Pico Humboldt is Venezuela's second highest peak, at 4,925 metres above sea level. It is located in the
Sierra Nevada de Merida
Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following:
Places Mountains and mountain ranges
* Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico
* Sierra de las Nieves, a mountain range i ...
, in the Venezuelan Andes of (
Mérida State
Mérida or Merida may refer to:
Places
*Mérida (state), one of the 23 states which make up Venezuela
*Mérida, Mérida, the capital city of the state of Mérida, Venezuela
* Merida, Leyte, Philippines, a municipality in the province of Leyte
* ...
). 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
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...
.
Glaciers
The summit was formerly surrounded by glaciers, including the two largest out of the four
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 over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...
s remaining in the country (the other two smaller glaciers were on
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 ...
). The glaciers on Humboldt Peak (as most
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
glaciers) have been
receding fast since the 1970s. By 2009, all but one glacier, 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 ...
, had vanished. The remaining glacier covers an area of 0.1 km
2 and is forecast to melt completely within a decade.
References
* Jahn A, ''Observaciones glaciológicas de los Andes venezolanos''. Cult. Venez. 1925, 64:265-80
External link
*
{{Venezuela-geo-stub
Humboldt
Glaciers of Venezuela
Geography of Mérida (state)
Páramos
Sierra Nevada National Park (Venezuela)