Pico Bolívar
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Pico Bolívar is the highest mountain in
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
, at 4,978 metres (16,332 ft).Pérez et al (Sep. 2005)
"Alturas del Pico Bolívar y otras cimas andinas venezolanas a partir de observaciones Gps."
INCI v.30, n.4, Caracas sep. 2005. Retrieved 2012-09-27.
Located in
Mérida State Mérida or Merida may refer to: Places *Mérida (state), one of the 23 states which make up Venezuela *Mérida, Mérida, the capital city of the state of Mérida, Venezuela * Merida, Leyte, Philippines, a municipality in the province of Leyte * ...
, its top is permanently covered with
névé Névé is a young, granular type of snow which has been partially melted, refrozen and compacted, yet precedes the form of ice. This type of snow is associated with glacier formation through the process of ''nivation''. Névé that survives a ...
snow and three small
glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...
s. It can be reached only by walking; the
Mérida cable car The Mérida Cable Car ( es, Teleférico de Mérida) or Mukumbarí is a cable car system in Venezuela. Its base is located in the Venezuelan city of Mérida at an altitude of , and its terminus is on Pico Espejo, at . It is the highest and se ...
, which was the highest and longest cable car in the world when it was built, only reaches
Pico Espejo Pico Espejo (Mirror Peak) is a mountain in the Andes of Venezuela. It has a height of . Near its peak is the fifth and final station of the Mérida cable car The Mérida Cable Car ( es, Teleférico de Mérida) or Mukumbarí is a cable car ...
. From there it is possible to climb to Pico Bolívar. The peak is named after the Venezuelan independence hero
Simón Bolívar Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and B ...
. The Pico Bolívar is located on the mountain previously called La Columna, next to El León (4,743 m) and El Toro (4,695 m). The new name was suggested by Tulio Febres Cordero in 1925. It was officially renamed on December 30, 1934.


Elevation

The height of this prominent Andean peak has been estimated and calculated various times during history. In 1912, one
triangular A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- collinea ...
measurement pointed at . In 1928 came another calculation at , which stood as official height for a long time. During the 1990s, the scientists Heinz Saler and Carlso Abad estimated the height, based upon
GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...
observations to be . However, no validation was made. New GPS measurements were made in 2002, which stated a height of 4,978.4 ±0.4 metres. These more correct findings were published in 2005. The final measurement was made by
José Napoleon Hernández José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...
from IGVSB; Diego Deiros and Carlos Rodriguez from USB and two guides from Inparques. GPS measurements designed for geodetic network consists of the vertices Pico Bolívar, El Toro, Piedras Blancas, and Mucuñuque Observatory, the latter belonging to the Venezuelan Red Geocentric REGVEN. Measurements were temporally equally long and continuous to ensure a greater volume of data over time to make more consistent and reliable information, five (5) GPS dual frequency receivers were used.


Glacial retreat

During the Merida glaciation in the
Pleistocene epoch The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
, the glaciated area had a maximum extent of 600 km2 and covered mountains with a height of at least . At the end of the glaciation, the area covered by the glaciers progressively shrank, and before the start of the Little Ice Age they had possibly all disappeared. It is estimated that in 1910 the area covered by glaciers was around , divided in two large areas, one embracing Picos Bolívar, Espejo and Concha and the other embracing Picos Humboldt and Bonpland. Possibly a small glaciated area covered the northwest side of Pico El Toro."Efectos del calentamiento global ¿Nieves eternas en la Sierra Nevada de Mérida?''
Aerial pictures taken in 1952 show the glaciated area had already shrunk to for the Picos Bolívar, Espejo and Concha and to for the Picos Humboldt and Bonpland. In 2003 almost all the glaciers of the area had disappeared, with the exception of a two small glaciated areas ( on Pico Bolívar and on Pico Humboldt).


References

* Pérez O, Hoyer M, Hernández J, Rodríguez C, Márques V, Sué N, Velandia J, Deiros D. (2005). "Alturas del Pico Bolívar y otras cimas andinas venezolanas a partir de observaciones GPS" ''Interciencia''. 30 (4)

* Jahn, A. "Observaciones glaciológicas de los Andes venezolanos" ''Cult. Venez.'' 1925, 64:265-80


Notes


External links


"Pico Bolívar, Venezuela" on Peakbagger
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pico Bolivar Mountains of Venezuela, Bolivar Glaciers of Venezuela Geography of Mérida (state) Highest points of countries Four-thousanders of the Andes Sierra Nevada National Park (Venezuela) Extreme points of Venezuela