The Serranía del Empalado, also referred as serranía de Siruma or Ciruma, forms part of the
system Coriano or Lara-Falcón-Yaracuy formation in Venezuela. It is a mountainous chain relatively high, small and isolated. It is separated of the Serranía of Jirajara, south, by lower heights to the 900m; of the Sierra of Baragua, to the east, by the Depression of Carora; and of the Sierra of Saint Luis by the valley of the river Matícora.
It is conformed by two macizos joined by relatively high valleys. The Socopó, or Socopo hill, has an area of 38,4 km
2 above the height of 900 m and a maximum height of 1571 m. The macizo conformed by Cerro Azúl and the Cerrón, has an area of 508,3 km
2 and a maximum height of 1900 m.
It is considered the natural oriental limit of the basin of the
Lake of Maracaibo, and from the 19th century has served to delineate the administrative limit of the provinces of
Coro,
Maracaibo
Maracaibo ( , ; ) is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the largest city in Venezuela and is List of cities in Venezuela by population ...
and Barquisimeto.
[Agustín Codazzi (1841) Resumen de la Geografía de Venezuela, en: Agustín Codazzi, Obras escogidas, Vol. 1.] It is currently located at the border of the Venezuelan states
Falcón
Falcón State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. The state capital is Coro, Venezuela, Coro.
The state was named after Juan Crisóstomo Falcón.
History
Early history
Present day Falcón State was first explored ...
,
Lara
Lara may refer to:
People
* Lara (name), can be a given name or a surname in several languages
* Lara (mythology), a naiad nymph, daughter of the river Almo in Ovid's ''Fasti''
Places
*Lara (state), a state in Venezuela
* Electoral district ...
and
Zulia
Zulia State (, ; Wayuu: ''Mma’ipakat Suuria'') is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Maracaibo. As of the 2011 census, it has a population of 3,704,404, the largest population among Venezuela's states. It is also one of t ...
. It is also considered the north-western limit of the extinct
jirajaranas language.
Vegetation
The original vegetation is predominantly
dry forest
The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...
, although there are remainders of
cloud forest
A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...
.
[MIJARES-URRUTIA, A. (1998).][R.F. Smith y A. Field (2001) ''Aspectos de la ecología de ''Gyranthera caribensis'' Pittier (Bombacaceae) y su implicación en la conservación de algunos bosques del Norte de Venezuela'' Acta Bot. ]
It is home to emblematic trees ''like Gyranthera caribensis'' and palms ''Attalea butyracea'' (Mutis ex L.f.) Wess.Boer. or ''Geonoma interrupta'' (Ruiz & Pav.) Mart.
Fauna
40 species of mammals (excluding bats) have been recorded in the lower west side of the Serranía del Empalado in the Burro Negro Protected Watershed of the Pueblo Viejo dam, and a similar number from the northern slopes of the range.
At least three species of frogs are consider endemic of this Serranía: ''
Dendropsophus amicorum'', ''
Mannophryne lamarcai'' and ''
Leptodactylus magistris.''
Other, widespread species of frogs are also found, such as ''Hyla crepitans'', ''Bufo marinus'', ''Phyllomedusa trinitatis'', ''Phrynohyas venulosa'' and ''Physalaemus pustulosus''.
[Vázquez, J., Madi, Y., Cordero, I., & Rodríguez, B. (2011).]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Serrania del Empalado
Geographical regions of Venezuela
Geography of Lara (state)
Geography of Falcón
Geography of Zulia