The Catatumbo River ( es, Río Catatumbo) is a river rising in northern

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, flowing into

Lake Maracaibo Lake Maracaibo (Spanish: Lago de Maracaibo; Anu: Coquivacoa) is a lagoon in northwestern Venezuela, the largest lake in South America and one of the oldest on Earth, formed 36 million years ago in the Andes Mountains. The fault in the northern se ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. The Catatumbo River is approximately long. It forms a part of the

international boundary Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...

between the two countries. The river's name means "House of Thunder" in the language of the

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

people. The river flows through the

Catatumbo moist forests The Catatumbo moist forests (NT0108) is an ecoregion in Venezuela and Colombia to the west and east of Lake Maracaibo. It includes four regions of moist forest on slightly higher ground than the dry forest and mangroves that surround the lake. Th ...

ecoregion. It then flows through the

Maracaibo dry forests The Maracaibo dry forests (NT0222) is an ecoregion in Venezuela around Lake Maracaibo. It contains the country's main oil fields. The habitat is criss-crossed by roads and is severely degraded by farming and livestock grazing. Geography Location ...

ecoregion before emptying into Lake Maracaibo. Prior to emptying into Maracaibo, the Catatumbo River also merges with the Zulia River. Together with the nearby Escalante River, Catatumbo is a producing area for

cocoa bean The cocoa bean (technically cocoa seed) or simply cocoa (), also called the cacao bean (technically cacao seed) or cacao (), is the dried and fully fermented seed of ''Theobroma cacao'', from which cocoa solids (a mixture of nonfat substances ...

s of the Criollo cultivar.

Catatumbo lightning

The "Relámpago del Catatumbo" or "Faros del Catatumbo" (

Catatumbo lightning Catatumbo lightning ( es, Relámpago del Catatumbo) is an atmospheric phenomenon that occurs over the mouth of the Catatumbo River where it empties into Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. Catatumbo means "House of Thunder" in the language of the Bari p ...

) is a phenomenon that occurs over the

marshlands A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...

at the Lake Maracaibo

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

of the river, where

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

storms occur for about 10 hours a night, 140 to 160 nights a year, for a total of about 1.2 million lightning discharges per year. The light from this storm activity can be seen up to away and has been used for ship

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

; it is also known as the "Maracaibo Beacon" for this reason.

Tributaries

The Catatumbo River is fed by the: * Zulia River *

Pamplonita River The Pamplonita River is the main river of the Colombian city of Cúcuta and one of the most important of the Norte de Santander Department. The Pamplonita River was used to transport cacao, the main form of wealth in the region and a major axis o ...

(tributary of Táchira) * Táchira River (tributary of Pamplonita)

References

Rivers of Colombia Rivers of Venezuela Maracaibo basin Lake Maracaibo International rivers of South America Colombia–Venezuela border {{Venezuela-river-stub