Pico Humboldt is Venezuela's second highest peak, at 4,925 metres above sea level. It is located in the

Sierra Nevada de Merida Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following: Places Mountains and mountain ranges * Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico * Sierra de las Nieves, a mountain range i ...

, in the Venezuelan Andes of (

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 *M� ...

). The peak, its sister peak

Pico Bonpland Pico Bonpland is Venezuela's third highest peak, at 4,883 metres above sea level. It is located in the Sierra Nevada de Merida, in the Venezuelan Andes of (Mérida State). The peak with its sister peak Pico Humboldt, and the surrounding páramos ...

, and the surrounding

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrowe ...

s are protected by the Sierra Nevada National Park. The mountain is named after German explorer and naturalist

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister ...

Glaciers

The summit was formerly surrounded by glaciers, including the two largest out of the four

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 over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

s remaining in the country (the other two smaller glaciers were on

Pico Bolívar Pico Bolívar is the highest mountain in Venezuela, 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 ...

). The glaciers on Humboldt Peak (as most

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

glaciers) have been receding fast since the 1970s. By 2009, all but one glacier, the

Humboldt Glacier Humboldt Glacier ( da, Humboldt Gletscher) is one of the major glaciers in northern Greenland. The glacier is named after German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and is the widest tidewater glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. Geography The Humb ...

, had vanished. The remaining glacier covers an area of 0.1 km² and is forecast to melt completely within a decade.

References

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

External link

* {{Venezuela-geo-stub Humboldt Glaciers of Venezuela Geography of Mérida (state) Páramos Sierra Nevada National Park (Venezuela)