The Yabucoa Valley (
Spanish: ''Valle de Yabucoa'') is a large fluvial valley located in the southeastern coast of
Puerto Rico in the municipality of
Yabucoa. The valley is surrounded by the hills of the
San Lorenzo batholith to the north and west, by the
Cuchillas de Panduras
Cuchilla (plural: cuchillas), Spanish for ''blade'' or ''hill covered by grasslands'' (in the Pampas of Uruguay and Argentina) may refer to:
* Cuchilla Alta, a seaside resort in Canelones in Montevideo in Uruguay
* Cuchilla de Caraguatá, a ra ...
mountain ridge to the south, and by the
Caribbean Sea to the east. The hills surrounding the Yabucoa Valley as well as the bedrock underlying the alluvium in the valley are composed of the San Lorenzo batholith, a large, igneous intrusive body emplaced during the
Late Cretaceous. The town of
Yabucoa is the main settlement of the valley.
The valley is part of a hydrological basin that is fed by the
Guayanés,
Arenas :''This is a disambiguation page for the name ''Arenas''. For the sporting event venue, see arena; for other meanings of ''arena'', see arena (disambiguation).''
Arenas (meaning ''sands'' in Spanish) may refer to:
Persons
* Abbygale Arenas (born ...
,
Limones and
Ingenio rivers, and by smaller streams such as the Guayabota and Cortadera creeks, all of which flow into the Yabucoa Bay and the Caribbean Sea. The rich hydrological resources are historical important for the cultivation of
sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...
, and sugar used to be processed in the Roig Sugarcane Refinery (Spanish: ''Central Roig'') until 2002. The lower part of the valley used to host a
Gulf oil refinery (later owned by
Shell). Although the
sugar industry
The sugar industry subsumes the production, processing and marketing of sugars (mostly sucrose and fructose). Globally, most sugar is extracted from sugar cane (~80% predominantly in the tropics) and sugar beet (~ 20%, mostly in temperate cli ...
has diminished since the late 20th century, today the fertile lands are mainly used for
cattle grazing and the cultivation of fruit and vegetables.
See also
*
Geography of Puerto Rico
The geography of Puerto Rico consists of an archipelago located between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, east of the Dominican Republic or Hispaniola, west of the Virgin Islands and north of Venezuela. The main island of Puerto R ...
References
{{Reflist
Geography of Puerto Rico
Yabucoa, Puerto Rico