Information AboutOrinoco |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ORINOCO | |
| rivers of colombia | |
| rivers of venezuela | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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With a length of 2,410 km, the Orinoco is one of the largest rivers of South America , its drainage basin, known as Orinoquia is 880,000 km², 23.7% in Colombia and the rest in Venezuela . Although its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean was discovered by Columbus in its Third Voyage (1st August, 1498 ), its sources at the Cerro Delgado-Chalbaud, in the Parima range, on the Brazil ian border, at 1,047 m of elevation (02° 19' 05" N, 63° 21' 42" W ), were only discovered in 1951 , 453 years later, by a joint Venezuelan-French team. The Orinoco course describes a wide ellipsoidal arc, surrounding the Guiana Shield ; it is divided in four stretches of unequal length that roughly correspond to the longitudinal zonation of a typical large river:
At its mouth it forms a wide Delta that branches off into hundreds of rivers and waterways that flow through 41,000 km² of swampy forests. In the rainy season the Orinoco can swell to a breadth of 22 kilometres and a depth of 100 meters. Most of the important Venezuelan rivers are tributaries of the Orinoco, the largest being the Caroní , which joins it at Puerto Ordaz , close to the Llovizna Falls. A peculiarity of the Orinoco river system is the Casiquiare Canal , which starts as an arm of the Orinoco, and finds its way to the Rio Negro , a tributary of the Amazon , thus forming a 'natural canal' between Orinoco and Amazon. The river is navigable for most of its length, and dredging enables ocean ships to go as far as Ciudad Bolívar , 435 km upstream. The river region also contains large Tar Sands which may be a source of future oil production. The Boto , or Amazon River Dolphin, is also known to inhabit the Orinoco River system. MAJOR RIVERS IN THE ORINOCO BASIN
TRIVIA Irish singer Enya had a hit with '' Orinoco Flow '' in 1988. The song was named after the Orinoco Studios in London where it was recorded. The 1982 Doctor Who episode " Black Orchid ", set in 1925, involved a botanist-explorer who reportedly went missing during one of his trips down the Orinoco river, where he had previously acquired the titular orchid. The city of Guayana, and the Alcaldia Mayor de Caroní (ALMACARONÍ) has for the past 15 years conducted a swim race of the rivers Orinoco and Caroní with around 900 competitors. The "Paso a Nado Internacional de los Rios Orinoco-Caroní" is celebrated every year on a Sunday close to the 19th of April. Worldwide, this swim-meet has gained importance and it has a large number of competitors. Orinoco was the name of a Lucent Technologies sub-division which produced wireless networking hardware. Orinoco was the name of a womble (large furry creatures that collect rubbish and have long noses) in the hit British TV series 'the wombles'. REFERENCES
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