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Tepuis
A tepui , or tepuy (), is a member of a family of table-top mountains or mesas found in northern South America, especially in Venezuela, western Guyana, and northern Brazil. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran Sabana. Tepuis tend to be found as isolated entities rather than in connected ranges, which makes them the host of a unique array of endemic plant and animal species. Notable tepuis include Auyantepui, Autana, Neblina, and Mount Roraima. They are typically composed of sheer blocks of Precambrian quartz arenite sandstone that rise abruptly from the jungle. Auyantepui is the source of Angel Falls, the world's tallest waterfall. Morphology These table-top mountains are the remains of a large sandstone plateau that once covered the granite basement complex between the north border of the Amazon Basin and the Orinoco, between the Atlantic coast and the Rio Negro. This area is p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gran Sabana
La Gran Sabana (, ) is a region in southeastern Venezuela, part of the Guianan savanna ecoregion. The savanna spreads into the regions of the Guiana Shield, Guiana Highlands and south-east into Bolívar, Venezuela, Bolívar State, extending further to the borders with Brazil and Guyana. The Gran Sabana has an area of and is part of the second largest List of national parks of Venezuela, National Park in Venezuela, the Canaima National Park. Only Parima Tapirapecó National Park is larger than Canaima. The average temperature is around , but at night can drop to and in some of the more elevated sites, depending on weather, may drop a bit more. The location offers one of the most unusual landscapes in the world, with rivers, waterfalls, gorges, deep and vast valleys, impenetrable jungles, and savannas that host large numbers and varieties of plant species, a diverse fauna, and the isolated table-top mesas locally known as ''tepuis''. History During the time of the Colonial V ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Roraima
Mount Roraima (; ) is the highest of the Pacaraima chain of tepuis (table-top mountain) or plateaux in South America. It is located at the junction of Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela. A characteristic large flat-topped mountain surrounded by cliffs high. The highest point of Mount Roraima is located on the southern edge of the cliff at an elevation of in Venezuela, and another protrusion at an elevation of at the junction of the three countries in the north of the plateau is the highest point in Guyana. The name Mount Roraima came from the native Pemon people. ''Roroi'' in the Pemon language means "blue-green", and ''ma'' means "great". Leaching caused by intense rainfall has shaped the peculiar topography of the summit, and the geographical isolation of Mount Roraima has made it home to much endemic flora and fauna. Western exploration of Mount Roraima did not begin until the 19th century, when it was first climbed by a British expedition in 1884. Yet despite subsequent expedi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guianan Highlands Moist Forests
The Guayanan Highlands moist forests (NT0124) is an ecoregion in the south of Venezuela, the north of Brazil, and also within Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. It is in the Amazon biome. It encompasses an upland region with diverse fauna and flora, which contains dramatic tepuis, or sandstone table mountains. The region has been inaccessible in the past and is generally fairly intact, apart from the north and northeast where large scale agriculture, ranching and mining operations are steadily encroaching on the ecosystem. New roads are opening the interior to logging, and planned dams will have a drastic impact on the riparian zones. Location The ecoregion includes parts of southern Venezuela, western and southern Guyana and northern Brazil, with scattered portions in Suriname and French Guiana. It extends into eastern Colombia. It has a total area of . The ecoregion lies on the Guiana Shield, an ancient upland area between the Amazon and Orinoco basins. It is surrounded by l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guianan Savanna
The Guianan savanna (NT0707) is an ecoregion in the south of Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname and the north of Brazil. It is in the Amazon biome. The savanna covers an area of rolling upland plains on the Guiana Shield between the Amazon and Orinoco basins. It includes forested areas, but these are shrinking steadily due to the effect of frequent fires, either accidental or deliberate. The ecoregion includes the Gran Sabana region of Venezuela. Location The ecoregion includes three large unconnected areas totaling . The main section is in southeast Venezuela, the Brazilian state of Roraima and western Guyana. To the southeast a smaller section is in the north of the Brazilian state of Pará extending into the south of Suriname. The most eastern and smallest section is in the Brazilian state of Amapá, stretching north from Macapá. There are small isolated fragments to the north of the main section in the Pakarima foothills in Guyana. The main section includes the Gran Sabana regi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It comprises an area of , and its population was estimated at 29 million in 2022. The capital and largest urban agglomeration is the city of Caracas. The continental territory is bordered on the north by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Colombia, Brazil on the south, Trinidad and Tobago to the north-east and on the east by Guyana. Venezuela is a presidential republic consisting of States of Venezuela, 23 states, the Venezuelan Capital District, Capital District and Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, federal dependencies covering Venezuela's offshore islands. Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America; the vast majority of Venezuelans live in the cities of the north and in the capital. The territory o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angel Falls
Angel Falls (; Pemon: ''Kerepakupai Merú'' or ''Parakupá Vená'') is a waterfall in Venezuela. It is the world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall, with a height of , and a plunge of . The waterfall drops over the edge of the Auyán-tepui mountain in the Canaima National Park ( Spanish: Parque Nacional Canaima), a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Gran Sabana region of Bolívar State. The height figure, , mostly consists of the main plunge but also includes about of sloped cascade and rapids below the drop and then a plunge downstream of these talus rapids. The falls are along a fork of the Río Kerepacupai Merú which flows into the Churún River, a tributary of the Carrao River, itself a tributary of the Orinoco River. With regard to overall height, a revisited validation of waterfall measurements is not available, and there is still uncertainty whether Angel Falls or South Africa's Tugela Falls is the tallest (both measurements were taken at considerable distance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Precambrian
The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the Phanerozoic Eon, which is named after Cambria, the Latinized name for Wales, where rocks from this age were first studied. The Precambrian accounts for 88% of the Earth's geologic time. The Precambrian is an informal unit of geologic time, subdivided into three eons ( Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic) of the geologic time scale. It spans from the formation of Earth about 4.6 billion years ago ( Ga) to the beginning of the Cambrian Period, about million years ago ( Ma), when hard-shelled creatures first appeared in abundance. Overview Relatively little is known about the Precambrian, despite it making up roughly seven-eighths of the Earth's history, and what is known has largely been discovered from the 1960s onwards. The Precambrian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quartz Arenite
A quartz arenite or quartzarenite is a sandstone composed of greater than 90% detrital quartz. Quartz arenites are the most mature sedimentary rocks possible, and are often referred to as ultra- or super-mature, and are usually cemented by silica. They often exhibit both textural and compositional maturity. The two primary sedimentary depositional environments that produce quartz arenites are beaches/ upper shoreface and aeolian processes Aeolian processes, also spelled eolian, pertain to wind activity in the study of geology and weather and specifically to the wind's ability to shape the surface of the Earth (or other planets). Winds may erosion, erode, transport, and deposit ....Prothero, D. R. and Schwab, F., 1996, Sedimentary Geology, pg. 96-98, See also * * References Further reading * * * * * sandstone sedimentary rocks {{petrology-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar, because they are the most resistant minerals to the weathering processes at the Earth's surface. Like uncemented sand, sandstone may be imparted any color by impurities within the minerals, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Because sandstone beds can form highly visible cliffs and other topography, topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have become strongly identified with certain regions, such as the red rock deserts of Arches National Park and other areas of the Southwestern United States, American Southwest. Rock formations composed of sandstone usually allow the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kukenán-tepui
Kukenán, also known as Matawi or Cuquenán, is a tepui in Bolivar State, Bolívar State, Guayana Region, Venezuela. It has an estimated surface area of 2185 hectares (equivalent to 21.85 square kilometres). It is high and about 3 km (1.9 mi) long. Cuquenan Falls, Kukenan Falls, which is high, is located at the south end of the tepui. Kukenán is located in Canaima National Park. Next to Kukenán, to the southeast, is Mount Roraima, a better known tepui. Kukenán is more difficult to climb, so it is ascended much less frequently than Mount Roraima. Canaima National Park is also home to the highest waterfall in the world, which is located in Auyán Tepui. Scenery on top of Kukenán provided inspiration for the 2009 film ''Up (2009 film), Up''. See also *Gran Sabana References Further reading *Kok, P.J.R., R.D. MacCulloch, D.B. Means, K. Roelants, I. Van Bocxlaer & F. Bossuyt (7 August 2012). ''Current Biology'' 22(15): R589–R590. [] Tepuis of Venez ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waterfall
A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ways, but the most common method of formation is that a river courses over a top layer of resistant bedrock before falling onto softer rock, which erodes faster, leading to an increasingly high fall. Waterfalls have been studied for their impact on species living in and around them. Humans have had a distinct relationship with waterfalls since prehistory, travelling to see them, exploring and naming them. They can present formidable barriers to navigation along rivers. Waterfalls are religious sites in many cultures. Since the 18th century, they have received increased attention as tourist destinations, sources of hydropower, andparticularly since the mid-20th centuryas subjects of research. Definition and terminology A waterfal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
