela may have evolved from the native word and it is not known how many people lived in Venezuela before the Spanish conquest, it has been estimated at around one million. In addition to indigenous peoples known today, the population included historic groups such as the Kalina, Auaké, Caquetio, Mariche, the Timoto-Cuica culture was the most complex society in Pre-Columbian Venezuela, with pre-planned permanent villages, surrounded by irrigated, terraced fields. They also stored water in tanks and their houses were made primarily of stone and wood with thatched roofs. They were peaceful, for the most part, and depended on growing crops, regional crops included potatoes and ullucos
3.
South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area
4.
Delta Amacuro
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Delta Amacuro State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela, and is the location of the Orinoco Delta. The Paria Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean are found to the north, Bolívar State is found to the south, the Atlantic Ocean and Guyana are found to the east, the state capital city is Tucupita. Delta Amacuro State covers a surface area of 40,200 km² and. The Warao people have lived in this region well before the Europeans arrived in America. Thanks to the remoteness of the Delta, the Warao managed to keep a certain independence from the European, columbus arrived at the coast off the Delta on 1 August 1498 during his third voyage to America. He wrote about the macareo, the noise that occurs when a river flow meets the ocean currents. As the Delta connects to the Orinoco, it became the point of entry from the Ocean to Guayana, diego de Ordaz explored the territory from June 1531, when he sailed upstream the Orinoco River with several ships. Antonio Berrío traveled through the region in the 1580s, fernando de Berrío, Antonio Berríos son, initiated expeditions going through the area in search for El Dorado. Walter Raleigh crossed the Delta in 1594,1595 and finally on his last expedition, during Colonial Venezuela the Delta was part of New Andalusia Province. Alexander von Humboldt wrote in his Voyages to the Equinoccial Regions that the Waraos were the only Native Americans still free from control from the Spanish authorities in the province. He said people calculated the Warao population in the Delta at around 6. 000-7.000 individuals, the territory became part of the Guayana Province when Venezuela became independent. On 27 February 1884 the Delta became Federal Territory and was composed of the districts Manoa, the territory was attached soon afterwards to the Bolivar state. It became a Federal Territory again on 26 April 1901, the catholic missionary Barral arrived in the area in the 1930s and established a couple of religious missions and schools. He carried out some of the first studies on the Warao language, the Delta became state on 3 August 1991. In the last decade, Delta Amacuro has seen an important migration of criollo Venezuelans looking for jobs in the oil sector, the Native Americans Warao Indians live mostly here. According to the count for First Nations, there were in 2001 some 2680 Native Americans in the Delta. The Waraos have their own language, but they are mostly bilingual, the population in the main cities is composed mostly of other Venezuelans. According to the 2011 Census, the composition of the population was
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Drainage basin
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A drainage basin or catchment area is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. Drainage basins connect into other drainage basins at elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins. Other terms used to describe drainage basins are catchment, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin and water basin. In closed drainage basins the water converges to a point inside the basin, known as a sink, which may be a permanent lake. The drainage basin acts as a funnel by collecting all the water within the covered by the basin. Each drainage basin is separated topographically from adjacent basins by a perimeter, drainage basins are similar but not identical to hydrologic units, which are drainage areas delineated so as to nest into a multi-level hierarchical drainage system. Hydrologic units are defined to allow multiple inlets, outlets, or sinks, in a strict sense, all drainage basins are hydrologic units but not all hydrologic units are drainage basins. Drainage basins of the oceans and seas of the world. Grey areas are endorheic basins that do not drain to the oceans, the following is a list of the major ocean basins, About 48. 7% of the worlds land drains to the Atlantic Ocean. The two major mediterranean seas of the world also flow to the Atlantic, The Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico basin includes most of the U. S. The Mediterranean Sea basin includes much of North Africa, east-central Africa, Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the areas of Israel, Lebanon. Just over 13% of the land in the world drains to the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Oceans drainage basin also comprises about 13% of Earths land. It drains the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Burma, antarctica comprises approximately eight percent of the Earths land. The five largest river basins, from largest to smallest, are the basins of the Amazon, the Río de la Plata, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. The three rivers that drain the most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganga, endorheic drainage basins are inland basins that do not drain to an ocean. Around 18% of all land drains to endorheic lakes or seas or sinks, the largest of these consists of much of the interior of Asia, which drains into the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and numerous smaller lakes. Some of these, such as the Great Basin, are not single drainage basins but collections of separate, in endorheic bodies of standing water where evaporation is the primary means of water loss, the water is typically more saline than the oceans. An extreme example of this is the Dead Sea, drainage basins have been historically important for determining territorial boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important
7.
River
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A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water, small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the term river as applied to geographic features. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location, examples are run in parts of the United States, burn in Scotland and northeast England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always, Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Potamology is the study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general. Extraterrestrial rivers of liquid hydrocarbons have recently found on Titan. Channels may indicate past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars and rivers are theorised to exist on planets, a river begins at a source, follows a path called a course, and ends at a mouth or mouths. The water in a river is confined to a channel. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Floodplains may be wide in relation to the size of the river channel. This distinction between river channel and floodplain can be blurred, especially in areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become greatly developed by housing. Rivers can flow down mountains, through valleys or along plains, the term upriver refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i. e. against the direction of flow. Likewise, the term describes the direction towards the mouth of the river. The term left bank refers to the bank in the direction of flow. The river channel typically contains a stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water. Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide and they also occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are similar to braided rivers and are quite rare
8.
Discharge (hydrology)
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In hydrology, discharge is the volume rate of water flow that is transported through a given cross-sectional area. It includes any suspended solids, dissolved chemicals, or biologic material in addition to the water itself, GH Dury and MJ Bradshaw are two hydrologists who devised the models showing the relationship between discharge and other variables in a river. The units that are used to express discharge include m³/s, ft³/s and/or acre-feet per day. For example, the discharge of the Rhine river in Europe is 2,200 cubic metres per second or 190,000,000 cubic metres per day. A commonly applied methodology for measuring, and estimating, the discharge of a river is based on a form of the continuity equation. In storm hydrology, an important consideration is the streams discharge hydrograph, the stream rises to a peak flow after each precipitation event, then falls in a slow recession. Because the peak flow also corresponds to the water level reached during the event. The amount of precipitation correlates to the volume of water that flows out of the river. The relationship between the discharge in the stream at a given cross-section and the level of the stream is described by a rating curve, average velocities and the cross-sectional area of the stream are measured for a given stream level. The velocity and the give the discharge for that level. After measurements are made for different levels, a rating table or rating curve may be developed. Once rated, the discharge in the stream may be determined by measuring the level, if a continuous level-recording device is located at a rated cross-section, the streams discharge may be continuously determined. Larger flows can transport more sediment and larger particles downstream than smaller flows due to their greater force, larger flows can also erode stream banks and damage public infrastructure
9.
Los Llanos (South America)
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Los Llanos is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the grasslands and savannas biome. The Llanos main river is the Orinoco, which part of the border between Colombia and Venezuela and is the major river system of Venezuela. During the rainy season from May to October, parts of the Llanos can flood up to a meter and this turns the woodlands and grassland into a temporary wetland, comparable to the Pantanal of central South America. This flooding also makes the area unique for its wildlife, the area supports around 70 species of water birds, including the scarlet ibis. A large portion of the distribution of the flycatcher is in the Llanos. The flooding also made the area unfit for most agriculture before the advent of modern, therefore, during the Spanish colonial era, the primary economic activity of the area was the herding of millions of heads of cattle. An 1856 watercolor by Manuel María Paz depicts sparsely populated open grazing lands with cattle, the term llanero became synonymous with the cowhands that took care of the herds, and had some cultural similarities with the gauchos of the Pampas or the vaqueros of Spanish and Mexican Texas. In the wet season most of the Llanos is flooded and travel is by boat down the numerous temporary, in Los Llanos the governments of Venezuela and Colombia had developed a strong oil and gas industry in zones of Arauca, Casanare, Guárico, Anzoátegui, Apure and Monagas. The Orinoco Belt, entirely in Venezuelan territory, consists of deposits of extra heavy crude. The Orinoco belt oil sands are known to be one of the largest, behind that of the Athabasca Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada. Venezuelas non-conventional oil deposits of about 1,200 billion barrels, the llanos music The llanos of Colombia and Venezuela Los Llanos de Colombia Llanos
10.
Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
11.
Christopher Columbus
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Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and citizen of the Republic of Genoa. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean and those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the European colonization of the New World. Western imperialism and economic competition were emerging among European kingdoms through the establishment of routes and colonies. During his first voyage in 1492, he reached the New World instead of arriving at Japan as he had intended, landing on an island in the Bahamas archipelago that he named San Salvador. Over the course of three voyages, he visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America. These voyages had, therefore, an impact in the historical development of the modern Western world. He spearheaded the transatlantic trade and has been accused by several historians of initiating the genocide of the Hispaniola natives. Columbus himself saw his accomplishments primarily in the light of spreading the Christian religion, Columbus never admitted that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies for which he had set course. He called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited indios, the name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicisation of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo and, in Spanish and he was born before 31 October 1451 in the territory of the Republic of Genoa, though the exact location remains disputed. His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked both in Genoa and Savona and who also owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked as a helper. Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo were his brothers, Bartolomeo worked in a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood. He also had a sister named Bianchinetta, Columbus never wrote in his native language, which is presumed to have been a Genoese variety of Ligurian. In one of his writings, he says he went to sea at the age of 10, in 1470, the Columbus family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. In the same year, Christopher was on a Genoese ship hired in the service of René of Anjou to support his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. Some modern historians have argued that he was not from Genoa but, instead and these competing hypotheses have generally been discounted by mainstream scholars. In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro, later, he allegedly made a trip to Chios, an Aegean island then ruled by Genoa. In May 1476, he took part in a convoy sent by Genoa to carry valuable cargo to northern Europe
12.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
13.
Orinoco Delta
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The Orinoco Delta is a vast river delta of the Orinoco River, located in eastern Venezuela. The Orinoco Delta is one of the eight regions of Venezuela. It is covers the whole of Delta Amacuro State and a few kilometers of Monagas State and Sucre State. The Warao people live in the region, the delta is fan-shaped, formed by the Orinoco River as it splits into numerous distributaries, called caños, which meander through the delta on their way to the sea. The area of this region its approximately 43,646 square kilometres, the Orinoco Delta is characterized by being non-centric, lagoon lacking, and oceanic, somewhat similar to the delta of the Niger River. Daily tides bring sea water up the caños, causing the macareo or pororoca and revsering the flow direction of water, the predominant vegetation is in the Orinoco Delta swamp forests ecoregion. Along the coast and the margins there are stretches of Amazon-Orinoco-Southern Caribbean mangroves. To the west, and closer to the coast, there are patches of the Orinoco wetlands ecoregion, the delta includes large areas of permanent wetlands as well as seasonally-flooded freshwater swamp forests. The river margins of the delta are fringed with mangroves, Venezuela Tourism Directory Geo-Environmental Characterization of the Delta del Orinoco Orinoco wetlands
14.
Apure River
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It provides significant transportation in the area. The Oirá River starts in Venezuela and its forms that border for several kilometres downstream. The Uribante River is longer than the Sarare and flows from the Táchira-Mérida border, the Apures drainage area thus includes the slopes of both the Colombian and the Venezuelan Andes. From the point where the Uribante joins the Sarare, the Apure flows eastward across the Venezuelan llanos, the Apure is 1,038 kilometres long from the Uribantes starting point to the Orinoco. It is navigable for about 800 kilometres above the Orinoco, where it has a course across the llanos. From the north, its tributaries are the Caparo, Portuguesa. The Caucagua is its major tributary from the south. Because of the flatness of the land its meanders and bayous to the south are mingled with those of the Arauca River creating an area which is flooded annually. However, both rivers keep independent channels during dry season, ¿Cómo se descubrió el río Apure. Revista Nacional de Cultura, N°86, pp. 71–78, on the route of Bolívar’s great march, Caracas to Bogotá via Arauca and the Páramo of Pisva. London, The Geographical Journal, oct,1908, pp. 329–347, relación del descubrimiento del río Apure hasta su ingreso en el Orinoco. Escrita en 1648 y editada en León en julio de 1882, editada también en Madrid, Edime,1956. De León, Rafael, Rodríguez Díaz, Alberto, El Orinoco aprovechado y recorrido, Caracas, Ministerio de Obras Públicas, Corporación Venezolana de Guayana,1976 Rodríguez Díaz, Alberto J. Desarrollo del eje de navegación Orinoco-Apure-Arauca. Caracas, Vol. I, Ministerio del Ambiente y de los Recursos Naturales Renovables,1980, Rodríguez Díaz, Alberto J. y De Leon, Rafael. Apuntes para los estudios de navegación por el sistema Orinoco-Apure, Tramo Ciudad Guayana- Guasdualito, dirección de Recursos Hidráulicos, Oficina de Planeamiento, Estudios Río Orinoco,1975. Caracas, Cuadernos Lagoven,1982, 2ª edición, Caracas, Cuadernos Lagoven,1980 Vila, Pablo. Caracas, Ministerio de Educación,1960 This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
15.
Meta River
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The Meta River is a major left tributary of the Orinoco River in eastern Colombia and southern Venezuela, South America. The Meta originates in the Eastern Ranges of the Andes and flows through the Meta Department, Colombia as the confluence of the Humea, Guatiquía and it flows east-northeastward across the Llanos Orientales of Colombia following the direction of the Meta Fault. The Meta River is 804 kilometres long and its basin is 93,800 square kilometres. The major tributaries of the Meta are the Cravo Sur, the Casanare, the Cusiana, the Upía and the Manacacías rivers. An 1856 watercolor by Manuel María Paz, of three people with a boat at Orocué, near the Old Macuco Mission, is an early depiction of life on the river. Living along the Meta are various indigenous groups, in the upper part of the river, close to the foothills of the Eastern Ranges and farther downstream, the Guayupe, Achagua, Sáliva and Guahibo people are living. Starting at Puerto López the Meta becomes navigable, and thus is an important component of the trade across the Colombian and Venezuelan Llanos
16.
Diego de Ordaz
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Diego de Ordaz was a Spanish explorer and soldier. Diego de Ordaz arrived in Cuba at a young age, serving under the orders of Diego Velázquez, he participated in the earliest exploratory expeditions to Colombia and Panamá. De Ordaz accompanied Hernán Cortés on his expedition of conquest to the Mexican mainland and he was recognized for his contribution to the victory over the Aztecs obtained at the Battle of Centla near Río Grijalva in Tabasco on March 25,1519. Together with two comrades, he was the first European to climb to the top of the volcano Popocatépetl - a feat made a great impression on the indigenous allies accompanying Cortės. In recognition of De Ordazs military deeds, the emperor Charles V on October 22,1525 issued a decree permitting him to use a coat-of-arms featuring a view of the volcano, De Ordaz participated in the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital. When prior to the final conquest, the Spaniards were forced to flee from the capital in an action known as La Noche Triste. Following the conquest of Mexico, De Ordaz explored the areas of Oaxaca and Veracruz, De Ordaz returned to North America in approximately 1525. In 1529, he was granted the property of El Peñón de los Baños located within the limits of Mexico City. He returned again to Spain and requested permission to explore the lands of the mythical El Dorado, having obtained permission, he sailed for South America, exploring up the Río Orinoco. After abandoning the search for El Dorado, he died in 1532 on the Venezuelan Paria Peninsula, in 1952, a planned city called Puerto Ordaz was founded in Venezuela on the banks of the Orinoco River, today it is one of that countrys principal cities
17.
Coro, Venezuela
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Coro is the capital of Falcón State and the oldest city in the west of Venezuela. It was founded on July 26,1527 by Juan de Ampíes as Santa Ana de Coro and it has a wide cultural tradition that comes from being the urban settlement founded by the Spanish conquerors who colonized the interior of the continent. It was the first capital of the Venezuela Province and head of the first bishop founded in South America in 1531, as Neu-Augsburg, it was the first German colony in the Americas under the Welsers. Since 2005 it is on the UNESCOs List of World Heritage in Danger, according to the tradition the word coro derives from the Caquetio word curiana, meaning place of winds. However, according to the authoritative DRAE Spanish dictionary, the word coro in its second meaning means wind of the northwest, the city was founded on July 26 of 1527 by Juan Martín de Ampués, with the name of Santa Ana de Coro. From Coro emerged multiple expeditions to the Venezuelan and Colombian Llanos, the Andes and the Orinoco River in search of El Dorado, the city is in its early days a beachhead or outpost of the Spanish during the conquest and colonization in the western and central Venezuela. From them left the expeditions of exploration and founding of new towns, Santa Ana de Coro lost the political capital of the Venezuela Province in 1578 to Caracas, motivated by repeated invasions of pirates and especially to the harshness of its climate. Finally it was no longer the seat of the bishopric in 1636, during the seventeenth century Coro was hit by a hurricane and invasions of pirates, to the point where it appeared in the charts of English and French of the time with the title of destroyed. However, these calamities left intact the countryside, with its productive power, thus, in the late 18th and early 19th century reaches its colonial peak. Precisely from this period are the best preserved buildings in the city. The movement, which would be the forerunner in the process would end in defeat. It was then in the port of La Vela de Coro, subsequently formed a bulwark of the Spanish Empire to land on its coasts the troops that end up destroying the First Republic of Venezuela. By the time the General Rafael Urdaneta invades from Maracaibo commanding the Grancolombian army, since the early 50s Coro was declared a National Heritage. Coro is located at north of the Coro region, transition between the Venezuelan Coastal Range and the Cordillera de Mérida. To the north lies the Médanos Isthmus, named for it found in a formation of dunes or sand fields that have formed by persistent trade winds. The isthmus connects the Paraguaná Peninsula with the mainland, at south of the city are the foothills of the Sierra de Falcón. Coro has a hot climate with an average of approximately 382 mm of rainfall per year. The highest rainfall occurs between October and December, the average temperature is 28.9 °C, with minimum temperatures of 25 °C and maximum 34 °C
18.
El Dorado
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The legends surrounding El Dorado changed over time, as it went from being a man, to a city, to a kingdom, and then finally an empire. A second location for El Dorado was inferred from rumors, which inspired several unsuccessful expeditions in the late 1500s in search of a city called Manõa on the shores of Lake Parime, two of the most famous of these expeditions were led by Sir Walter Raleigh. In pursuit of the legend, Spanish conquistadors and numerous others searched Colombia, Venezuela, in the course of these explorations, much of northern South America, including the Amazon River, was mapped. By the beginning of the 19th century most people dismissed the existence of the city as a myth. The Muisca occupied the highlands of Cundinamarca and Boyacá departments of Colombia in two migrations from outlying areas, one starting ~1270 BCE, and a second between 800 BCE and 500 BCE. At those times, other ancient civilizations also flourished in the highlands. The Muisca Confederation was as advanced as the Aztec, Maya, in the mythology of the Muisca, Mnya the Gold or golden color, represents the energy contained in the trinity of Chiminigagua, which constitutes the creative power of everything that exists. Chiminigagua is related to Bachué, Cuza, Chibchacum, Bochica, the original narrative can be found in the rambling chronicle El Carnero of Juan Rodriguez Freyle. People gathered here to perform rituals and sacrifices mostly with gold, important lakes were Lake Guatavita, Lake Iguaque, Lake Fúquene, Lake Tota, the Siecha Lakes, Lake Teusacá and Lake Ubaque. El Dorado is applied to a story in which precious stones were found in fabulous abundance along with gold coins. The concept of El Dorado underwent several transformations, and eventually accounts of the myth were also combined with those of a legendary lost city. The resulting El Dorado myth enticed European explorers for two centuries, among the earliest stories was the one told on his deathbed by Juan Martinez, a captain of munitions for Spanish adventurer Diego de Ordaz, who claimed to have visited the city of Manoa. Martinez had allowed a store of gunpowder to fire and was condemned to death. The emperor, after he had him, knew him to be a Christian, and caused him to be lodged in his palace. He was brought all the way blindfold, led by the Indians, until he came to the entrance of Manoa itself. But Martinez, not desirous to stay, obtained the favour of Inga to depart, during the 16th and 17th centuries, Europeans, still fascinated by the New World, believed that a hidden city of immense wealth existed. Numerous expeditions were mounted to search for treasure, all which ended in failure. The illustration of El Dorados location on maps only made matters worse, the mythical city of El Dorado on Lake Parime was marked on numerous maps until its existence was disproved by Alexander von Humboldt during his Latin America expedition
19.
Walter Raleigh
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Sir Walter Raleigh was an English landed gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy and explorer. He was cousin to Sir Richard Grenville and younger half-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and he is also well known for popularising tobacco in England. Raleigh was born to a Protestant family in Devon, the son of Walter Raleigh, later, he became a landlord of property confiscated from the native Irish. He rose rapidly in the favour of Queen Elizabeth I and was knighted in 1585, Raleigh was instrumental in the English colonisation of North America and was granted a royal patent to explore Virginia, which paved the way for future English settlements. In 1591, he secretly married Elizabeth Throckmorton, one of the Queens ladies-in-waiting, without the Queens permission, for which he, after his release, they retired to his estate at Sherborne, Dorset. In 1594, Raleigh heard of a City of Gold in South America and sailed to find it, publishing an exaggerated account of his experiences in a book that contributed to the legend of El Dorado. After Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, Raleigh was again imprisoned in the Tower, this time for being involved in the Main Plot against King James I, in 1616, he was released to lead a second expedition in search of El Dorado. During the expedition, men led by his top commander ransacked a Spanish outpost and he returned to England and, to appease the Spanish, was arrested and executed in 1618. Raleigh was one of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, in 2002, he was featured in the BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Little is known about Raleighs birth, some historians believe that he was born on 22 January 1552, although the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography currently favours a date of 1554. He grew up in the house of Hayes Barton, a farmhouse near the village of East Budleigh and he was the youngest of five sons born to Catherine Champernowne in two successive marriages. His half-brothers John Gilbert, Humphrey Gilbert, and Adrian Gilbert, Catherine Champernowne was a niece of Kat Ashley, Elizabeths governess, who introduced the young men at court. Raleighs family was highly Protestant in religious orientation and had a number of near escapes during the reign of Roman Catholic Queen Mary I of England, in the most notable of these, his father had to hide in a tower to avoid execution. As a result, Raleigh developed a hatred of Roman Catholicism during his childhood, in matters of religion, Elizabeth was more moderate than her half sister Mary. In 1569, Raleigh left for France to serve with the Huguenots in the French religious civil wars, in 1572, Raleigh was registered as an undergraduate at Oriel College, Oxford, but he left a year later without a degree. Raleigh proceeded to finish his education in the Inns of Court, in 1575, he was registered at the Middle Temple. At his trial in 1603, he stated that he had never studied law and his life is uncertain between 1569 and 1575, but in his History of the World he claimed to have been an eyewitness at the Battle of Moncontour in France. In 1575 or 1576, Raleigh returned to England, between 1579 and 1583, Raleigh took part in the suppression of the Desmond Rebellions
20.
Alexander von Humboldt
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Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher. Humboldts quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, Humboldts advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement laid the foundation for modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America and his description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. Humboldt was one of the first people to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined and this important work also motivated a holistic perception of the universe as one interacting entity. Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin in Prussia on 14 September 1769 and he was baptized as a baby in the Lutheran faith, with the Duke of Brunswick serving as godfather. At age 42, Alexander Georg was rewarded for his services in the Seven Years War with the post of Royal Chamberlain and he profited from the contract to lease state lotteries and tobacco sales. He first married the daughter of Prussian General Adjutant Schweder, in 1766, Alexander Georg married Maria Elisabeth Colomb, a well-educated woman and widow of Baron Hollwede, with whom she had a son. Alexander Georg and Maria Elisabeth had three children, a daughter, who died young, and then two sons, Wilhelm and Alexander and her first-born son, Wilhelms and Alexanders half-brother, was something of a neer do well, not often mentioned in the family history. Alexander Georg died in 1779, leaving the brothers Humboldt in the care of their emotionally distant mother, Humboldts mother expected them to become civil servants of the Prussian state. The money Baron Holwede left to Alexanders mother became, after her death, instrumental in funding Alexanders explorations, due to his youthful penchant for collecting and labeling plants, shells and insects, Alexander received the playful title of the little apothecary. On April 25,1789, he matriculated at Göttingen, then known for the lectures of C. G. Heyne and his brother Wilhelm was already a student at Göttingen, but they did not interact much since their intellectual interests were quite different. His vast and varied interests were by this time fully developed, at Göttingen he met Georg Forster, a naturalist who had been with Captain James Cook on his second voyage. Humboldt traveled with Forster in Europe, the two traveled to England, Humboldts first sea voyage, The Netherlands, and France. In England, he met Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, the scientific friendship between Banks and Humboldt lasted until Bankss death in 1820, and the two shared botanical specimens for study. Banks also mobilized his scientific contacts in later years to aid Humboldts work, Humboldts scientific excursion up the Rhine resulted in his 1790 treatise Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein. Humboldts passion for travel was of long standing, Humboldts talents were devoted to the purpose of preparing himself as a scientific explorer. During this period, his brother Wilhelm married, but Alexander did not attend the nuptials, Humboldt graduated from the Freiberg School of Mines in 1792 and was appointed to a Prussian government position in the Department of Mines as an inspector in Bayreuth and the Fichtel mountains
21.
Boto
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Boto is a Portuguese name given to several types of dolphins and river dolphins native to the Amazon and the Orinoco River tributaries. A few botos exist exclusively in water, and these are often considered primitive dolphins. The botos are a group, defined largely by their evolutionary convergences. The genus Sotalia is divided into two species, the costero is distributed in the Atlantic, from Florianópolis in Santa Catarina, Brazil, and northwards. The tucuxi lives in the rivers of the Amazon, burmeisters porpoise is marine and lives from Santa Catarina to the south. The Amazon river dolphin thrives in water, is endemic to the Amazon basin. The Araguaian river dolphin is a newly identified species native to the Araguaia-Tocantins basin of Brazil, the La Plata dolphin, another vulnerable Brazilian denizen, is a marine river dolphin that ranges from Espírito Santo, Brazil, to the south
22.
Angostura Bridge
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Angostura Bridge is a suspension bridge that spans the Orinoco River at Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela. The Spanish word Angostura means narrows, built in 1967 at a cost of $35million US, the bridge has a main span of 712 metres. Until the opening of the Second Orinoco crossing 100 km downstream near Ciudad Guayana on 13 November 2006 it was the bridge across the Orinoco
23.
Ciudad Guayana
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Ciudad Guayana is a city in Bolívar State, Venezuela. It lies south of the Orinoco, where the river is joined by the Caroní River, there are bridges across the Caroni and a new bridge across the Orinoco. The city stretches 40 kilometers along the bank of the Orinoco. With approximately one million people, it is Venezuelas fastest-growing city due to its important iron and steelworks, the city has a large hydroelectric power plant, Macagua Dam. Guayana City is one of Venezuelas five most important ports, since most goods produced in Bolívar are shipped through it, due to its planned nature, the city has a drastically different feel to it than many other South American cities. This is a due to the presence in the 1960s and early 1970s of US Steel. Guayana City is served by Manuel Carlos Piar Guayana Airport, many of Venezuelas prime industries are based in Puerto Ordaz. These include Alcasa, Venalum, Bauxilum, Carbonorca, Ferrominera, the countrys main electricity producer, Edelca, and the regional development office, CVG, are also located in Puerto Ordaz. The port of Puerto Ordaz in a combination of piers, all under the control of CVG, the others are directly related to the CVG production companies in principal all aluminium related, approximately 9 piers in total. One of the most frequently used piers is Ferrominera at the mouth of the Caroni river, another is Ternium Sidor at mile 197. Edelca also built and administers Guri and gave origin to the Guri reservoir, Puerto Ordaz is crisscrossed from north to south and east to west by numerous avenues. Some of them are, Guayana Avenue is the main avenue of the city. It begins at the toll on the Ciudad Bolívar-Ciudad Guayana Highway, Atlántico Avenue runs through Puerto Ordaz from west to east on the south side of the city. It intersects with the Las Americas avenue and the Leopoldo Sucre Figarella avenue and this gives a high importance to this avenue. Las Américas Avenue connects the Altavista sector with the centre, Paseo Caroní Avenue starts on the west side of the city and ends at the Atlantic avenue. On December 3,2006, the Orinokia bridge, which crosses the Orinoco river, was inaugurated, the area is served by Manuel Carlos Piar Guayana Airport. In Puerto Ordaz the principal recreation centers are, Natural, Llovizna park, Cachamay park, shopping centers, Orinokia mall, Altavista Mall, Atlántico Mall. Family, Macagua Eco museum, Christmas Park and the Italian-Venezuelan Club, Puerto Ordaz is also well known for having one of the best engineering schools in Latin America. E. E. T. I
24.
Orinoquia Bridge
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The Second Orinoco crossing or Orinoquia Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the Orinoco River near Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela. It was inaugurated on November 13,2006 and named Orinoquia Bridge, prior to its construction, the only crossing of the Orinoco was the Angostura Bridge around 100 km further upstream at Ciudad Bolívar that was opened in 1967. At the site chosen for the bridge the Orinoco is three kilometres wide with two channels separated by a small island that is revealed during the low water season. The average discharge of the river varies between 66000 m³/s and 85000 m³/s, flowing at up to 2.6 m/s. The crossing is composed of approximately 4.5 km of structures and carries four lanes of road traffic separated into two carriageways by a railway track in the centre. The two navigation spans have a clearance of 41 m above water level and are supported by four 120 m tall H-shaped pylons via two planes of cable stays. Unusually, these spans do not lead directly into each other as at other multi-span cable stayed bridges such as the Millau Viaduct, the bridge was built to complement the existing Angostura Bridge and to provide a more direct connection with the important industrial city of Ciudad Guayana. In particular, it was intended to provide for a rail connection to allow the citys heavy industrial products to be transported to the ports of Venezuelas Caribbean coast. River transport on the Orinoco includes oceangoing ships, but because of its high sediment load the Orinoco has to be constantly dredged, in addition the crossing strengthens transport links between Venezuela and Brazil to the South which is important for Brazilian exports. This is one reason why President Lula da Silva of Brazil attended the inauguration together with Venezuelas Hugo Chávez, near the bridge, there is Orinoco powerline crossing, whose pylons are the tallest man-made structures in South America today. List of road-rail bridges Dorman Long Technology, Orinoco River Second Crossing, Venezuela Bridge design and engineering news, over the Orinoco Corporación Venezolana de Guayana
25.
Guiana Shield
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The Guiana Shield is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a 1.7 billion-year-old Precambrian geological formation in northeast South America that forms a portion of the northern coast, the higher elevations on the shield are called the Guiana Highlands, which is where the table-like mountains called tepuis are found. The Guiana Highlands are also the source of some of the worlds most spectacular waterfalls such as Angel Falls, Kaieteur Falls, the Guiana Shield underlies Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, as well as parts of Colombia, and Brazil. From this arc, the southern uplands slope gently downwards towards the Amazon River, the Chiribiquete Plateau is a sandstone topped plateau with an elevation of 900 m that forms the western edge of the shield. The plateau is separated from the eastern Andes by the thick Neogene sediments of the Sub-Andean Trough that runs along the northern and western rim of the Guiana Shield, the highest point in the shield is Pico da Neblina in Brazil at 2,995 metres. The Guiana Shield is one of the regions of highest biodiversity in the world, the region houses has over 3000 vertebrate species,1168 fresh water fish,269 amphibians,295 reptiles,1004 birds, and 282 mammals. Diversity of invertebrates remains largely undocumented, but there are species of endemic butterflies. Plant life is rich and 13,367 species of vascular plants have been found. The shield is overlain by the largest expanse of undisturbed rain forest in the world. In Venezuela the forests are protected by Canaima, Parima-Tapirapeco and Serranía de la Neblina national parks, according to recent researches, ecosystems of the Guayana Highlands are in danger because of non-native plant species and infectious faecal bacteria Helicobacter pylori introduced by tourists. Tepui Canadian Shield Caribbean South America Monte Roraima Pico da Neblina Great American Interchange Geography of South America Media related to Guiana Highlands at Wikimedia Commons
26.
Guaviare River
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The Guaviare is a tributary of the Orinoco in Colombia. The Guaviare has its source in two rivers, the Ariari and the Guayabero, which in turn have their own sources in the eastern part of the Andes. At 1,497 kilometres long, it is the longest tributary of the Orinoco and is navigable for 630 kilometres of its total length, the Guaviare is considered the border between the Llanos and the Amazon Rainforest. Its main tributary is the Inírida River, the information in this article is based on a translation of its German equivalent. Territorial-Environmental Information System of Colombian Amazon SIAT-AC website
27.
San Fernando de Atabapo
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San Fernando de Atabapo was the capital city of Venezuelas Amazonas state until the early 1900s. The population in 1997 was approximately 5,000, in the early twentieth century it was ruled for a long time by Tomas Funes, a powerful caudillo who controlled the local rubber industry by enslaving the local native populations. His power eventually became great enough to threaten the Venezuelan authorities, the town displays a photograph of a United States military aircraft that was shot down and crashed into the Orinoco River around this time. A Venezuelan National Guard unit is stationed here
28.
Gulf of Paria
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The Gulf of Paria is a 7,800 km2 shallow semi-enclosed inland sea located between the island of Trinidad and the east coast of Venezuela. The Gulf of Paria is considered to be one of the best natural harbours on the Atlantic coast of the Americas. The jurisdiction of the Gulf of Paria is split between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela with Trinidad and Tobago having control over approximately 2,940 km2 and Venezuela the remainder. It was originally named the Gulf of the Whale by Christopher Columbus, cartographic sources of the late 18th century repeatedly refer to it as the Sad Gulf. In the north, the gulf is connected to the Caribbean Sea through the Dragons Mouths between the Paria Peninsula of Venezuela and the Chaguaramas Peninsula of Trinidad. In the south, the gulf is connected to the Atlantic through the Columbus Channel, also known as the Serpents Mouth, the Gulf of Paria lies entirely within the broad strike-slip plate boundary zone of the southeastern Caribbean. The structure of the Gulf consists of a set of transtensional basins superimposed on a fold-and-thrust belt. The petroleum of Trinidad has been generated by prolific Upper Cretaceous source rocks, time equivalent to the La Luna and Querecual formations in Columbia and these source rocks were then overlain by a thick succession of Paleogene deep water sediments and shallow marine siliciclastic reservoir rocks. The transpression due to the influence of the Caribbean plate created several sub-basins across the Trinidad area, the hydrocarbon basins in Trinidad are Southern Basin, Columbus Basin, Carupano Basin, Central Range/Darrien Rdige Basin and the Caroni Basin and Gulf of Paria Pull-apart Basin. The Caroni Basin is a Cenozoic basin bounded to the north by the El Pilar fault zone and its stratigraphy features a shallowing section from the Miocene which overlies Palaeocene and Lower Cretaceous deep water sediments. The Gulf of Paria is the offshore extension of the Caroni basin. However its deformation is now due to the right-stepping of the dextral El Pilar fault to the dextral Warm Springs fault. The Los Bajos fault separates the Gulf of Paria from the Southern basin sediments, natural gas has been discovered in the onshore Caroni basin while in the Gulf of Paria, both oil and gas have been discovered. The Gulf of Paria is a water body - wet season salinities are below 23 ppt with extensive mangroves along the Venezuelan and Trinidadian coastlines. This body of water is basically a shallow basin with a maximum depth of 0f 30m. These conditions lend itself to favourable conditions and the gulf itself is an important fishery. As such, Trinidad supports a productive and diverse exploitable fish. The Gulf of Paria is the most important fishing ground for shrimp, historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago
29.
River delta
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A river delta is a landform that forms from deposition of sediment carried by a river as the flow leaves its mouth and enters slower-moving or standing water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, River deltas are ecologically important as they provide coastline defense, are home to many species, and can impact drinking water supply. The tidal currents also cannot be too strong, as sediment would wash out into the body faster than the river deposits it. Of course, the river must carry enough sediment to layer into deltas over time, the rivers velocity decreases rapidly, causing it to deposit the majority, if not all, of its load. This alluvium builds up to form the river delta, when the flow enters the standing water, it is no longer confined to its channel and expands in width. This flow expansion results in a decrease in the flow velocity, as a result, sediment drops out of the flow and deposits. Over time, this single channel builds a deltaic lobe, pushing its mouth into the standing water, as the deltaic lobe advances, the gradient of the river channel becomes lower because the river channel is longer but has the same change in elevation. As the slope of the channel decreases, it becomes unstable for two reasons. First, gravity makes the flow in the most direct course down slope. If the river breaches its natural levees, it out onto a new course with a shorter route to the ocean. Second, as its slope gets lower, the amount of stress on the bed decreases, which results in deposition of sediment within the channel. This makes it easier for the river to breach its levees, often when the channel does this, some of its flow remains in the abandoned channel. When these channel-switching events occur, a mature delta develops a distributary network, another way these distributary networks form is from deposition of mouth bars. When this mid-channel bar is deposited at the mouth of a river and this results in additional deposition on the upstream end of the mouth-bar, which splits the river into two distributary channels. A good example of the result of this process is the Wax Lake Delta, in both of these cases, depositional processes force redistribution of deposition from areas of high deposition to areas of low deposition. This results in the smoothing of the shape of the delta as the channels move across its surface. Because the sediment is laid down in fashion, the shape of these deltas approximates a fan. The more often the flow changes course, the shape develops as closer to an ideal fan, the Mississippi and Ural River deltas, with their birds-feet, are examples of rivers that do not avulse often enough to form a symmetrical fan shape
30.
Amazonas (Venezuelan state)
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Amazonas State is one of the 23 states into which Venezuela is divided. It covers nearly a fifth of the area of Venezuela, but has less than 1% of Venezuelas total population, the state capital is Puerto Ayacucho. The capital until the early 1900s was San Fernando de Atabapo, although named after the Amazon River, most of the state is drained by the Orinoco River. Amazonas State covers a surface area of 176,899 km² and. Its density is of 0.8 inhabitants per km², Amazonas has Venezuelas highest proportion of indigenous peoples of Venezuela, these make up only around 1. 5% of the population nationwide, but the proportion is nearly 50% in Amazonas. The territory covered by present-day Amazonas was previously part of the Guayana Province, Amazonas was created as a state in 1994, having been a Federal Territory since 1864. According to the 2011 Census, the composition of the population was, Amazonas Department, Colombia Amazonas State
31.
Casiquiare canal
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The Casiquiare river is a distributary of the upper Orinoco flowing southward into the Rio Negro, in Venezuela, South America. As such, it forms a natural canal between the Orinoco and Amazon river systems. It is the worlds largest river of the kind that links two major systems, a so-called bifurcation. The area forms a divide, more dramatically at regional flood stage. In 1744 a Jesuit priest named Father Roman, while ascending the Orinoco River and he accompanied them on their return, by way of the Casiquiare canal, and afterwards retraced his route to the Orinoco. Little credence was given to Father Romans statement until it was verified, in 1756, by the Spanish Boundary-line Commission of Yturriaga, in 1800 German scientist Alexander von Humboldt and French botanist Aimé Bonpland explored the river. During a 1924–25 expedition, Alexander H. Rice, Jr. of Harvard University traveled up the Orinoco, traversed the Casiquiare canal and it was the first expedition to use aerial photography and shortwave radio for mapping of the region. In 1968 the Casiquiare was navigated by an SRN6 hovercraft during a National Geographic expedition, the origin of the Casiquiare, at the River Orinoco, is 14 kilometres below the mission of La Esmeralda at 3°8′18. 5″N 65°52′42. 5″W, and about 123 metres above sea level. Its mouth at the Rio Negro, an affluent of the Amazon River, is near the town of San Carlos and is 91 metres above sea level, the general course is south-west, and its length, including windings, is about 320 kilometres. Its width, at its bifurcation with the Orinoco, is approximately 90 metres and it broadens considerably as it approaches its mouth, where it is about 533 metres wide. The volume of water the Casiquiare captures from the Orinoco is small in comparison to what it accumulates in its course, in the dry season, it has shallows, and is obstructed by sandbanks, a few rapids and granite rocks. Its shores are wooded, and the soil more fertile than that along the Rio Negro. The general slope of the plains through which the runs is south-west. Although the Terni is somewhat obstructed, it is believed that it could easily be made navigable for small craft, the isthmus is 10 miles across, with undulating ground, nowhere over 15 metres high, with swamps and marshes. It is much used for the transit of large canoes, which are hauled across it from the Terni river, the Casiquiare canal – Orinoco River hydrographic divide is a representation of the hydrographic water divide that delineates the separation between the Orinoco Basin and the Amazon Basin. Essentially the river divide is a west-flowing, upriver section of Venezuelas Orinoco River with an outflow to the south into the Amazon Basin and this named outflow is the Casiquiare canal, which, as it heads downstream, picks up speed and also accumulates water volume. The greatest manifestation of the divide is during floods, at flood, the river becomes an area flow source, far more than a narrow confined river. The Casiquiare canal connects the upper Orinoco,14 kilometres below the mission of Esmeraldas, the simplest description of the water divide is a south-bank Orinoco River strip at the exit point of the Orinoco, also the origin of the Casiquiare canal
32.
Rio Negro (Amazon)
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The Rio Negro is the largest left tributary of the Amazon, the largest blackwater river in the world, and one of the worlds ten largest rivers by average discharge. The source of the Rio Negro lies in Colombia, in the Department of Guainía where the river is known as Guainía River, after roughly 400 km the river starts forming the border between Colombias Department of Guainía and Venezuelas Amazonas State. After passing the Colombian community of Tonina and Macanal the river turns Southwest, maroa is the first Venezuelan town the river passes. 120 km further downstream the river receives the Casiquiare canal from the right-hand, henceforth the river is called Rio Negro. The river now continues in a direction passing the Venezuelan town of San Carlos de Río Negro, its largest settlement on the river. In this stretch the river is fed with tributaries from both sides, and it quickly grows in size creating large river islands, a common feature for all rivers in the Amazon basin. After forming the border between Colombia and Venezuela for 260 km the rio Negro reaches the Piedra del Cocuy, a rock formation from the Precambrian era. Here the Tripoint of Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil is found in the middle of the river and it now completely enters Amazonas State, after passing Cucuí, the river continues south, only temporarily turning west for several kilometers. In Missão Boa Vista the Içana River joins the Rio Negro and in São Joaquim the Uaupes River, the Rio Negro now turns markedly towards the east, forming several rapids and small islets on its way. It then passes Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira an important commercial city, after several more rapids and imposing views of the Adormecida mountain chain the river leaves the Guyana shield it traversed in its upper and middle course. After the Marié River enters the Rio Negro the river continues its eastward course forming many large islands and it passes local communities such as Santa Isabel do Rio Negro. During the wet season, the floods the country far and wide here, sometimes to a width of 30 kilometres. During this season, from April until October, it is a succession of lagoons, full of long islands and intricate channels with a lot of water wildlife. Near Carvoeiro the last major tributary of the Rio Negro, the Branco River joins the Rio Negro, the river now takes a more southeastern course, becoming again very wide in many stretches before reaching the biggest city on its course Manaus. Below the archipelago it meets the Solimões River to form the Amazon River, the river was named by the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana, who first came upon it in 1541. By the middle of the 17th century, Jesuits had settled along its banks in the midst of numerous tribes, Manau, Aruák, after 1700 slaving along the river was common, and indigenous populations were greatly diminished after contact with infectious European diseases. While the name Rio Negro means Black River, its waters are similar in color to strong tea, the dark color comes from humic acid due to an incomplete breakdown of phenol-containing vegetation from sandy clearings. The river was named because it looks black from a distance, much has been written on the productivity of the Rio Negro and other blackwater rivers
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Amazon River
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The Amazon River, usually abbreviated to Amazon, in South America is the largest river by discharge of water in the world and, according to some authors, the longest in length. Brazilians call this section the Solimões River above its confluence with the Rio Negro to form what Brazilians call the Amazon at the Meeting of Waters at Manaus, the rivers largest city. The Amazon basin is the largest drainage basin in the world, the portion of the rivers drainage basin in Brazil alone is larger than any other rivers basin. The Amazon enters Brazil with only one-fifth of the flow it finally discharges into the Atlantic Ocean, during what many archaeologists call the formative stage, Amazonian societies were deeply involved in the emergence of South Americas highland agrarian systems. Early human settlements were based on low-lying hills or mounds. Shell mounds were the earliest evidences of inhabitation, they represent piles of refuse and are mainly dated between 7500 and 4000 years BP. They are associated with ceramic age cultures, no preceramic shell mounds have been documented so far by archaeologists, artificial earth platforms for entire villages are the second type of mounds. They are best represented by the Marajoara culture, figurative mounds are the most recent types of occupation. There is ample evidence that the surrounding the Amazon River were home to complex and large-scale indigenous societies, mainly chiefdoms who developed large towns. Archeologists estimate that by the time the Spanish conquistador De Orellana travelled across the Amazon in 1541 and these pre-Columbian settlements created highly developed civilizations. For instance, pre-Columbian indigenous people on the island of Marajó may have developed social stratification, in order to achieve this level of development, the indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon rainforest altered the forests ecology by selective cultivation and the use of fire. Scientists argue that by burning areas of the forest repetitiously, the people caused the soil to become richer in nutrients. This created dark soil areas known as terra preta de índio, further research has hypothesized that this practice began around 11,000 years ago. Some say that its effects on forest ecology and regional climate explain the otherwise inexplicable band of rainfall through the Amazon basin. Many indigenous tribes engaged in constant warfare, james Stuart Olson wrote, The Munduruku expansion dislocated and displaced the Kawahíb, breaking the tribe down into much smaller groups. First came to the attention of Europeans in 1770 when they began a series of attacks on Brazilian settlements along the Amazon River. In March 1500, Spanish conquistador Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was the first documented European to sail up the Amazon River. Pinzón called the stream Río Santa María del Mar Dulce, later shortened to Mar Dulce, literally, sweet sea, because of its fresh water pushing out into the ocean
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Arauca River
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The Arauca River rises in the Andes Mountains of north-central Colombia and ends at the Orinoco in Venezuela. For part of its run it is the boundary between Colombia and Venezuela, the major city on its banks is Arauca, Colombia and El Amparo, Venezuela. The Arauca is typical of the rivers flow east across the Llanos Orientales starting as a swift mountain stream. It starts high in the Andes, in the Páramo del Almorzadero at over 4,000 metres above sea level. Initially it is called the Chitagá, it receives inflows from the Carabo and the Cacota, and then twists its course towards the east joining with the Culaga, at which point its name changes to the Margua. The Negro, the Colorado and the San Lorenzo then flow into it, from the right bank come the Cubugón and the Cobar from the Sierra Nevada de Chita. In this stretch the Tunebo Indians call the river the Sarare, now flowing across a flat zone, it divides to form the Charo Island. From this point it takes the name Arauca in tribute to the Araucana tribe who inhabited the mountain ranges of the upper course and belonged to the great Arawak family. Now in the savannas of the Llanos Orientales it often becomes a river with the main course splitting to form the subsidiary channels. Various subsidiary channels are used for transportation from the town of Arauca down to its mouth on the Orinoco. The course of the river is 80 percent navigable in small boats
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Distributary
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A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. They are a feature of river deltas. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation, the opposite of a distributary is a tributary. In some cases, a minor distributary can divert so much water from the channel that it can become the main route. Common terms to name individual river distributaries in English-speaking countries are arm and they may refer to a distributary that does not rejoin the channel it has branched from, or one that does. In Australia, the term anabranch is used to refer to a distributary that diverts from the course of the river. In North America an anabranch is called a braided stream, in Louisiana, the Atchafalaya River is an important distributary of the Mississippi River. Examples of inland distributaries, Teton River—a tributary of Henrys Fork in Idaho—splits into two channels, the North Fork and South Fork, which join Henrys Fork miles apart. Kings River has deposited an alluvial fan at the transition from its canyon in the Sierra Nevada mountains to the flat Central Valley. Distributaries flow north into the Pacific Ocean via San Joaquin River, the QuAppelle River, in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, is a distributary of the South Saskatchewan River. Its flow is controlled by the QuAppelle River Dam and this dam forms the southern arm of Lake Diefenbaker. The Casiquiare is a distributary of the upper Orinoco, which flows southward into the Rio Negro. It is the largest river on the planet that links two major river systems, the IJssel, the Waal and the Nederrijn are the three principal distributaries of the Rhine. These are formed by two separate bifurcations within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, the Akhtuba River is a major distributary of the Volga. The bifurcation occurs close to, but before, the Volga Delta, the Tärendö River in northern Sweden is an inland distributary, far from the mouth of the river. It begins at the Torne River and ends at the Kalix River, the Little Danube in Slovakia branches off from the Danube near Bratislava, and flows into the Vah before rejoining the main river near Komárno. The area in the middle is the largest freshwater island in Europe, kollidam River is a distributary of the Kaveri River. These areas are highly flood-prone, for example the 2008 Bihar flood on the Kosi River, hoogli River is a Ganges distributary that flows through India, whereas most of the Ganges-Brahmaputra complex enters the sea through Bangladesh
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Caura River (Venezuela)
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The Caura, is a tributary of the Orinoco River, located in Bolívar State in Venezuela. Its flow is the second after the Caroni River among the affluents of the Orinoco River, the river is inhabited by both the Yekuana and Sanema indigenous groups. The river drains the Guayanan Highlands moist forests ecoregion, the Caura River is about 723 kilometres long. Its major tributary is the Erebato, both rivers emerge from the Jaua-Sarisariñama Plateau, more than 2,000 metres above sea level). The Caura is a Blackwater river, like the Caroní, the Ventuari River, the Caura is 1,500 metres wide at Musinacio, the point where it joins the Orinoco,5.6 kilometres wide at this point. Satellite images in the Intertropical Zone show a lack of clouds above the biggest rivers, such as the Caura and Orinoco. We need to take into account two facts, Satellite images, like aerial ones, are taken in the morning, when there are clouds in the atmosphere. Sunshine heats up water in rivers and land surface. However, water needs much more time to heating up than land does and it is heat coming up from soil and river waters, which in turn heat up the atmosphere. Therefore, difference of temperature between land and rivers is at its maximum at 10 a. m, exploraciones botánicas en la Guayana venezolana. Voyage à travers les Llanos du Caura et aux Sources de l’Orénoque, relation de voyages exécutés en 1886 et 1887. Edición en castellano, El Orinoco y el Caura, caracas, Fondo Cultural Orinoco, Editorial Croquis S. R. L
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Giant otter
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The giant otter or giant river otter is a South American carnivorous mammal. It is the longest member of the Mustelidae, or weasel family, atypical of mustelids, the giant otter is a social species, with family groups typically supporting three to eight members. The groups are centered on a dominant breeding pair and are cohesive and cooperative. Although generally peaceful, the species is territorial, and aggression has been observed between groups, the giant otter is diurnal, being active exclusively during daylight hours. It is the noisiest otter species, and distinct vocalizations have been documented that indicate alarm, aggressiveness, the giant otter ranges across north-central South America, it lives mostly in and along the Amazon River and in the Pantanal. Its distribution has been reduced and is now discontinuous. Decades of poaching for its velvety pelt, peaking in the 1950s and 1960s, the species was listed as endangered in 1999 and wild population estimates are typically below 5,000. The Guianas are one of the last real strongholds for the species and it is one of the most endangered mammal species in the neotropics. Habitat degradation and loss is the greatest current threat, the giant otter is also rare in captivity, in 2003, only 60 animals were being held. The giant otter shows a variety of adaptations suitable to a lifestyle, including exceptionally dense fur, a wing-like tail. The species prefers freshwater rivers and streams, which are seasonally flooded. It constructs extensive campsites close to feeding areas, clearing large amounts of vegetation, the giant otter subsists almost exclusively on a diet of fish, particularly characins and catfish, but may also eat crabs, turtles, snakes and small caiman. It has no natural predators other than humans, although it must compete with other species, including the neotropical otter and caiman species. The giant otter has a handful of other names, in Brazil it is known as ariranha, from the Tupí word ariraña, meaning water jaguar. All three names are in use in South America, with a number of regional variations, giant otter translates literally as nutria gigante and lontra gigante in Spanish and Portuguese, respectively. Among the Achuar people, they are known as wankanim, the genus name, Pteronura, is derived from the Ancient Greek words pteron/πτερον and ura/ουρά, a reference to its distinctive, wing-like tail. The otters form the Lutrinae subfamily within the mustelids and the giant otter is the member of the genus Pteronura. Two subspecies are recognized by the canonical Mammal Species of the World, P. b. brasiliensis
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Church, George Earl (1911). "Orinoco". Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 (11th ed.). pp. 275–276.
Church, George Earl (1911). "