Pico Humboldt

Pico Humboldt is Venezuela's second highest peak, at 4,940 metres above sea level. It is located in the Sierra Nevada de Merida, in the Venezuelan Andes of (Mérida State). The peak, its sister peak Pico Bonpland, and the surrounding páramos are protected by the Sierra Nevada National Park. The mountain is named after German explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt.

This article is about the Venezuelan Peak. For the Colorado fourteener, see Humboldt Peak (Colorado).
Pico Humboldt
Pico Humboldt in 2008
Highest point
Elevation4,940 m (16,210 ft)
Prominence3,987 m (13,081 ft) 
Coordinates8°32′58.78″N 70°59′46.11″W 
Geography
LocationMérida, Venezuela
Parent rangeSierra Nevada, Andes
Climbing
First ascent1911 by Alfredo Jahn
Easiest routeLaguna del Suero

Glaciers

The summit was formerly surrounded by glaciers, including the two largest out of the four glaciers remaining in the country (the other two smaller glaciers were on Pico Bolívar). The glaciers on Humboldt Peak (as most tropical glaciers) have been receding fast since the 1970s. By 2009, all but one glacier, the Humboldt Glacier, had vanished. The remaining glacier covers an area of 0.1 km2 and is forecast to melt completely within a decade.[1][2][3]

References
  1. Braun, Carsten; Bezada, Maximiliano (January 2013). "The History and Disappearance of Glaciers in Venezuela". Journal of Latin American Geography. doi:10.1353/lag.2013.0.
  2. Rodríguez, Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez and María Fernanda (2019-01-15). "Watching Venezuela's Last Glacier Disappear". The Atlantic. ISSN 1072-7825. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  3. Mandel, Kyla (2018-11-26). "Venezuela's last glacier is about to disappear". National Geographic. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  • Jahn A, Observaciones glaciológicas de los Andes venezolanos. Cult. Venez. 1925, 64:265-80


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.