Los Nevados National Natural Park ( es, Parque Nacional Natural Los Nevados) is a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

located in the Cordillera Central of the

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 ...

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

. The park surrounds the northern volcanic complex formed by

Nevado del Ruiz The Nevado del Ruiz (), also known as La Mesa de Herveo ( en, Mesa of Herveo, the name of the nearby town) is a volcano on the border of the departments of Caldas and Tolima in Colombia, about west of the capital city Bogotá. It is a strat ...

Nevado del Tolima The Nevado del Tolima is a Late Pleistocene to recently active andesitic stratovolcano located in the Tolima department, Colombia. The volcano lies south of Nevado del Ruiz volcano and is situated within the Los Nevados National Natural Park. ...

, Nevado de Santa Isabel, the ''paramillos'' of Cisne, Santa Rosa and Quindío and the

Cerro Bravo Cerro Bravo is a stratovolcano located in Tolima, Colombia, north of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano. The rock type of the volcano is andesite.Plancha 206, 1998 Eruptive history As with many volcanoes in the region, Bravo's eruptions are often ch ...

and

Cerro Machín Cerro Machín is a stratovolcano located in Tolima Department, Colombia. Cerro Machin is a volcanic plug that is approximately the same age (1,000,000+ years) as the Ruiz-Tolima Massif and has the appearance of being part of that volcanic system ...

. The park is located in the departments of Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda, Tolima and spans between the municipalities

Manizales Manizales () is a city in central Colombia. It is the capital of the Caldas Department, Department of Caldas, and lies near the Nevado del Ruiz volcano. Currently, the city is the main center for the production of Colombian coffee and an importa ...

, Villamaría,

Santa Rosa de Cabal Santa Rosa de Cabal is a town and municipality in the Risaralda Department, of west central Colombia, on the western slopes of the Andean Cordillera Central. It is a commercial and manufacturing centre for the fertile agricultural and pastoral h ...

Pereira Pereira (Portuguese and Galician for "pear tree") may refer to: People * Pereira (surname) Places *Brazil **Pereira (Bahia) (est. 1534) in the present-day Barra neighborhood of Salvador in Bahia **Pereira Barreto, municipality in São Paulo **Pe ...

Salento Salento ( Salentino: ''Salentu'', Salentino Griko: ''Σαλέντο'') is a cultural, historical and geographic region at the southern end of the administrative region of Apulia in Southern Italy. It is a sub-peninsula of the Italian Peninsula ...

Villahermosa Villahermosa ( , ; "Beautiful Village") is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Tabasco, and serves as the Municipalities of Mexico, municipal seat (governing county) of the state. Located in Southeast Mexico, Villahermosa is an ...

Anzoátegui ) , anthem = '' Himno del Estado Anzoátegui'' , image_map = Anzoategui in Venezuela.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location within Venezuela , pushpin_map = , pushpin_map_a ...

, Santa Isabel, Murillo,

Ibagué Ibagué () (referred to as San Bonifacio de Ibagué del Valle de las Lanzas during the Spanish period) is the capital of Tolima, one of the 32 departments that make up the Republic of Colombia. The city is located in the center of the country, ...

and Casabianca.

State of the Park

Entrance through Brisas sector (northern sector of the Park) is only allowed to Valle de las Tumbas since the Servicio Geológico Colombiano has declared Nevado del Ruiz Volcano's activity at Yellow Alert Level (level III). It is highly recommend for visitors to consult the state of volcanic activity in the Servicio Geológico Colombiano'
web page
before their visit.

Geology

Glacial activity has shaped the park's landscape

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

, leaving U-shaped valleys and

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...

s behind. Extrusive

igneous rock Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main The three types of rocks, rock types, the others being Sedimentary rock, sedimentary and metamorphic rock, metamorphic. Igneous rock ...

is dominant above on the eastern slopes and on the western slopes. The Otún Lake, which lies in an extinct volcano crater, and the Green Lake are located in the area.

Hydrography

The protected area is important for the region because of the countless sources of water that originate within. Glaciers occupy 4% of the area belonging to the three volcanoes, Nevado del Ruiz, Nevado de Santa Isabel and Nevado del Tolima. The melting waters from the glaciers give birth to the rivers that originate in the park and that conform 10 basins and 19 streams of different sizes and characteristics; six of the basins flow into the

Magdalena River The Magdalena River ( es, Río Magdalena, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of ...

watershed (Gualí, Lagunilla, Recio, Totare and Coello) and the remaining four (Chinchiná, Campoalegre, Otún and Quindío) into the

Cauca River The Cauca River () is a river in Colombia that lies between the Occidental and Central cordilleras. From its headwaters in southwestern Colombia near the city of Popayán, it joins the Magdalena River near Magangue in Bolivar Department, and th ...

watershed. The park's hydrographic networks supply water to over for 2,000,000 inhabitants in the region, to coffee-growers and to most of the rice and cotton crops in the Tolima Department. The Otún wetland system, located within the Park, was declared an internationally important

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It i ...

wetland.

Glacial retreat

In 2002,

IDEAM The Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies ( es, Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales), also known by its acronym in Spanish, IDEAM, is a government agency of the Ministry of Environment and Sustaina ...

warned about the alleged melting of the ice caps of the snow-capped mountains of the national park. Proof of this is the disappearance of the Ice Cathedrals, which were huge caverns in the lower part of the Nevado del Ruiz glacier, which existed before 1995 and which used to be frequented by climbers. At the end of the 19th century, six glaciers existed on the peaks of El Ruiz, Santa Isabel, Tolima, El Cisne, Quindío and the current Paramillo de Santa Rosa, and were located at an altitude of 4500 meters above sea level. The phenomenon of glacial retreat has worsened during the second half of the twentieth century. Of the former six existing glaciers, there are currently only three: El Nevado del Ruiz, Nevado de Santa Isabel and Nevado de Tolima. The three others had melted completely by the end of the 1970s. The surviving glaciers face a constant process of melting, the situation being critical for the Nevado del Tolima and Santa Isabel, whose area does not exceed two square kilometers. These two glaciers are expected to disappear completely between 2030 and 2040.

Flora and fauna

The park is composed of diverse ecosystems that change depending on the altitude. The lower regions of the park are composed of Andean forests, high Andean forests and high Andean wetlands. The higher regions of the park consist 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 ...

'' and ''super-páramo ecosystems.'' The ''

'' is composed of grassland, peat bog, scrubland, swamps and lagoons and occupies 80% of the park's area. The ''super-páramo'' is a lunar-like landscape, composed of rocks, ashes, and sparse vegetation.

Flora

The area is home to 1250 species of

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes () or collectively Tracheophyta (), form a large group of land plants ( accepted known species) that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They al ...

s, 200

bryophyte The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited in ...

s, 300

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

.. On the lower slopes and in the valleys the Andean wax palms are dominant. The upper Andean forest has trees reaching up to in height. In the ''páramo'', frailejones dominate the landscape and a range of mosses, lichens can be observed. Coulored algae can be found in the various lagoons.

Fauna

Noteworthy birds include

blue-crowned motmot The blue-capped motmot or blue-crowned motmot (''Momotus coeruliceps'') is a colorful near-passerine bird found in forests and woodlands of eastern Mexico. This species and the Lesson's Motmot, Whooping Motmot, Trinidad Motmot, Amazonian Motmot, ...

yellow-eared parrot The yellow-eared parrot (''Ognorhynchus icterotis'') is an endangered parrot of the tropics in South America. It is found in the Andes of Colombia. This species was thought to be extinct up until April 1999, when a group of researchers that were ...

Fuertes's parrot Fuertes's parrot (''Hapalopsittaca fuertesi''), also known as the indigo-winged parrot, is a parrot which has a highly restricted range on the west slope of the Central Andes of Colombia. It is classified by the IUCN as being critically endangere ...

, rufous-fronted parakeet,

Andean condor The Andean condor (''Vultur gryphus'') is a giant South American Cathartid vulture and is the only member of the genus ''Vultur''. Found in the Andes mountains and adjacent Pacific coasts of western South America, the Andean condor is the larg ...

, brown-banded antpitta and

ruddy duck The ruddy duck (''Oxyura jamaicensis'') is a duck from North America and one of the stiff-tailed ducks. The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek ''oxus'', "sharp", and ''oura'', "tail", and ''jamaicensis'' is "from Jamaica". Taxonomy The ru ...

. The

buffy helmetcrest The buffy helmetcrest (''Oxypogon stuebelii'') is a Vulnerable species of hummingbird in the "coquettes", tribe Lesbiini of subfamily Lesbiinae. It is endemic to Colombia.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the Wo ...

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics aro ...

is endemic to the region. Noteworthy mammals include the

mountain tapir The mountain tapir, also known as the Andean tapir or woolly tapir (''Tapirus pinchaque'') is the smallest of the four widely recognized species of tapir. It is the only one to live outside of tropical rainforests in the wild. It is most easily d ...

, spectacled bear, northern

pudú The pudus (Mapudungun ''püdü'' or ''püdu'', es, pudú, ) are two species of South American deer from the genus ''Pudu'', and are the world's smallest deer. The chevrotains (mouse-deer; Tragulidae) are smaller, but they are not true deer. The ...

oncilla The oncilla (''Leopardus tigrinus''), also known as the northern tiger cat, little spotted cat, and tigrillo, is a small spotted cat ranging from Central America to central Brazil. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and the popul ...

cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large Felidae, cat native to the Americas. Its Species distribution, range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mamm ...

and

white-eared opossum The white-eared opossum (''Didelphis albiventris''), known as the timbu in Brazil and comadreja overa in Argentina, is an opossum species found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. It is a terrestrial and, sometimes, arboreal a ...

. File:Nevado del tolima y sus frailejones.jpg, Nevado del Tolima File:Costado Oriental Nevado del Ruíz (Cumanday) Murillo, Tolima.jpg, Nevado del Ruiz File:Nevado del Ruiz - Tolima - Páramo.jpg, Nevado del Ruiz - Páramo File:Palma de cera del Quindío (Ceroxylon quindiuense) (14343780309).jpg, Wax palm File:Buffy Helmetcrest - Colombia.jpg, Buffy Helmetcrest (''Oxypogon stuebelii'')

Footnotes

References

* *

External links

The park's page at Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia
{{authority control Páramos National parks of Colombia Geography of Caldas Department Geography of Quindío Department Geography of Risaralda Department Geography of Tolima Department 1973 establishments in Colombia Tourist attractions in Caldas Department Tourist attractions in Quindío Department Tourist attractions in Risaralda Department Tourist attractions in Tolima Department Protected areas established in 1973