The Cordillera de Mérida is a series of

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 arise ...

s, or massif, in northwestern

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 Cordillera de Mérida is a northeastern extension of the

Andes Mountains The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the List of mountain ranges#Mountain ranges by length, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range i ...

and the most important branch of the

Venezuelan Andes The Venezuelan Andes (Spanish: ''Andes Venezolanos'') also simply known as the Andes (Spanish: ''Los Andes'') in Venezuela, are a mountain system that form the northernmost extension of the Andes. They are fully identified, both by their geologic ...

. The ranges run southwest–northeast between the Venezuelan-Colombian border and the

Venezuelan Coastal Range The Venezuelan Coastal Range ( es, Cordillera de la Costa or ), also known as Venezuelan Caribbean Mountain System ( es, Sistema Montañoso Caribe) is a mountain range system and one of the eight natural regions of Venezuela, that runs along the c ...

s. The

Táchira depression The Táchira Depression ( es, Depresión de Táchira) is a saddle of land connecting the Lake Maracaibo basin to the Orinoco basin in the state of Táchira, Venezuela. It forms a break in the eastern Andes, separating the Tamá Massif to the wes ...

separates the Cordillera de Mérida from the Cordillera Oriental, which forms the Colombia-Venezuela border. The ranges runs from southwest to northeast and parts lie within each of the following states:

Táchira Táchira State ( es, Estado Táchira, ) is one of the 24 states of Venezuela. The state capital is San Cristóbal. Táchira State covers a total surface area of and as of the 2011 census, had a population of 1,168,908. At the end of the 19t ...

, Mérida, Barinas, Trujillo, Portuguesa and

Lara Lara may refer to: Places * Lara (state), a state in Venezuela *Electoral district of Lara, an electoral district in Victoria, Australia * Lara, Antalya, an urban district in Turkey * Lara, Victoria, a township in Australia * Lara de los Infa ...

. The southeastern slopes are drained by tributaries of the

Orinoco River The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...

, while the streams that drain the northwestern slopes empty 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 ...

. At the northeast tip of the massif lies the town of

Barquisimeto Barquisimeto (; guc, Watkisimeeta) is a city in Venezuela. It is the capital of the state of Lara and head of Iribarren Municipality. It is an important urban, industrial, commercial and transportation center of the country, recognized as the fou ...

and the headwaters of the

River Cojedes The Cojedes River (Spanish ''Rio Cojedes'') is a tributary of the Orinoco River in central Venezuela. The Cojedes originates in Lara state, and flows southeast through a gap between the Cordillera de Mérida and the Cordillera de la Costa and ac ...

. In the centre of the massif is the city of Mérida. Two ranges of peaks lie on either side of the city, the

Sierra de la Culata The Sierra de La Culata is a mountain range in the largest massif in Venezuela, the Cordillera de Mérida, which in turn is part of the northern extent of the Andes, Cordillera de los Andes (Andes Mountains). The Sierra la Culata includes some of t ...

to the north and

Sierra Nevada de Mérida The Sierra Nevada de Mérida is the highest mountain range in the largest massif in Venezuela, the Cordillera de Mérida, which in turn is part of the northern extent of the Cordillera de los Andes (Andes Mountains). The Sierra Nevada de Mérida i ...

to the south.

Pico Bolívar Pico Bolívar is the highest mountain in Venezuela, at 4,978 metres (16,332 ft).Pérez et al (Sep. 2005)"Alturas del Pico Bolívar y otras cimas andinas venezolanas a partir de observaciones Gps."INCI v.30, n.4, Caracas sep. 2005. Retrieved ...

, at 4,981 meters elevation (16,342 feet), is the highest peak in Venezuela. Valle de Mifafí 4

Most of the ranges are covered by

Venezuelan Andes montane forests The Venezuelan Andes montane forests (NT0175) is an ecoregion in the northern arm of the Andes in Venezuela. It contains montane and cloud forests, reaching up to the high-level Cordillera de Merida páramo high moor ecoregion. The forests are home ...

, although the highest elevations (above 3,100 meters) are above

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...

. These ranges are home to the

Cordillera de Mérida páramo A cordillera is an extensive chain and/or network system of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly us ...

, an enclave of the

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

(tropical alpine grasslands) of the northern Andes. Protected areas in the massif include Sierra Nevada National Park and

Sierra La Culata National Park The Sierra La Culata National Park ( es, Parque nacional Sierra de La Culata) Also Sierra de la Culata National Park is a national park of Venezuela that is located in the northeastern branch of the Venezuelan Andes, in the states Mérida and Tr ...

. One

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

, the

Humboldt glacier Humboldt Glacier ( da, Humboldt Gletscher) is one of the major glaciers in northern Greenland. The glacier is named after German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and is the widest tidewater glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. Geography The Humb ...

, is located in this mountain range, in which the snowy season is July–August. Snow typically covers the mountains above 4,200 meters, and sometimes above 3,800 meters.

External links

References

Mountain ranges of the Andes Merida Geography of Táchira Geography of Mérida (state) Geography of Barinas (state) Geography of Trujillo (state) Geography of Portuguesa (state) Geography of Lara (state) Páramos {{Venezuela-geo-stub