SUBSIDENCE

1. SUBSIDENCE Michelle Davis Jordan Lewis Karla Rivera Carlos Moreno Venezuela

2. Interesting Facts About Venezuela • Population (2012): 28,047,938 • The term Venezuela literally means ‘Little Venice’. The country was so named by its explorers, who saw houses built on stilts in a lake here, reminding them of Venice. • Venezuela has more Miss Universes and more Miss Worlds than any other country • Baseball is the most popular sport • Venezuela has 43 National Parks • Caracas is the largest city and is also known as the witch capital of the world • Venezuela used to be an agricultural country-though only a small proportion of the land is suitable for arable farming. • Around 70% of its food has to be imported • Angle Falls: Worlds highest waterfall, 979 meters. It drops twice off the mountain and the longest drop is 807 meters. Its located on the Auyantepui Mountain in the Cananaima National Park. (15 times higher than Niagara Falls)

3. Angel Falls

4. Definition of Subsidence • The sinking or settling of land to a lower level in response to various natural and man-caused factors, for example: (1) earth movements; (2) lowering of fluid pressure (or lowering of ground water level); (3) removal of underlying supporting materials by mining or solution of solids, either artificially or from natural causes; (4) compaction caused by wetting (Hydrocompaction); (5) oxidation of organic matter in soils; or (6) added load on the land surface. With respect to ground water, subsidence most frequently results from overdrafts of the underlying water tableor aquifer and its inability to fully recharge, a process termed Aquifer Compaction.

5. Venezuela Subsidence • What is happening in Venezuela? • Why are they having so many problems? • Long term oil exploitation dating back to 1914 • Natural gas and resources • Extensive ground subsidence reaching 5m in places • Present rates of vertical movement have been up to 20cm/year. *Venezuela rapidly became the world's first major oil exporter. Even today, its proven reserves are among the world's largest. Oil accounts for 90% of export income and half of central government revenue. In addition, Venezuela has significant quantities of natural gas—the world's eighth largest reserves*

6. Oil and Venezuela Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporting country and has the world's largest proven oil reserves at an estimated 296.5 billion barrels (20% of global reserves) as of 2012. In 2008, crude oil production in Venezuela was the tenth-highest in the world at 2,394,020 barrels per day and the country was also the eighth-largest net oil exporter in the world. The amount of oil produced in Venezuela is 2.47 million bbl/day (2011), and the amount of oil consumed is 571,000 bbl/day (2011)

7. Subsidence areas in Venezuela • Guacharo Caves • Cueva del Fantasma (Cave of the Ghost) • JauaSarisariñamaNational Park • Maracaibo

8. Guacharo Caves • Limestone cavern over 10km long with a number of large chambers and spectacular rock formations • Home to thousands of Oilbirds, they are found no where else in the world • Designated as Venezuela’s first National Monument in 1949 • Temperature in the cave can reach and remain 19 degrees C and a humidity of 100%

9. Oilbirds • The Guacharo Caves are home to thousands of Oilbirds. They exists nowhere else in the world. • Oilbirds are nocturnal. Although it forages by sight, the Oilbird is one of only a few birds, and the only nocturnal one, known to navigate by echolocation in sufficiently poor light conditions, using a series of sharp audible clicks for this purpose. • It also produces a variety of harsh screams while in its cave *Echolocation: Animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects nearby.

10. Guacharo: 5 Themes of Geography • Location: Mongaas, Venezuela. Nearest City: Caripe Established May 27th, 1975 • Place: Cave, pools of water, visitor center, Mestizo people, National Park, ecosystem, karst topography • Region: Mountains • Movement: Hiking, cars • Human Interaction: Spelunking, tourists cite, people spend money, take pictures, provides jobs, taxes for the government.. Etc.

11. Cave of The Ghost • Large enough for two helicopters to land in the cave • It’s not technically a cave, but rather a collapsed steep gorge caused by the erosion of underground streams.

14. Cave of the Ghost: 5 Themes of Geography • Location: Southern Venezuela Along the slopes of Aprada-Tepui • Place: Cave, karst topography • Region: Towering water, widest cave in the world, sandstone, quartz • Movement: Hiking, flying • Human Interaction: Tourists cite, people spend money, take pictures, provides jobs, taxes for the government.. Etc.

15. JauaSarisariñamaNational Park • Belongs to the largest formation on the Earth, Guiana Shield • Formed of sandstone • Has four large sinkholes on top of the mountain; the larges sinkhole is 1150 feet across and 1000 feet deep. Formed almost in perfect circles • Have their own ecosystem • The summits of these plateaus are characterized by flat expanses in some sectors and areas crossed by deep cracks or potholes huge (deep cavities in the earth), unique in the world.

16. JauaSarisariñama The sinkhole seems like a sign of a time long forgotten. Not only are the sinkholes perfectly round, they also serve as rich habitats for a variety of unique animal and plant species. In fact, it is the existence of the sinkholes themselves why naturalists are attracted to them in the first place. It is also though that the unique species that call the sinkholes their home evolved to cope with an environment that was different from their counterparts above ground. http://placesyoushouldsee.com/rainforest-sinkholes-jaua-sarisarinama-national-park/

17. Sinkholes Continued • Adding to the mystery of the place is the local legend that gave the tepui its name. According to natives to the area, a flesh-eating evil spirit lived on the mountain, who made the sound Sari Sari when he was consuming human meat. • Since the holes were spotted in 1961, many expeditions into the jungle have occurred. Whether cursed by spirits, or just unprepared for the harsh jungle landscape, many of these have ended in disaster, including one fateful mission in which a number of men became trapped after lowering themselves into one of the larger sinkholes. • Considering the thickness of the jungle and the dangerous unknowns of Sarisariñama, forays into the area are not recommended without a guide, and a bit of luck to keep yourself from falling 1000 feet into one of the massive sinkholes. *The largest sinkhole is 1150 feet wide and 1000 feet deep*

18. JauaSarisariñama: 5 Themes of Geography • Location: Southwest of Bolivar State Closest city: San Juan de Manapiare • Place: Forest, lush, contains a lot of animal life, own ecosystem in each hole • Region: Tepui table top mountains • Movement: Hiking, helicopters • Human Interaction: Tourism, beautiful landscapes, restricted to scientific research

19. Lake Maracaibo • Largest lake on the South American Continent • One of the oldest lakes on Earth at 20-36 million years old • Major oil-producing area of the world • Ground subsidence associated with oil production in the East Coast of Lake Maracaibo was detected as early as 1929.

20. Maracaibo Subsidence • Due to the massive volume of oil removed in the Maracaibo Basin, some oil-producing areas adjacent to Lake Maracaibo have sunk, changing the geography of the region. • This required oil companies to build dikes and drain the land in order to build their facilities • Due to the negligence of maintenance to the dike, many consider it to be a disaster in waiting, with the potential of an Earthquake causing soil liquefaction and submerging to large population.

21. Lake Maracaibo: 5 Themes of Geography • Location: Connected to the Gulf of Venezuela by Tablazo Strait. • Place: Wayuu people, shipping route • Region: Lake, oil, natural gas, fishing, duckweed. • Movement: Ocean going vessels access to the bay. • Human Interaction: Oil mining (money), fishing (food), tourism, commercial and recreational purposes.