Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa, also known as Macizo Nipe Sagua Baracoa ("Nipe Sagua Baracoa Massif"), is a
mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...
of eastern
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
.
Geography
The range is located in
Holguín and
Guantánamo
Guantánamo (, , ) is a municipality and city in southeast Cuba and capital of Guantánamo Province.
Guantánamo is served by the Caimanera port near the site of a U.S. naval base. The area produces sugarcane and cotton wool. These are traditi ...
provinces, and a small portion in northeastern
Santiago de Cuba Province
Santiago de Cuba Province is the second most populated province in the island of Cuba. The largest city Santiago de Cuba is the main administrative center. Other large cities include Palma Soriano, Contramaestre, Cuba, Contramaestre, San Luis, Sa ...
.
["Nipe-Sape-Sagua-Baracoa, an example of global biodiversity" (Cuba Headlines)]
/ref>
The Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa massif extends for a length of 187 km and a width of 50 km, from the central-eastern part of the Holguín Province (near Nipe Bay
Nipe Bay () is a bay on the northern coast of Cuba in Holguín Province, part of the former Oriente Province.''Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary'', Third Edition, p. 830. It is part of the municipalities of Mayarí and Antilla.
Overview
I ...
, Mayarí
Mayarí is a municipality and town in the Holguín Province of Cuba.
History
The origins of the city date back to 1757 in Spanish Cuba, when the first farms were established here by immigrant colonists. On 19 January 1879 the city became the se ...
) to Cuba's easternmost point at Maisí in Guantánamo Province. Lowlands and hills separate the massif from the Sierra Maestra
The Sierra Maestra is a mountain range that runs westward across the south of the old Oriente Province in southeast Cuba, rising abruptly from the coast. The range falls mainly within the Santiago de Cuba and in Granma Provinces. Some view i ...
to the southwest. The massif includes Pico Cristal (1,231 m), the second highest Cuban peak after Pico Turquino
Pico Turquino (), sometimes erroneously spelled as Pico Torquino, is the highest point in Cuba. It is located in the southeast part of the island, in the Sierra Maestra mountain range in the municipality of Guamá, Santiago de Cuba Province. It ...
(1,974 m) in the Sierra Maestra.
The massif is crossed by the rivers Toa, Mayarí
Mayarí is a municipality and town in the Holguín Province of Cuba.
History
The origins of the city date back to 1757 in Spanish Cuba, when the first farms were established here by immigrant colonists. On 19 January 1879 the city became the se ...
, and Sagua de Tánamo
Sagua de Tánamo () is a municipality and town in the Holguín Province of Cuba.
Overview
The Sierra Cristal National Park () is partly located in the Sagua de Tánamo municipality and partly in neighboring Mayarí.
The municipality is divided i ...
.
The massif is made up of several smaller ranges.
* The Sierra de Nipe is the westernmost range, a plateau of approximately 600 km2 from 500 to 700 meters elevation. The highest peak is Loma de la Mensura at 995 meters. It is bounded on the north by the Bay of Nipe, on the west and south by the Cauto River valley, and on the east by the Mayarí River. The core of the plateau is made of serpentine soil
Serpentine soil is an uncommon soil type produced by weathered ultramafic rock such as peridotite and its metamorphic derivatives such as serpentinite. More precisely, serpentine soil contains minerals of the serpentine subgroup, especially an ...
covering approximately 280 km2, while the outer portions are predominantly limestone. Natural plant communities include sclerophyll
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or ...
ous montane rainforest, serpentine pine forest, and montane evergreen scrub-woodland broadleaf on the serpentine plateau. These serpentine plant communities are rich in endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
species, including some shared with the neighboring Sierra de Cristal. Broadleaf evergreen and semideciduous forests grow on the limestone slopes. Human disturbance has altered large areas of the range, creating semi-natural pine forests and ruderal
A ruderal species is a plant species that is first to colonize disturbed lands. The disturbance may be natural for example, wildfires or avalanchesor the consequences of human activities, such as construction ( of roads, of buildings, mining, e ...
grassland and scrubland.[Yosiel Álvarez, Douglas M. Fernández, Marc C. Minno, Rayner Núñez. The butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of the Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa mountains: a preliminary checklist of the most biodiverse Cuban region. ''Tropical Lepidoptera Research'' Volume 33, Number 1, June 2023.]
*The Sierra Cristal is east of the Sierra de Nipe, separated by the narrow valley of the Mayarí River. It covers an area of approximately 2000 km2, mostly from 700 to 1000 meters elevation. It is bounded on the east by the valley of the Sagua de Tánamo River
Sagua may refer to:
Settlements
* Sagua la Grande, a municipality in the Province of Villa Clara, Cuba
*Sagua de Tánamo, a municipality in the Province of Holguín, Cuba
*Sagua la Chica, a village in the municipality of Camajuaní, Villa Clara Pr ...
. Pico Cristal (1,231 m) is the highest point in the Sierra Cristal and the entire Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa massif. The range is composed of reddish serpentine soils above approximately 700 meters elevation, and limestone-derived clay soils at lower elevations. Broadleaf evergreen forests are extend up to 600 meters elevation, and include scattered patches of secondary forest. Pine forests on serpentine soils predominate between 600 and 1100 meters elevation. Montane scrub-woodland grows above 1100 meters on the serpentine bedrock of Pico Cristal.[
* The Sierra de Moa-Toa covers an area of approximately 3000 km2, bounded on the Sagua de Tánamo valley, on the north by the ]Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...
, on the south by the karst
Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...
ic Nipe-Yateras mountains, and on the west by the Baracoa mountains. It is the most topographically complex portion of the massif, composed of several sharp mountains, plateaus, and ridges from 500 to 900 meters elevation. Pico del Toldo (1,175 m) in the Sierra de Moa or Cuchillas de Moa is the highest peak.[ Other peaks include Pico Galán (974 m) in the Cuchillas del Toa. Plant communities are varied, and include semideciduous and evergreen broadleaf forest below 250 meters elevation, serpentine sclerophyllous montane rainforest up to 1000 m, and semi-dry montane serpentine scrub-woodlands on the highest peaks. Serpentine pine forests grow on the Cupeyal Plateau, in the Toa Valley, and above 1000 m on the northern hills.][
* The Baracoa mountains are the eastern portion of the massif, extending nearly to the easternmost tip of Cuba at Punta de Maisí. They are bounded on the north by the Gulf of Mexico and on the south by the Caribbean Sea. The Baracoa mountains are composed of a central zone of serpentine mountains surrounded by a larger region of limestone mountains, karstic '']mogote
A mogote () is a generally isolated, steep-sided residual hill in the tropics composed of either limestone, marble, or dolomite. Mogotes are surrounded by nearly flat alluvial plains. The hills typically have a rounded, tower-like form.
Overv ...
s'' (irregularly-shaped isolated hills), and plateaus of 100 to 400 meters elevation.[ The Cuchillas de Baracoa, near the homonym city, reach a maximum elevation of 788 m. Closer to the Caribbean coast are the limestone Sierra del Purial, with a maximum elevation of 1,059 m, and the Sierra de Imías, near the homonym town, with Pico el Gato (1,176 m) its highest peak. Broadleaf evergreen forest is predominant in the hills, with pockets of humid montane forest on the peaks. Broadleaf semideciduous forest is common at lower elevations.][
]
Environment
Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa is known for its biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...
[ and counts the national parks of Sierra Cristal, Alejandro de Humboldt,Humboldt National Park]
on the UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
website and La Mensura-Pilotos, and the biosphere reserve of Cuchillas del Toa. It is the only place in the world where the rare Cuban solenodon
The Cuban solenodon or ''almiquí'' (''Atopogale cubana'') is a small, furry, shrew-like mammal endemic to Cuban moist forests, mountainous forests on Cuba. It is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Atopogale''. An elusive animal, it ...
is found.
See also
* El Yunque
*Sagua de Tánamo
Sagua de Tánamo () is a municipality and town in the Holguín Province of Cuba.
Overview
The Sierra Cristal National Park () is partly located in the Sagua de Tánamo municipality and partly in neighboring Mayarí.
The municipality is divided i ...
*Geography of Cuba
Cuba is an Archipelago, island nation in the Caribbean Sea. It comprises an archipelago of islands centred upon the geographic coordinates 21°3N, 80°00W. Cuba is the principal island, surrounded by four main archipelagos: the Colorados Archipel ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nipe Sagua Baracoa
Mountain ranges of Cuba
Geography of Holguín Province
Geography of Guantánamo Province
Geography of Santiago de Cuba Province
Mayarí