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Sierra Nevada del Cocuy
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Sierra Nevada del Cocuy
The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy Chita or Guican National Natural Park (or Sierra Nevada de Chita or Sierra Nevada de Güicán, Spanish: Parque Natural Sierra Nevada del Cocuy Chita o Guican is a national park and a series of highlands and glaciated peaks located within the Cordillera Oriental mountain range in the Andes Mountains of Colombia, at its easternmost point. It also corresponds to the highest range of the Eastern Cordillera and holds the biggest glacial mass in South America, north of the Equator. Since 1977, this region is protected within a National Natural Park (NNP-Cocuy) because of its fragile páramos, extraordinary bio-diversity and endemism, and its function as a corridor for migratory species under conditions of climate change. Among the Sierra’s natural attractions are the remaining 18 ice-covered peaks (there were as many as 25 in the recent past), glacial lakes and waterfalls.
The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy lies within the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes, between the governmental jurisdictions of Boyacá and Arauca. The Parque Nacional Natural el Cocuy (PNN El Cocuy) is the official national park in which the entirety of the glaciated peaks and a portion of regional páramo ecosystems are located. The park has an area of 3000 km2, of which 47% is covered by Páramo ecosystems. The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy is also the largest glacial mass in Colombia, and meltwater from this glacier system feed the rivers Arauca, Casanare and Chicamocha, which in turn drain into the Magdalena and Orinoco basins. Considerable portions of the Colombian and Venezuelan populations utilize the hydrologic resources from these basins for agriculture and sustenance.
The Park contains several high peaks, many with permanent snow cover:
Pan de Azúcar (5120m), Diamante (4800 m), el Púlpito del Diablo (5100 m), Toti (4800 m), Portales (4800 m), Cóncavo (5200 m), Concavito (5100 m), San Pablines South (5180 m) and North (5200 m), Ritacuba Blanco (5330 m), Picacho (5030 m), Puntiagudo (5200 m), Ritacuba Negro (5300 m), el Castillo (5100 m), peak without name (5000 m), Sirara (5200 m).
An 1856 watercolor by Manuel María Paz is an early depiction of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy in Casanare Province.
The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy region corresponds to the highest elevations of the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. The geologic origins of this mountain range are complex, but have been hypothesized to be the inversion of a Mesozoic extensional basin which gave way to a sedimentary basin that accumulated sediments for millions of years before its closure in the Paleogene. The inversion and resulting shortening and compression values have been estimated to be in the order of 60 ± 20 km. Additionally, it has been proposed that the relatively high topography of the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes around these areas is due to flat slab subduction of the Nazca plate under the South American plate for ~7.5 Million years .
In general, the geology of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy consists on sedimentary rocks from the Cretaceous, broadly made up of sequences of quartzites, sandstones and fine-grained mudstones of Aptian and Cenomanian ages. All of these rocks were deposited in marine or coastal environments and have been uplifted ~5 km since their deposition 100-120 Million Years Ago (Ma). Most of this uplift is hypothesized to have taken place relatively recently at the end of the Cenozoic, starting around ~7Ma.
Most of the area surrounding the glaciated peaks of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, and 55% of the entire area of the Parque Nacional Natural el Cocuy is dominated by páramo ecosystems. These are high mountain (3000 – 4800 masl) tundra ecosystems characteristic of the tropical South American Andes and only occur in Costa Rica, Panamá, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Perú. Páramos are foci of endemic diversity, widely diverse amongst themselves, and are crucial natural water regulation, carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation systems. Because of the “island” effect of páramo distribution on separate mountain ranges, they present a unique flora and fauna derived from evolutionary processes, especially within the last 3 – 5 Ma.
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Sierra Nevada del Cocuy
The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy Chita or Guican National Natural Park (or Sierra Nevada de Chita or Sierra Nevada de Güicán, Spanish: Parque Natural Sierra Nevada del Cocuy Chita o Guican is a national park and a series of highlands and glaciated peaks located within the Cordillera Oriental mountain range in the Andes Mountains of Colombia, at its easternmost point. It also corresponds to the highest range of the Eastern Cordillera and holds the biggest glacial mass in South America, north of the Equator. Since 1977, this region is protected within a National Natural Park (NNP-Cocuy) because of its fragile páramos, extraordinary bio-diversity and endemism, and its function as a corridor for migratory species under conditions of climate change. Among the Sierra’s natural attractions are the remaining 18 ice-covered peaks (there were as many as 25 in the recent past), glacial lakes and waterfalls.
The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy lies within the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes, between the governmental jurisdictions of Boyacá and Arauca. The Parque Nacional Natural el Cocuy (PNN El Cocuy) is the official national park in which the entirety of the glaciated peaks and a portion of regional páramo ecosystems are located. The park has an area of 3000 km2, of which 47% is covered by Páramo ecosystems. The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy is also the largest glacial mass in Colombia, and meltwater from this glacier system feed the rivers Arauca, Casanare and Chicamocha, which in turn drain into the Magdalena and Orinoco basins. Considerable portions of the Colombian and Venezuelan populations utilize the hydrologic resources from these basins for agriculture and sustenance.
The Park contains several high peaks, many with permanent snow cover:
Pan de Azúcar (5120m), Diamante (4800 m), el Púlpito del Diablo (5100 m), Toti (4800 m), Portales (4800 m), Cóncavo (5200 m), Concavito (5100 m), San Pablines South (5180 m) and North (5200 m), Ritacuba Blanco (5330 m), Picacho (5030 m), Puntiagudo (5200 m), Ritacuba Negro (5300 m), el Castillo (5100 m), peak without name (5000 m), Sirara (5200 m).
An 1856 watercolor by Manuel María Paz is an early depiction of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy in Casanare Province.
The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy region corresponds to the highest elevations of the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. The geologic origins of this mountain range are complex, but have been hypothesized to be the inversion of a Mesozoic extensional basin which gave way to a sedimentary basin that accumulated sediments for millions of years before its closure in the Paleogene. The inversion and resulting shortening and compression values have been estimated to be in the order of 60 ± 20 km. Additionally, it has been proposed that the relatively high topography of the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes around these areas is due to flat slab subduction of the Nazca plate under the South American plate for ~7.5 Million years .
In general, the geology of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy consists on sedimentary rocks from the Cretaceous, broadly made up of sequences of quartzites, sandstones and fine-grained mudstones of Aptian and Cenomanian ages. All of these rocks were deposited in marine or coastal environments and have been uplifted ~5 km since their deposition 100-120 Million Years Ago (Ma). Most of this uplift is hypothesized to have taken place relatively recently at the end of the Cenozoic, starting around ~7Ma.
Most of the area surrounding the glaciated peaks of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, and 55% of the entire area of the Parque Nacional Natural el Cocuy is dominated by páramo ecosystems. These are high mountain (3000 – 4800 masl) tundra ecosystems characteristic of the tropical South American Andes and only occur in Costa Rica, Panamá, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Perú. Páramos are foci of endemic diversity, widely diverse amongst themselves, and are crucial natural water regulation, carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation systems. Because of the “island” effect of páramo distribution on separate mountain ranges, they present a unique flora and fauna derived from evolutionary processes, especially within the last 3 – 5 Ma.
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