The Orinoco Delta is a vast

river delta A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by deposition (geology), deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, res ...

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 ...

, located in eastern

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 ...

Location

The Orinoco Delta is one of the eight

natural regions of Venezuela Because of its natural structure, Venezuela can be divided into eight very distinct natural regions. In the evaluation of a natural region, the human element is not present. The natural region groups of Venezuela formed as a consequence of the as ...

. It covers the whole of

Delta Amacuro State Delta Amacuro State ( es, Estado Delta Amacuro, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela, and is the location of the Orinoco Delta. The Paria Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean are found to the north, Bolívar State is found to the south, the Atlantic O ...

and a few square kilometers of

Monagas State ) , anthem = '' Himno del Estado Monagas'' , image_map = Monagas in Venezuela.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location within Venezuela , pushpin_map = , pushpin_m ...

and

Sucre State The Sucre State ( es, Estado Sucre, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Cumaná city. Sucre State covers a total surface area of and, as of the 2011 census, had a population of 896,921. The most important river in ...

, comprising all the mouths of the

Orinoco 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 ...

. It is divided into two sections: the principal, at the northernmost part of the system, located between

Caño Manamo The Caño Manamo is a distributary of the Orinoco River. It branches northwards from the main channel of the Orinoco to delimit the western edge of the Orinoco Delta, ultimately emptying into the Gulf of Paria. Tucupita, the capital of Delta Amacur ...

and the left shore of

Caño Araguao Caño is a barrio in the municipality of Guánica, Puerto Rico Guánica (, ) is a town and municipality in southwestern Puerto Rico, bordering the Caribbean Sea, south of Sabana Grande, east of Lajas, and west of Yauco. It is part of the Yau ...

, where the majority of villages are established, including the state capital

Tucupita Tucupita () is the capital city of the Venezuelan state of Delta Amacuro. Geography Delta Amacuro consists almost entirely of the swampy Orinoco River delta. Tucupita is hot and humid, and lies well into the delta on the Caño Manamo river (o ...

; and the secondary, between the right shore of Caño Araguao and

Río Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

. The

Warao people The Warao are an indigenous Amerindian people inhabiting northeastern Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname. Alternate common spellings of Warao are Waroa, Guarauno, Guarao, and Warrau. The term ''Warao'' translates as "the boat pe ...

live in the region.

Hydrology

The delta is fan-shaped, formed by the Orinoco River as it splits into numerous

distributaries A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Distributaries are a common feature of river deltas. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation. The opposite of a distributary ...

, called ''caños'', which meander through the delta on their way to the sea. The main distributary is called the Rio Grande, which empties south-southeast through the southern portion of the delta, and the second major distributary is

, which runs northward along the western edge of the delta. The area of this region is approximately . The Orinoco Delta is characterized by being non-centric,

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

lacking, and

ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

ic, somewhat similar to the delta of the

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...

. Daily tides bring sea water up the "caños", causing the "macareo" or

pororoca The Pororoca (, ) is a tidal bore, with waves up to high that travel as much as inland upstream on the Amazon River and adjacent rivers. Its name might come from the indigenous Tupi language, where it could translate into "great roar". It could b ...

and reversing the flow direction of water, at least on surface.

Environment

The predominant vegetation is in the

Orinoco Delta swamp forests The Orinoco Delta swamp forests (NT0147) is an ecoregion of eastern Venezuela and northern Guyana covering the large and shifting Orinoco Delta. The vegetation is mostly permanently flooded rainforest. The ecoregion is relatively intact apart fro ...

ecoregion. Along the coast and the river margins there are stretches of Amazon-Orinoco-Southern Caribbean mangroves, specifically the

Guianan mangroves The Guianan mangroves (NT1411) is a coastal ecoregion of southeastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and Brazil. The mangroves provide an important habitat for migrating birds that winter in the area. Large areas are intact, although t ...

ecoregion. To the west, and closer to the coast, there are patches of the

Orinoco wetlands The Orinoco wetlands (NT0906) is an ecoregion of northeast Venezuela within the northern Orinoco Delta. It holds areas of tall grasses in flooded land, surrounded by mangroves and swamp forest, giving way to the drier Llanos savanna in the west. ...

ecoregion. The delta includes large areas of permanent

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s as well as seasonally-flooded

freshwater swamp forest Freshwater swamp forests, or flooded forests, are forests which are inundated with freshwater, either permanently or seasonally. They normally occur along the lower reaches of rivers and around freshwater lakes. Freshwater swamp forests are found ...

s. The river margins of the delta are fringed with

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

References

Sources

* * * *

External links

Venezuela Tourism Directory

Geo-Environmental Characterization of the Delta del Orinoco (University of Texas)
* * * River deltas

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also re ...

Biosphere reserves of Venezuela Orinoco basin Wetlands of Venezuela Geography of Delta Amacuro Geography of Monagas Geography of Sucre (state) Landforms of South America {{Venezuela-geo-stub