| Lake Valencia | |
|---|---|
| Lake Tacarigua | |
 | |
  Lake Valencia | |
| Coordinates | 10°11′N67°44′W / 10.183°N 67.733°W |
| Type | endorheic |
| Native name | |
| Primary inflows | Aragua River (main tributary) |
| Catchment area | 2,646 km2 (1,022 sq mi) |
| Basin countries | Venezuela |
| Surface area | 350 km2 (140 sq mi) |
| Average depth | 18 m (59 ft) |
| Max. depth | 39 m (128 ft) |
| Surface elevation | 410 m (1,350 ft) |
Lake Valencia (Spanish : Lago de Valencia), formerly Lake Tacarigua, is a lake within Carabobo State and Aragua State in northern Venezuela.
Lake Valencia is the third largest lake in Venezuela, after Lake Maracaibo and Lake Guri reservoir.
The lake is located in one of the Aragua valleys, between the parallel sub-Serranía del Interior in the Cordillera de la Costa Central, of the Venezuelan Coastal Ranges system.
The endorheic lake has natural discharge level at 427 m above sea level; the water level declined below this height about 250 years ago. Its surface level currently is 410 m above sea level, and is about 30 km long, has an area of 350 km². The maximum depth is 39 m, the mean depth 18 m. The lake has a number of small islands, with some inhabited. [1]
Its drainage basin (watershed area) of 2,646 km². The most important river emptying into the lake is the Aragua River. Others include the El Limón River, Guacara River, Güigüe River, Mariara River and Turmero River, which flow through or near their respective cities, El Limón, Guacara, Güigüe, Mariara and Turmero.
The lake was formed approximately 2–3 million years ago due to faulting and subsequent damming of the Cabriales River. The lake has been completely dry during several discrete periods of its geologic history.
Alexander von Humboldt visited the lake in 1800. He documented the negative impact of the surrounding population's land cultivation on the ecosystem. Deforestation and water diversion for irrigation led to the desiccation of Lake Valencia by dramatically reducing water levels. Lake Valencia is where Humboldt developed his conception of anthropogenic climate change. [2] He later wrote:
When forests are destroyed, as they are everywhere in America by the European planters, with an imprudent precipitation, the springs are entirely dried up, or become less abundant, The beds of the rivers remaining dry during a part of the year, are converted into torrents, whenever great rains fall on the heights. The sward and moss disappearing from the brush-wood on the sides of the mountains, the waters falling in rain are no longer impeded in their course: and instead of slowly augmenting the level of the rivers by progressive filtrations, they furrow during heavy showers the sides of the hills, bear down the loose soil, and form those sudden inundations that devastate the country. [3]
Since 1976, the water levels in Lake Valencia have risen due to diversion of water from neighboring drainage basins—it currently acts as a reservoir for the surrounding urban centers (such as Maracay and Valencia).
The lake suffers from algal blooms caused by continual influx of untreated wastewater from the surrounding urban, agricultural, and industrial land uses. This contributes to ongoing eutrophication, contamination, and salinization of the lake.
Despite its picturesque location between the Cordillera de la Costa to the north and the Serrania del Interior to the south, Lake Valencia's poor water quality limits opportunities for tourism and recreational activities. Due to pollution and other human induced changes, almost 60% of the native fish species in the lake were lost between 1960 and 1990. [4] Among the fish in the lake is the diamond tetra, which is commonly kept in aquaria, while two species of catfish, Lithogenes valencia and Pimelodella tapatapae are entirely endemic to the lake basin. [5]
A lake clean-up scheme with finance from IDB has been described [6] along with information on pollution loads, reuse opportunities and wastewater collection and treatment infrastructure, which was installed between 1991 and 2002.
The Republic of Colombia is situated largely in the north-west of South America, with some territories falling within the boundaries of Central America. It is bordered to the north-west by Panama; to the east by Brazil and Venezuela; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; and it shares maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
The geography of Bolivia includes the Eastern Andes Mountain Range which bisects Bolivia roughly from north to south. To the east of that mountain chain are lowland plains of the Amazon Basin, and to the west is the Altiplano which is a highland plateau where Lake Titicaca is located. Bolivia's geography has features similar to those of Peru which abuts Bolivia's northwest border; like Bolivia, Peru is bisected from north to south by the Eastern Andes Mountains, and these two countries share Lake Titicaca which is the highest navigable lake on Earth. Unlike Peru, however, Bolivia is one of the two landlocked countries in South America, the other being Paraguay which is located along Bolivia's southeast border.
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Carabobo State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela, located in the north of the country, about two hours by car from Caracas. The state capital city is Valencia, which is also the country's main industrial center. The state's area is 4,369 km2 (1,687 sq mi) and as of the 2011 census, had a population of 2,245,744.
Pyramid Lake is the geographic sink of the basin of the Truckee River, 40 mi (64 km) northeast of Reno, Nevada, United States.
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The Humboldt Sink is an intermittent dry lake bed, approximately 11 mi (18 km) long, and 4 mi (6 km) across, in northwestern Nevada in the United States. The body of water in the sink is known as Humboldt Lake. The sink and its surrounding area was a notorious and dreaded portion of overland travel to California during the westward migrations of the mid-1800s, which were largely undertaken along the California Trail.
The Magdalena River is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about 1,528 kilometres (949 mi) through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, in spite of the shifting sand bars at the mouth of its delta, as far as Honda, at the downstream base of its rapids. It flows through the Magdalena River Valley.
Lahontan cutthroat trout is the largest subspecies of cutthroat trout, and the state fish of Nevada. It is one of three subspecies of cutthroat trout that are listed as federally threatened.
Environmental issues in Venezuela include natural factors such as earthquakes, floods, rockslides, mudslides, and periodic droughts.
The Cordillera Oriental is the widest of the three branches of the Colombian Andes. The range extends from south to north dividing from the Colombian Massif in Huila Department to Norte de Santander Department where it splits into the Serranía del Perijá and the Cordillera de Mérida in Venezuelan Andes. The highest peak is Ritacuba Blanco at 5,410 m (17,750 ft) in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy.
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Dr. Alfredo Jahn Hartman was a Venezuelan civil engineer, botanist and geographer. Jahn was a member of the Academy of History, the Academy of Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Naturalist of Venezuela and the Venezuelan Society of Natural Sciences and achieved the Order of the Liberator. He was also an explorer and mountain climber. There is a large cave named after Jahn, "Cueva Alfredo Jahn". In 1911 he became the first person to ascend Pico Humboldt in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida in Venezuela.
The Maracaibo dry forests (NT0222) is an ecoregion in Venezuela around Lake Maracaibo. It contains the country's main oil fields. The habitat is criss-crossed by roads and is severely degraded by farming and livestock grazing.
Las Trincheras, also known as Las Trincheras de Aguas Calientes, is a locality near Valencia, Venezuela. It is noted for its hot springs, which feed into the Aguas Calientes River.
