The Orinoco Basin is the part of South America drained by the Orinoco river and its tributaries. The Orinoco watershed covers an area of about 990000 km, making it the third largest in South America, covering most of Venezuela and eastern part of Colombia .
164-433: The Orinoco is one of the most important rivers in the world due to its length and flow (2140 km and more than 30000 m/s), the extent of its basin (1 million km) and especially its historical importance and economic and the meaning it has had for Venezuela, where most of its basin is spread, with almost two-thirds of it. It is probably the largest river in the world in relation to its basin, similar in extent to that of
328-415: A balancing situation on a global scale does not mean that there are no problems at other scales. What has to be taken into account is that the capacity of regeneration and restoration of the balance lost in the vegetation of the inter-tropical zone, on the one hand, is much greater than what people (including scientists) assume and on the other hand that, in parallel with the processes of desertification due to
492-815: A basic shape and then they were further adapted to their environment by an external force. Humboldt urged him to publish his theories. Together, the two discussed and expanded these ideas. Goethe and Humboldt soon became close friends. Humboldt often returned to Jena in the years that followed. Goethe remarked about Humboldt to friends that he had never met anyone so versatile. Humboldt's drive served as an inspiration for Goethe. In 1797, Humboldt returned to Jena for three months. During this time, Goethe moved from his residence in Weimar to reside in Jena. Together, Humboldt and Goethe attended university lectures on anatomy and conducted their own experiments. One experiment involved hooking up
656-579: A bureaucratic structure. Before leaving Madrid in 1799, Humboldt and Bonpland visited the Natural History Museum , which held results of Martín Sessé y Lacasta and José Mariano Mociño 's botanical expedition to New Spain . Humboldt and Bonpland met Hipólito Ruiz López and José Antonio Pavón y Jiménez of the royal expedition to Peru and Chile in person in Madrid and examined their botanical collections. Armed with authorization from
820-448: A captaincy-general based at Caracas. A great deal of information on the new jurisdiction had already been compiled by François de Pons, but was not published until 1806. Rather than describe the administrative center of Caracas, Humboldt started his researches with the valley of Aragua, where export crops of sugar, coffee, cacao, and cotton were cultivated. Cacao plantations were the most profitable, as world demand for chocolate rose. It
984-415: A creeping stalk that they use to lean around a large tree in order to reach sunlight. When they overcome the roof and increase the function of photosynthesis they begin to grow strangling the tree on which they had leaned (as well as blocking the sunlight). The most frequent matapalos belong to the genus Ficus, as is the case of natural rubber. The peculiar note of these jungles is the extra-ordinary variety of
1148-549: A descent of river level with sediment transport from the bottom to the sea: we recall that the river delta (almost 40000 km) was built with these sediments, while granitic rocks (such as Piedra del Medio) have been much more resistant to erosion. On the other hand, the sandstones of the Venezuelan Guayana (of the Roraima formation) have been transformed into sand by the erosion that, although never very intense by
1312-476: A distance, "because the images travelled, the botanists did not have to". Humboldt was astounded at Mutis's accomplishment; when Humboldt published his first volume on botany, he dedicated it to Mutis "as a simple mark of our admiration and acknowledgement". Humboldt had hopes of connecting with the French sailing expedition of Baudin, now finally underway, so Bonpland and Humboldt hurried to Ecuador. They crossed
1476-419: A frog leg to various metals. They found no effect until the moisture of Humboldt's breath triggered a reaction that caused the frog leg to leap off the table. Humboldt described this as one of his favorite experiments because it was as if he were "breathing life into" the leg. During this visit, a thunderstorm killed a farmer and his wife. Humboldt obtained their corpses and analyzed them in the anatomy tower of
1640-554: A great arc and its basin extends like fan, reason why the north-western part Of the basin is somewhat more extensive than the south-east. As already indicated, the two sub-regions of the basin have quite different characteristics, due to differences in their geological constitution. The maximum height of the basin is located in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy , in Colombia (more than 5000 meters above sea level), which forms part of
1804-515: A hypothetical Thracian * Donaris . The Proto-Indo-European root of this presumed name is related to the Iranic word " don- "/" dan- ", while the supposed suffix -aris is encountered in the ancient name of the Ialomița River , Naparis , and in the unidentified Miliare river mentioned by Jordanes in his Getica . Gábor Vékony says that this hypothesis is not plausible, because
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#17327661826641968-474: A kind of example of the theory of the geographical cycle . In turn, these sands have come to create a unique eco-system in the world: an extensive dune field (occupies about 30,000 km) that has the peculiarity that it is not a desert climate but a savanna climate in a landscape of natural pastures that alternate with some gallery forests, flowing rivers and dunes of more than 100 km in length and up to 20 m in height. Some of these dunes are used by
2132-601: A level of accumulation with the sediments that they carry from the mountain ranges where they are born. And it is these sediments that push the channel of the Orinoco against the Guayanese shield itself, to the point that in most of its course, the channel is riding on the rocks of the guayanés shield, as can be seen in Piedra del Medium in front of Ciudad Bolívar (before Angostura). The ancient name of Bolivar City, Angostura of
2296-570: A prominent German noble family from Pomerania . Although not one of the titled gentry, he was a major in the Prussian Army , who had served with the Duke of Brunswick . At age 42, Alexander Georg was rewarded for his services in the Seven Years' War with the post of royal chamberlain . He profited from the contract to lease state lotteries and tobacco sales. Alexander's grandfather
2460-411: A ship on a major expedition. Meantime, he went to Paris, where his brother Wilhelm was now living. Paris was a great center of scientific learning and his brother and sister-in-law Caroline were well connected in those circles. Louis-Antoine de Bougainville urged Humboldt to accompany him on a major expedition, likely to last five years, but the French revolutionary Directoire placed Nicolas Baudin at
2624-511: A very limited annual amplitude (about 3°C or less), although their daily amplitude is much higher and around 10°C. Rainfall is high, especially in Venezuelan Guayana, where it reaches very high values (4000 mm or more) in some fairly extensive areas. In Los Llanos, rainfall is much lower (1500 to 2000 mm, with an elevation of this amount towards the foothills of the Andes) and gives rise to the presence of savanna vegetation, with gallery forests next to
2788-517: A voyage to the Pacific, they left the Ecuadorian port of Guayaquil and headed for Acapulco on Mexico's west coast. Even before Humboldt and Bonpland started on their way to New Spain's capital on Mexico's central plateau, Humboldt realized the captain of the vessel that brought them to Acapulco had reckoned its location incorrectly. Since Acapulco was the main west-coast port and the terminus of
2952-535: Is 4,152 km (1,603 sq mi), of which 3,446 km (1,331 sq mi) are in Romania. If one includes the lagoons of Razim-Sinoe (1,015 km (392 sq mi) of which 865 km (334 sq mi) water surface), which are located south of the delta proper, but are related to it geologically and ecologically (their combined territory is part of the World Heritage Site),
3116-477: Is also an important source of hydropower and drinking water . The Danube river basin is home to such fish species as pike , zander , huchen , Wels catfish , burbot and tench . It is also home to numerous diverse carp and sturgeon , as well as salmon and trout . A few species of euryhaline fish, such as European seabass , mullet , and eel , inhabit the Danube Delta and the lower portion of
3280-612: Is divided into three main parts, separated by "gates" where the river is forced to cut through mountainous sections: Mean annual discharge on the hydrological stations (period from 2000 to 2023); 1 - Reni , Isaccea ; 2 - Silistra ; 3 - Pristol ; 4 - Batina , Bezdan ; 5 - Nagymaros , Szob ; 6 - Bratislava , Wolfsthal ; 7 - Untergriesbach Multiannual average, minimum and maximum discharge (water period from 1876 to 2010) Simulated water and suspended sediment results from climate-driven decadal study (with STD through specific decade): P – Simulated average precipitation in
3444-657: Is estimated that the Danube upper course will one day disappear entirely in favor of the Rhine, an event called stream capturing . The hydrological parameters of Danube are regularly monitored in Croatia at Batina , Dalj , Vukovar and Ilok . The Danube basin was the site of some of the earliest human cultures. The Danubian Neolithic cultures include the Linear Pottery cultures of the mid-Danube basin. Many sites of
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#17327661826643608-500: Is here that Humboldt is said to have developed his idea of human-induced climate change. Investigating evidence of a rapid fall in the water level of the valley's Lake Valencia, Humboldt credited the desiccation to the clearance of tree cover and to the inability of the exposed soils to retain water. With their clear cutting of trees, the agriculturalists were removing the woodland's "threefold" moderating influence upon temperature: cooling shade, evaporation and radiation. Humboldt visited
3772-497: Is included later in the documentary study of the basin of the great river Columbia-Venezuelan. In the Guayana part of the Orinoco basin, the equatorial forests predominate, characterized by the existence of several levels of trees of very varied species, as a consequence of a high competition to obtain a sufficient supply of solar rays. This struggle for sunlight is exemplified by the presence of matapalos, trees that originally have
3936-955: Is not a tributary but, on the contrary, an effluent, that is to say, a derivation of the Orinoco that drains its waters towards the Amazon basin through the Negro River), the Atabapo, the four rivers that come from the Colombian territory, which are the Guaviare (with its tributary the Inírida), Vichada, Tomo and Meta. And again in Venezuelan territory, the Apurean rivers to the north of the Meta: Cinaruco, Capanaparo, Arauca and Apure,
4100-590: Is now the Mexican state of Guerrero . The route was suitable only for mule train, and all along the way, Humboldt took measurements of elevation. When he left Mexico a year later in 1804, from the east coast port of Veracruz, he took a similar set of measures, which resulted in a chart in the Political Essay , the physical plan of Mexico with the dangers of the road from Acapulco to Mexico City, and from Mexico City to Veracruz. This visual depiction of elevation
4264-796: Is only surpassed by the Itaipú hydro-electric power station, in the Paraná River. In the Cuao river basin (except for the long, or horseshoe-shaped lagoons formed by some abandoned meanders), the only lagoon in the basin: the lagoon of King Leopold, so named because it was discovered during an expedition sponsored by King Leopold III Of Belgium a little more than 50 years ago (at the moment it is very easy to observe it through programs with satellite images, generally of free access in Internet). This lagoon has about 400 m of length by 270 of width, approximately. It
4428-790: Is the second-longest river in Europe , after the Volga in Russia . It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe , from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea . A large and historically important river, it was once a frontier of the Roman Empire . In the 21st century, it connects ten European countries, running through their territories or marking a border. Originating in Germany ,
4592-606: Is the only lagoon in Venezuelan Guiana, which confirms the irregular nature of the relief of this natural region, which is not favorable to them, and also contradicts the myth of the sixteenth century, of the existence of a huge lake (Lake Parima) from which the Orinoco and Amazon rivers were born, with almost all its tributaries. On the left bank we can mention the Mavaca, the unique case in the Casiquiare world (which
4756-686: Is to implement the Danube River Protection Convention by promoting and coordinating sustainable and equitable water management, including conservation, improvement, and rational use of waters and the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive and the Danube Strategy . The Danube Commission is concerned with the maintenance and improvement of the river's navigation conditions. It was established in 1948 by seven countries bordering
4920-701: The Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodos (Argon. IV. 282). At the end of the Okeanos Potamos , is the holy island of Alba (Leuke, Pytho Nisi, Isle of Snakes ), sacred to the Pelasgian (and later, Greek) Apollo, greeting the sun rising in the east. Hecateus Abderitas refers to Apollo's island from the region of the Hyperboreans, in the Okeanos. It was on Leuke, in one version of his legend, that
5084-626: The Asian trade from the Spanish Philippines, having accurate maps of its location was extremely important. Humboldt set up his instruments, surveying the deep-water bay of Acapulco, to determine its longitude. Humboldt and Bonpland landed in Acapulco on 15 February 1803, and from there they went to Taxco , a silver-mining town in modern Guerrero . In April 1803, he visited Cuernavaca , Morelos . Impressed by its climate, he nicknamed
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5248-767: The Avila mount with the young poet Andrés Bello , the former tutor of Simón Bolívar , who later became the leader of independence in northern South America. Humboldt met the Venezuelan Bolívar himself in 1804 in Paris and spent time with him in Rome. The documentary record does not support the supposition that Humboldt inspired Bolívar to participate in the struggle for independence, but it does indicate Bolívar's admiration for Humboldt's production of new knowledge on Spanish America. In February 1800, Humboldt and Bonpland left
5412-464: The Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine . Once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire , the river passes through or touches the borders of 10 countries. Its drainage basin extends into nine more (ten if Kosovo is included). In addition to the bordering countries (see above), the drainage basin includes parts of nine more countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina (4.6% of
5576-576: The Bystroye Canal . In 2022, there was a major heat wave in Europe. As a result, there was less water flowing in the rivers. As the water level decreased, a number of ship wrecks from World War II emerged in the Danube River. Many of the ships were from Nazi Germany 's Black Sea Fleet and had been scuttled to stop them from falling into enemy hands. The International Commission for
5740-566: The Danube but five times greater in volume. Its discharge is the third largest of any river worldwide, after the Amazon and the Congo , and much greater than that of many rivers of greater length and basin area. The Orinoco river basin synthesizes ancient massifs and shields, recently raised ( Tertiary ) ridges, and tectonic depressions and basins or accumulation plains. The only other countries in
5904-713: The Danubian Limes was the northeastern border of the Empire, with occasional interruptions such as the fall of the Danubian Limes in 259. The crossing of the Danube into Dacia was achieved by the Imperium Romanum , first in two battles in 102 and then in 106 after the construction of a bridge in 101 near the garrison town of Drobeta at the Iron Gate. This victory over Dacia under Decebalus enabled
6068-493: The Gendarme regiment was something of a ne'er do well, not often mentioned in the family history. Alexander Georg died in 1779, leaving the brothers Humboldt in the care of their emotionally distant mother. She had high ambitions for Alexander and his older brother Wilhelm, hiring excellent tutors, who were Enlightenment thinkers, including Kantian physician Marcus Herz and botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow , who became one of
6232-677: The Habsburg monarchy , Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , and Russian Empire for controlling the Danube ( Tuna in Turkish ), which became the northern border of the Ottoman Empire for centuries. Many of the Ottoman–Hungarian Wars (1366–1526) and Ottoman–Habsburg wars (1526–1791) were fought along the river. Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859)
6396-513: The Llanero to establish in them the cheese, that, in addition to processing part of the milk, a group of cattle are being prepared to go to the front of the herd (what in the Llanos denominates the godmother of the herd). They also serve to protect the livestock from floods. Thus, this eco-system so curious and picturesque, is the result of wind modeling in a savannah climate. It is not, as stated in
6560-635: The PIE * isro- , * sreu 'to flow'. In the Middle Ages, the Greek Tiras was borrowed into Italian as Tyrlo and into Turkic languages as Tyrla ; the latter was further borrowed into Romanian as a regionalism ( Turlă ). The Thraco- Phrygian name was Matoas , "the bringer of luck". The Middle Mongolian name for the Danube was transliterated as Tho-na in 1829 by Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat . The modern languages spoken in
6724-708: The Royal College of Mines , the Royal Botanical Garden and the Royal Academy of San Carlos as exemplars of a metropolitan capital in touch with the latest developments on the continent and insisting on its modernity. He also recognized important criollo savants in Mexico, including José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez , who died in 1799, just before Humboldt's visit; Miguel Velásquez de León; and Antonio de León y Gama . Humboldt spent time at
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6888-932: The Rupununi savannah had been misidentified as a lake. On 24 November 1800, the two friends set sail for Cuba, landing on 19 December, where they met fellow botanist and plant collector John Fraser . Fraser and his son had been shipwrecked off the Cuban coast, and did not have a license to be in the Spanish Indies. Humboldt, who was already in Cuba, interceded with crown officials in Havana, as well as giving them money and clothing. Fraser obtained permission to remain in Cuba and explore. Humboldt entrusted Fraser with taking two cases of Humboldt and Bonpland's botanical specimens to England when he returned, for eventual conveyance to
7052-748: The main plaza of Mexico City in 1790, along with select drawings of the Dresden Codex and others he sought out later in European collections. His aim was to muster evidence that these pictorial and sculptural images could allow the reconstruction of prehispanic history. He sought out Mexican experts in the interpretation of sources from there, especially Antonio Pichardo, who was the literary executor of Antonio de León y Gama 's work. For American-born Spaniards ( criollos ) who were seeking sources of pride in Mexico's ancient past, Humboldt's recognition of these ancient works and dissemination in his publications
7216-405: The Amana. Each of the named tributaries of the Orinoco River deserves a more detailed study. Also, some problems that are scarcely investigated, such as the different coloration of the waters of these tributaries, as seen in the image, the phenomenon of the lack of cloudiness in the mornings in the mountiest rivers (a phenomenon that is briefly explained in the articles on the Venezuelan Guayana, in
7380-408: The Amazon river and especially in the article on diathermy), the great extension of dunes or dunes in the Apure state, which is located between the Cinaruco, Capanaparo, Arauca and the own rivers Apure, the comparison of the flow between the different tributaries and between the Guaviare and the Orinoco and others, are also issues that deserve separate treatment, something more detailed than the one that
7544-454: The Americas with a similar geological disposition are Canada and the United States. To define the Orinoco basin as a natural region, it is necessary to establish the geographic characteristics that define it, such as extension, relief, climate , hydrography , vegetation , soils, and mineral resources. The Orinoco basin covers an area of almost 989000 km of which 643480 km or slightly more than 65% remain in Venezuelan territory, while
7708-429: The Americas; he was aided in obtaining it by the German representative of Saxony at the royal Bourbon court. Baron Forell had an interest in mineralogy and science endeavors and was inclined to help Humboldt. At that time, the Bourbon Reforms sought to reform administration of the realms and revitalize their economies. At the same time, the Spanish Enlightenment was in florescence. For Humboldt "the confluent effect of
7872-443: The Atlas of Venezuela. A spatial image (also known as the Atlas of PDVSA , of a paleodunas eco-system formed in an environment with a climate much drier than the present one, but of a mechanism of formation of dunes that only acts during the dry season since. When the level of the waters of the Orinoco falls due to the drought of the rivers, especially those that come from the Llanos, they remain extensive beaches of very fine sand, that
8036-471: The Bourbon revolution in government and the Spanish Enlightenment had created ideal conditions for his venture". The Bourbon monarchy had already authorized and funded expeditions, with the Botanical Expedition to the Viceroyalty of Peru to Chile and Peru (1777–88), New Granada (1783–1816), New Spain (Mexico) (1787–1803), and the Malaspina Expedition (1789–94). These were lengthy, state-sponsored enterprises to gather information about plants and animals from
8200-548: The Danube basin all use names derived from the Latin name Danubius : Danube is an Old European river name derived from the Celtic ' danu ' or ' don ' (both Celtic gods), which itself derived from the Proto-Indo-European * deh₂nu . Other European river names from the same root include the Dunaj, Dzvina/ Daugava , Don , Donets , Dnieper , Dniestr , Dysna and Tana/Deatnu . In Rigvedic Sanskrit , danu (दनु) means "fluid, dewdrop" and danuja (दनु-ज) means "born from danu " or "born from dew-drops". In Avestan ,
8364-431: The Danube basin; T – Simulated average temperature in the Danube basin; Q – Simulated average discharge in the Danube River at delta; S – Simulated sediment load in the Danube River at delta ; Historical average flow to the present day; Measured and reconstructed average water flows from 1742. The reconstructed and observed streamflow (Q – m /s) at Ceatal Izmail for the 1742 to 2022: The land drained by
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#17327661826648528-983: The Danube extends into many other countries. Many Danubian tributaries are important rivers in their own right, navigable by barges and other shallow-draught boats. From its source to its outlet into the Black Sea, its main tributaries are (as they enter): 18. Tisza (entering near Titel ) 19. Sava (entering at Belgrade ) 20. Timiș (river) (entering at Pančevo ) 21. Great Morava (entering near Smederevo ) 22. Mlava (entering near Kostolac ) 23. Karaš (entering near Banatska Palanka ) 24. Jiu (entering at Bechet ) 25. Iskar (entering near Gigen ) 26. Olt (entering at Turnu Măgurele ) 27. Osam (entering near Nikopol, Bulgaria ) 28. Yantra (entering near Svishtov ) 29. Argeș (entering at Oltenița ) 30. Ialomița 31. Siret (entering near Galați ) 32. Prut (entering near Galați ) The Danube flows through many cities, including four national capitals (shown below in bold), more than any other river in
8692-507: The Danube flows southeast for 2,850 km (1,770 mi), passing through or bordering Austria , Slovakia , Hungary , Croatia , Serbia , Romania , Bulgaria , Moldova , and Ukraine . Among the many cities on the river are four national capitals: Vienna , Bratislava , Budapest , and Belgrade . Its drainage basin amounts to 817,000 km (315,000 sq mi) and extends into nine more countries. The Danube's longest headstream Breg rises in Furtwangen im Schwarzwald , while
8856-434: The Danube was variously known as Danubius , Danuvius , Ister or Hister . The Latin name is masculine, as are all its Slavic names, except Slovene (the name of the Rhine is also masculine in Latin, most of the Slavic languages, as well as in German). The German Donau ( Early Modern German Donaw , Tonaw , Middle High German Tuonowe ) is feminine, as it has been re-interpreted as containing
9020-427: The Danube's, today subsurface rivers carry much water from the Danube to the Rhine. On many days in the summer, when the Danube carries little water, it completely oozes away noisily into these underground channels at two locations in the Swabian Alb, which are referred to as the Donauversickerung ( Danube Sink ). Most of this water resurfaces only 12 km (7.5 mi) south at the Aachtopf , Germany's wellspring with
9184-413: The Danube. Today the Commission include riparian and non-riparian states. Although the headwaters of the Danube are relatively small today, geologically, the Danube is much older than the Rhine , with which its catchment area competes in today's southern Germany. This has a few interesting geological complications. Since the Rhine is the only river rising in the Alps mountains which flows north towards
9348-407: The Eastern Andean Cordillera of Colombia. The north-western edge of the basin would consist of the Colombian-Venezuelan Andean slopes and the southern slopes of other mountainous reliefs of northern Venezuela, while the southern edge of the basin would be marked for the most part by the watershed between the Orinoco and the Amazon, which is located on the Guayanés massif. Between the two sides extends
9512-435: The German botanist Willdenow in Berlin. Humboldt and Bonpland stayed in Cuba until 5 March 1801, when they left for the mainland of northern South America again, arriving there on 30 March. Humboldt is considered to be the "second discoverer of Cuba" due to the scientific and social research he conducted on this Spanish colony. During an initial three-month stay at Havana , his first tasks were to survey that city properly and
9676-532: The Greeks borrowed the Istros form from the native Thracians. He proposes that the Romanian name is a loanword from a Turkic language ( Cuman or Pecheneg ). Classified as an international waterway , it originates in the town of Donaueschingen , in the Black Forest of Germany , at the confluence of the rivers Brigach and Breg . The Danube then flows southeast for about 2,730 km (1,700 mi), passing through four capital cities ( Vienna , Bratislava , Budapest , and Belgrade ) before emptying into
9840-400: The King of Spain, Humboldt and Bonpland made haste to sail, taking the ship Pizarro from A Coruña , on 5 June 1799. The ship stopped six days on the island of Tenerife , where Humboldt climbed the volcano Teide , and then sailed on to the New World, landing at Cumaná , Venezuela , on 16 July. The ship's destination was not originally Cumaná, but an outbreak of typhoid on board meant that
10004-435: The North Sea, an invisible line beginning at Piz Lunghin divides large parts of southern Germany, which is sometimes referred to as the European Watershed . Before the last ice age in the Pleistocene , the Rhine started at the southwestern tip of the Black Forest, while the waters from the Alps that today feed the Rhine were carried east by the so-called Urdonau (original Danube). Parts of this ancient river's bed, which
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#173276618266410168-406: The Orinoco is due to the fact that the rocks of the shield are very resistant to the erosion and presented in that point, a narrowing of about 800 meters of width that gave origin to a species of imprisonment during, probably, millions of years, until the river was gradually excavating the channel on granite rocks. Thus, the Venezuelan Guiana constitutes, unlike the Llanos, a surface of erosion. From
10332-412: The Pará jump, the Aro and finally the Caroní with its tributary the Paragua, dammed both rivers in the Necoima Canyon or Necuima, in a hydro-electric dam of more than 200 m of height that originates a reservoir, the Lake of Guri, with more than 4000 km of surface, which defines it as one of the most valuable and productive rivers in the world: to date, the production of the Guri hydro-electric power station
10496-424: The Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) is an organization that consists of 14 member states (Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Montenegro, and Ukraine) and the European Union . The commission, established in 1998, deals with the whole Danube river basin, which includes tributaries and groundwater resources. Its goal
10660-418: The Province of Dacia to be created, but in 271 it was abandoned by emperor Aurelian . Avars used the river as their southeastern border in the 6th century. Part of the rivers Danubius or Istros was also known as (together with the Black Sea) the Okeanos in ancient times, being called the Okeanos Potamos (Okeanos River). The lower Danube was also called the Keras Okeanoio (Gulf or Horn of Okeanos) in
10824-467: The River Rhine ). The following year, 1790, Humboldt returned to Mainz to embark with Forster on a journey to England, Humboldt's first sea voyage, the Netherlands, and France. In England, he met Sir Joseph Banks , president of the Royal Society , who had travelled with Captain Cook; Banks showed Humboldt his huge herbarium, with specimens of the South Sea tropics. The scientific friendship between Banks and Humboldt lasted until Banks's death in 1820, and
10988-465: The Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada, staying there until 8 September 1801. Mutis was generous with his time and gave Humboldt access to the huge pictorial record he had compiled since 1783. Mutis was based in Bogotá, but as with other Spanish expeditions, he had access to local knowledge and a workshop of artists, who created highly accurate and detailed images. This type of careful recording meant that even if specimens were not available to study at
11152-471: The Serbian and the Romanian stretches of the Danube. However, the transgressions may not be considered acts of piracy, as defined according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , but rather instances of "river robbery". On the other hand, media reports say the crews on transport ships often steal and sell their own cargo and then blame the plundering on "pirates", and the alleged attacks are not piracy but small-time contraband theft along
11316-399: The Spanish realms, assess economic possibilities, and provide plants and seeds for the Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid (founded 1755). These expeditions took naturalists and artists, who created visual images as well as careful written observations as well as collecting seeds and plants themselves. Crown officials as early as 1779 issued and systematically distributed Instructions concerning
11480-423: The Valenciana silver mine in Guanajuato , central New Spain, at the time the most important in the Spanish empire. The bicentennial of his visit in Guanajuato was celebrated with a conference at the University of Guanajuato , with Mexican academics highlighting various aspects of his impact on the city. Humboldt could have simply examined the geology of the fabulously rich mine, but he took the opportunity to study
11644-422: The Venezuelan Guayana on the right bank of the Orinoco and the Llanos, both Colombian and Venezuelan on the left bank. As we see, the Orinoco river itself marks the natural boundary between these two regions; it could be said that the Orinoco is one of the most remarkable natural borders in the world, although this fact has a simple explanation: the rivers have little slope and have been building for millions of years
11808-811: The Venezuelan plains and the delta Orinoco. The southern part of the basin contains most of the waters that come from the Venezuelan Guiana . The sources of the Orinoco River are located at Cerro Carlos Delgado Chalbaud , at 1047 meters above sea level, discovered in 1951 by the Franco-Venezuelan expedition that went back and explored the Upper Orinoco course to the Sierra Parima , headed By Venezuelan army officer Frank Risquez Iribarren. The first reference to this expedition
11972-585: The agricultural and commercial potential of Cuba was huge and could be vastly improved with proper leadership in the future. On their way back to Europe from the Americas, Humboldt and Bonpland stopped again in Cuba, leaving from the port of Veracruz and arriving in Cuba on 7 January 1804, staying until 29 April 1804. In Cuba, he collected plant material and made extensive notes. During this time, he socialized with his scientific and landowner friends, conducted mineralogical surveys, and finished his vast collection of
12136-610: The basin area), the Czech Republic (2.9%), Slovenia (2.0%), Montenegro (0.9%), Switzerland (0.2%), Italy (<0.15%), Poland (<0.1%), North Macedonia (<0.1%) and Albania (<0.1%). The total drainage basin is 801,463 km (309,447 sq mi) in area, and is home to 83 million people. The highest point of the drainage basin is the summit of Piz Bernina at the Italy–Switzerland border , at 4,049 m (13,284 ft). The Danube River Basin
12300-625: The basis of observations generated during his travels, local impacts of development causing human-induced climate change . Humboldt is seen as "the father of ecology" and "the father of environmentalism". Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin in Prussia on 14 September 1769. He was baptized as a baby in the Lutheran faith, with the Duke of Brunswick serving as godfather. His father, Alexander Georg von Humboldt (1720-1779), belonged to
12464-523: The captain changed course from Havana to land in northern South America. Humboldt had not mapped out a specific plan of exploration, so that the change did not upend a fixed itinerary. He later wrote that the diversion to Venezuela made possible his explorations along the Orinoco River to the border of Portuguese Brazil. With the diversion, the Pizarro encountered two large dugout canoes each carrying 18 Guayaqui Indians. The Pizarro ' s captain accepted
12628-708: The city the City of Eternal Spring . Humboldt and Bonpland arrived in Mexico City, having been officially welcomed via a letter from the king's representative in New Spain, Viceroy Don José de Iturrigaray . Humboldt was also given a special passport to travel throughout New Spain and letters of introduction to intendants, the highest officials in New Spain's administrative districts (intendancies). This official aid to Humboldt allowed him to have access to crown records, mines, landed estates, canals, and Mexican antiquities from
12792-585: The coast with the purpose of exploring the course of the Orinoco River and its tributaries. This trip, which lasted four months and covered 1,725 miles (2,776 km) of wild and largely uninhabited country, had an aim of establishing the existence of the Casiquiare canal (a communication between the water systems of the rivers Orinoco and Amazon ). Although, unbeknownst to Humboldt, this existence had been established decades before, his expedition had
12956-408: The combination of these two forces that modify the relief, a constructive one, the sedimentation and another destructive one, the erosion, arises the current situation in which the river marks approximately the limit between the two regions. As can be seen from the above, this limit presents exceptions since, in some sections, rounded hills of granite origin (and therefore, Guayan reliefs) can be seen on
13120-418: The consequent convection: as the wet winds advance on the savanna they increase of temperature by the heat of the ground due to the solar radiation. In turn, this warming gives rise to the rise of moist air (precisely what we know as convection) and this rise gives rise, in turn, to a decrease in the speed of the winds and the increase of precipitation. So the mechanism of the winds and that of the accumulation of
13284-413: The direction of the elongated dunes in satellite images. This address may vary for a short time but in the long run it is maintained exactly in that direction. In the rainy season (or winter) the direction changes slightly and proceeds practically from the free east. But this is not the most remarkable change, but the decrease of its speed. This is due to the greater humidity that the trade winds bring and to
13448-650: The distance to the Black Sea by 400 km (250 mi); the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal is about 171 km (106 mi), finished in 1992, linking the North Sea to the Black Sea. A Danube-Aegean canal has been proposed. Danube River cruise for sightseeing is popular, especially between Passau , Germany, to Budapest , Hungary. In 2010–12, shipping companies, especially from Ukraine, claimed that their vessels suffered from "regular pirate attacks " on
13612-640: The entire Orinoco basin, but is rather an anomaly, in the sense that, because of its location with respect to the prevailing winds (by the action of mountains north-eastern Venezuela and the plateaus of the south-east) and this city being somewhat distant from the sea (the influence of the rainfall of the coastal drift in the Venezuelan Atlantic coasts), the precipitations are quite smaller than they should be. The Orinoco, with its tributaries, constitutes an extensive hydrographic network with rivers very flowing and of considerable length. Of all its basin,
13776-491: The entire mining complex as well as analyze mining statistics of its output. His report on silver mining is a major contribution, and considered the strongest and best informed section of his Political Essay . Although Humboldt was himself a trained geologist and mining inspector, he drew on mining experts in Mexico. One was Fausto Elhuyar , then head of the General Mining Court in Mexico City, who, like Humboldt
13940-739: The existence of this climate would be reduced to the Atlantic coast of the Orinoco delta, where the influence of the northern equatorial current (which here is practically a coastal drift) influences to make the rains much more important On the whole coast common to the Guianas and Venezuela, but that diminish abruptly in Venezuela when advancing inland. At higher altitudes four or five thermal, climatic, biotic or ecological floors can be distinguished according to criteria used by different authors and their interest in their field of research. Temperatures have
14104-642: The extra-ordinary resistance of the rocks, has been very durable (more than 1 billion of years), for which the sedimentary cover has been transformed into an inverted relief that forms the Tepuis. Moreover, were it not for the fact that the Guayanese Massif has been suffering a slow and long movement of ascent, in the present time it would have already become a penillanura in which almost all the sedimentary cover of sandstones would have disappeared. The sands coming from this erosive process have been deposited in
14268-459: The founders of modern geography as they established it as an independent scientific discipline. Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in the Americas , exploring and describing them for the first time from a non-Spanish European scientific point of view. His description of the journey was written up and published in several volumes over 21 years. Humboldt resurrected the use of
14432-554: The frozen ridges of the Cordillera Real and reached Quito on 6 January 1802, after a tedious and difficult journey. Their stay in Ecuador was marked by the ascent of Pichincha and their climb of Chimborazo , where Humboldt and his party reached an altitude of 19,286 feet (5,878 m). This was a world record at the time (for a westerner— Incas had reached much higher altitudes centuries before), but 1000 feet short of
14596-755: The gorge) by the Iron Gate II Hydroelectric Power Station . On 13 April 2006, a record peak discharge at Iron Gate Dam reached 15,400 m /s (540,000 cu ft/s). There are three artificial waterways built on the Danube: the Danube-Tisa-Danube Canal (DTD) in the Banat and Bačka regions ( Vojvodina , northern province of Serbia); the 64 km (40 mi) Danube-Black Sea Canal , between Cernavodă and Constanța (Romania) finished in 1984, shortens
14760-617: The greatest secrecy until today, is known to contain among its ingredients quina (hence the bitter taste) and sarrapia, vegetables whose medicinal principles have been perfectly proven for more than three centuries. In addition to the vegetation of the equatorial forest, in the Llanos, which share Venezuela and Colombia, savannas predominate, grasses of seasonal pastures, with gallery forests, woods (small clusters isolated from trees) and estuaries with palms ( palma llanera , especialmente), etc. Danube The Danube ( / ˈ d æ n . j uː b / DAN -yoob ; see also other names )
14924-480: The head of it rather than the aging scientific traveler. On the postponement of Captain Baudin's proposed voyage of circumnavigation due to continuing warfare in Europe, which Humboldt had been officially invited to accompany, Humboldt was deeply disappointed. He had already selected scientific instruments for his voyage. He did, however, have a stroke of luck with meeting Aimé Bonpland , the botanist and physician for
15088-533: The hero Achilles was buried (to this day, one of the mouths of the Danube is called Chilia). Old Romanian folk songs recount a white monastery on a white island with nine priests. Between the late 14th and late 19th centuries, the Ottoman Empire competed first with the Kingdom of Serbia , Second Bulgarian Empire , Kingdom of Hungary , Principality of Wallachia , Principality of Moldavia and later with
15252-491: The highest flow, an average of 8,500 L/s (300 cu ft/s), north of Lake Constance —thus feeding the Rhine. The European Water Divide applies only for those waters that pass beyond this point, and only during the days of the year when the Danube carries enough water to survive the sinkholes in the Donauversickerung. Since such large volumes of underground water erode much of the surrounding limestone, it
15416-469: The highest post in his department, but he was also entrusted with several important diplomatic missions. Neither brother attended the funeral of their mother on 19 November 1796. Humboldt had not hidden his aversion to his mother, with one correspondent writing of him after her death, "her death... must be particularly welcomed by you". After severing his official connections, he awaited an opportunity to fulfill his long-cherished dream of travel. Humboldt
15580-547: The important results of determining the exact position of the bifurcation , and documenting the life of several native tribes such as the Maipures and their extinct rivals the Atures (several words of the latter tribe were transferred to Humboldt by one parrot ). Around 19 March 1800, Humboldt and Bonpland discovered dangerous electric eels , whose shock could kill a man. To catch them, locals suggested they drive wild horses into
15744-401: The incident in several of his later writings, including his travelogue Personal Narrative (1814–29), Views of Nature (1807), and Aspects of Nature (1849). Two months later, they explored the territory of the Maipures and that of the then-recently extinct Atures Indians. Humboldt laid to rest the persistent myth of Walter Raleigh 's Lake Parime by proposing that the seasonal flooding of
15908-492: The intellect have the advantage of bringing attention to a large number of important facts". Humboldt was impressed with Mexico City, which at the time was the largest city in the Americas, and one that could be counted as modern. He declared "no city of the new continent, without even excepting those of the United States, can display such great and solid scientific establishments as the capital of Mexico". He pointed to
16072-672: The island's flora and fauna that he eventually published as Essai politique sur l'îsle de Cuba . After their first stay in Cuba of three months, they returned to the mainland at Cartagena de Indias (now in Colombia), a major center of trade in northern South America. Ascending the swollen stream of the Magdalena River to Honda, they arrived in Bogotá on 6 July 1801, where they met the Spanish botanist José Celestino Mutis , head of
16236-743: The latter with numerous tributaries on its left bank gathered in two great rivers, the Portuguesa and Guárico. And some rivers also llaneros of minor importance and caudal, like the Manapire, Iguana, Zuata and Pao. Finally, the Caño Manamo will end up in the Orinoco delta, the Taiga with its tributary by its right margin, the Long Morichal and the Guanipa with its tributary by its left bank,
16400-438: The left bank of the Orinoco, that is, on the border of the Llanos. In the stone of the middle, you can see the different levels reached by the waters of the river, expressed in the different coloration of the granite, which explains the value of this granite island as "nilometer" - according to Alejandro de Humboldt . These lines of distinct coloring should not be interpreted as a reduction of river flow over geological time, but as
16564-463: The left bank of the river, especially in the low plains of Apure state, between the rivers Meta and Apure itself. They were not deposited in the right border because there the relief is higher. And these sands could become over millions of years in strata of sandstones that could also become converted to rise and rejuvenate the relief on plateaus similar to those that now exist in Guyana. This would be
16728-526: The longest tributary is the Guaviare, longer (about 1550 km) than the Orinoco itself at the point of its confluence, while the largest is the Caroni. Many of its tributaries are navigable rivers, especially those on the left bank, which come from the Llanos, both Colombian and Venezuelan, while the Guayan rivers (tributaries on the right bank) are more flowing but with jumps and rains, which make them very useful in
16892-484: The lowlands (up to 800 m above sea level, according to the considerations of Anton W. Goldbrunner ), which are the jungle climate (Af in the Köppen classification), savanna (Aw in the same climatic classification), the semi-desert and the desert proper. It is disputed whether there is a monsoon climate (according to the Köppen nomenclature) in the Orinoco basin, which would become the fifth type of climate. In any case,
17056-526: The men laboring in the mines. He opened a free school for miners, paid for out of his own pocket, which became an unchartered government training school for labor. He also sought to establish an emergency relief fund for miners, aiding them following accidents. Humboldt's researches into the vegetation of the mines of Freiberg led to the publication in Latin (1793) of his Florae Fribergensis, accedunt Aphorismi ex Doctrina, Physiologiae Chemicae Plantarum , which
17220-609: The mission at Caripe and explored the Guácharo cavern , where he found the oilbird , which he was to make known to science as Steatornis caripensis . He also described the Guanoco asphalt lake as "The spring of the good priest" (" Quelle des guten Priesters "). Returning to Cumaná, Humboldt observed, on the night of 11–12 November, a remarkable meteor shower (the Leonids ). He proceeded with Bonpland to Caracas where he climbed
17384-450: The most experimental of Humboldt's publications, since it does not have "a single ordering principle" but his opinions and contentions based on observation. For Humboldt, a key question was the influence of climate on the development of these civilizations. When he published his Vues des cordillères , he included a color image of the Aztec calendar stone , which had been discovered buried in
17548-518: The most important botanists in Germany. Humboldt's mother expected them to become civil servants of the Prussian state. The money left to Alexander's mother by Baron Holwede became instrumental in funding Alexander's explorations after her death; contributing more than 70% of his private income. Due to his youthful penchant for collecting and labeling plants, shells, and insects, Alexander received
17712-525: The most secure and economic means to transport live plants by land and sea from the most distant countries , with illustrations, including one for the crates to transport seeds and plants. When Humboldt requested authorization from the crown to travel to Spanish America, most importantly, with his own financing, it was given positive response. Spain under the Habsburg monarchy had guarded its realms against foreigner travelers and intruders. The Bourbon monarch
17876-778: The nearby towns of Guanabacoa , Regla , and Bejucal . He befriended Cuban landowner and thinker Francisco de Arango y Parreño ; together they visited the Guines area in south Havana, the valleys of Matanzas Province, and the Valley of the Sugar Mills in Trinidad . Those three areas were, at the time, the first frontier of sugar production in the island. During those trips, Humboldt collected statistical information on Cuba's population, production, technology and trade, and with Arango, made suggestions for enhancing them. He predicted that
18040-533: The northern barbarian Thracian and Illyrian tribes by advancing from Macedonia as far as the Danube in 336 BCE. Under the Romans, the Danube formed the border of the Empire with the tribes to the north almost from its source to its mouth. At the same time, it was a route for the transport of troops and the supply of settlements downstream. From 37 CE to the reign of the Emperor Valentinian I (364–375)
18204-408: The number of producers (plants) is much higher than that of consumers (animals). Of course, this does not mean that the geographic environment (soil, vegetation, fauna, pollutant production) can continue to be depleted without restrictions until reaching irreversible situations. On the other hand, it must be taken into account that ecological problems vary widely at local or regional level: what can be
18368-666: The nuptials. Humboldt graduated from the Freiberg School of Mines in 1792 and was appointed to a Prussian government position in the Department of Mines as an inspector in Bayreuth and the Fichtel Mountains . Humboldt was excellent at his job, with production of gold ore in his first year outstripping the previous eight years. During his period as a mine inspector, Humboldt demonstrated his deep concern for
18532-567: The obtaining of medicinal products has an enormous potentiality, that will only be widened to the extent that is better known. The drink known as Amargo de Angostura , for example, is an example of the development of a tonic developed in the Angostura of the Orinoco (now Ciudad Bolivar) that was very useful since the nineteenth century because, although with a composition created by Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert, and which has always been kept in
18696-467: The offer of one of them to serve as pilot. Humboldt hired this Indian, named Carlos del Pino, as a guide. Venezuela from the 16th to the 18th centuries was a relative backwater compared to the seats of the Spanish viceroyalties based in New Spain (Mexico) and Peru, but during the Bourbon reforms, the northern portion of Spanish South America was reorganized administratively, with the 1777 establishment of
18860-538: The only literary story Humboldt ever authored, he tried to summarize the often contradictory results of the thousands of Galvanic experiments he had undertaken. In 1792 and 1797, Humboldt was in Vienna ; in 1795 he made a geological and botanical tour through Switzerland and Italy. Although this service to the state was regarded by him as only an apprenticeship to the service of science, he fulfilled its duties with such conspicuous ability that not only did he rise rapidly to
19024-508: The playful title of "the little apothecary". Marked for a political career, Alexander studied finance for six months in 1787 at the University of Frankfurt (Oder) , which his mother might have chosen less for its academic excellence than its closeness to their home in Berlin. On 25 April 1789, he matriculated at the University of Göttingen , then known for the lectures of C. G. Heyne and anatomist J. F. Blumenbach . His brother Wilhelm
19188-416: The poor management of the environment and the depletion of many natural resources, there is a continuous advance in the use and rescue for reforestation and for the cultivation of previously uncultivated and unproductive areas that have giving rise to overproduction in many orders with regard to food, especially in the intertropical zone. On the other hand, the use of the enormous amount of vegetal species for
19352-416: The prehispanic era. Humboldt read the writings of Bishop-elect of the important diocese of Michoacan Manuel Abad y Queipo , a classical liberal , that were directed to the crown for the improvement of New Spain. They spent the year in the viceroyalty, traveling to different Mexican cities in the central plateau and the northern mining region. The first journey was from Acapulco to Mexico City, through what
19516-543: The production of hydro-electric energy, but without use as navigational routes, except for some very short stretches. There are numerous islands, both rocky (erosion reliefs) and sedimentary (sand and other sediments), as well as many pipes or arms, abandoned meanders and horseshoe lakes. The main tributaries on the right bank are the Manaviche, Ocamo, Padamo (with its Matacuni tributary on its left bank), Cunucunuma, Ventuari (very flowing river, with its Manapiare tributary on
19680-482: The production of oxygen, although this diversity presents a limitation as far as its commercial exploitation is concerned. The jungles of the inter-tropical zone constitute the biggest vegetable lung of the planet since all the vegetables need to absorb an enormous amount of water and CO 2 to produce, through photosynthesis , the carbohydrates that they need for their growth, but they also leave an enormous amount of free oxygen that animals use for their respiration. In
19844-732: The remaining 35% is in Colombian territory in the Colombian Llanos and The eastern slope of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia, a stretch of the great mountain range of the Andes. This Colombian region is called Orinoquía . Of the part located in Venezuela, just over half extend from the Venezuelan Andes and the Cordillera de la Costa to the north-western bank of the Orinoco River (the left bank), forming most of
20008-517: The right), Sipapo with its tributaries Autana and Cuao, both on the right), Samariapo, Parguaza (with several tributaries with a curious bayonet drainage), Suapure, Cuchivero river (with its tributary Guaniamo, on the left bank, a river where the gold has been exploited for a long time), the Caura (with its Erebato tributary on its left bank), a very flowing river and with one of the most notable leaps of Guayana (not so much because of its height but Caudal),
20172-572: The river carries its name from its source confluence in the palace park in Donaueschingen onwards. Since ancient times, the Danube has been a traditional trade route in Europe. Today, 2,415 km (1,501 mi) of its total length are navigable. The Danube is linked to the North Sea via the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal , connecting the Danube at Kelheim with the Main at Bamberg . The river
20336-520: The river has been part of a trans-European waterway from Rotterdam on the North Sea to Sulina on the Black Sea, a distance of 3,500 km (2,200 mi). In 1994 the Danube was declared one of ten Pan-European transport corridors , routes in Central and Eastern Europe that required major investment over the following ten to fifteen years. The amount of goods transported on the Danube increased to about 100 million tons in 1987. In 1999, transport on
20500-698: The river was made difficult by the NATO bombing of three bridges in Serbia during the Kosovo War . Clearance of the resulting debris was completed in 2002, and a temporary pontoon bridge that hampered navigation was removed in 2005. At the Iron Gate , the Danube flows through a gorge that forms part of the boundary between Serbia and Romania; it contains the Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station dam, followed at about 60 km (37 mi) downstream (outside
20664-500: The river, which brought the eels out from the river mud, and resulted in a violent confrontation of eels and horses, some of which died. Humboldt and Bonpland captured and dissected some eels, which retained their ability to shock; both received potentially dangerous electric shocks during their investigations. The encounter made Humboldt think more deeply about electricity and magnetism, typical of his ability to extrapolate from an observation to more general principles. Humboldt returned to
20828-658: The river. The Danube Delta ( Romanian : Delta Dunării pronounced [ˈdelta ˈdunərij] ; Ukrainian : Дельта Дунаю , romanized : Del'ta Dunayu ) is the largest river delta in the European Union . The greater part of the Danube Delta lies in Romania (Tulcea county), while its northern part, on the left bank of the Chilia arm, is situated in Ukraine (Odesa Oblast). The approximate surface
20992-643: The river. Today the river carries its name from its source confluence in Donaueschingen , Germany , to its discharge into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine . The river was known to the ancient Greeks as the Istros ( Ἴστρος ) from a root possibly also encountered in the ancient name of the Dniester ( Danaster in Latin, Tiras in Greek) and akin to Iranic turos 'swift' and Sanskrit iṣiras ( इषिरस् ) 'swift', from
21156-443: The river. Members include representatives from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and Serbia; it meets regularly twice a year. It also convenes groups of experts to consider items provided for in the commission's working plans. The commission dates to the Paris Conferences of 1856 and 1921, which established for the first time an international regime to safeguard free navigation on
21320-421: The rivers, and in the Andean piedmont, tropophile forests, which lose much of their leaves during the dry season. The climate chart of Ciudad Bolívar shows the behavior of rains (blue line) and temperature (red line). The shading in yellow indicates the season or season of drought (deficit of precipitations, according to the xerothermic index of Gaussen ). However, Ciudad Bolívar's climate is not representative of
21484-491: The same word means "river". The Finnish word for Danube is Tonava , which is most likely derived from the name of the river in German , Donau . Its Sámi name Deatnu means "Great River". It is possible that dānu in Scythian as in Avestan was a generic word for "river": Dnieper and Dniestr , from Danapris and Danastius , are presumed to continue Scythian * dānu apara "far river" and * dānu nazdya- "near river", respectively. In Latin,
21648-427: The sands from the Guayanese Massif are almost opposite and this opposition has been favorable for the establishment of agricultural activities in the Llanos: the dunes can become covered with vegetation and serve. The basis for the establishment of houses, herds and roads, and this process becomes more noticeable to the west, not only by the decrease of the speed of the winds as they move in that direction but also because
21812-403: The sands they form. These dunes come from the beaches of the Orinoco and the transport of the same diminishes when the speed of the wind descends. Fernando Calzadilla Valdés explains all this process in the central part of the Apure state , where he begins what he calls the Alto Llano, although this concept is not established with a certain level that throughout the Apure is very low until reaching
21976-427: The sixth-to-third millennium BCE Vinča culture (Vinča, Serbia), are sited along the Danube. The third millennium BCE Vučedol culture (from the Vučedol site near Vukovar , Croatia ) is famous for its ceramics. Darius the Great , king of Persia , crossed the river in the late 6th century BCE to invade European Scythia and to subdue the Scythians . Alexander the Great defeated the Triballian king Syrmus and
22140-475: The subsoil as hydrocarbons), where it usually there is a close correspondence between production and consumption that fluctuates over time in a process of equilibrium. This means that, as a whole, the balance between production and consumption, both oxygen and carbon dioxide, follows an eternal process of feedback that is responsible for reaching at a given moment a situation of climax, a concept that will need, with time, be revised. We must not forget that, in nature,
22304-415: The suffix -ouwe "wetland". Romanian differs from other surrounding languages in designating the river with a feminine term, Dunărea ( IPA: [ˈdunəre̯a] ). This form was not inherited from Latin, although Romanian is a Romance language. To explain the loss of the Latin name, scholars who suppose that Romanian developed near the large river propose that the Romanian name descends from
22468-461: The summit. Humboldt's journey concluded with an expedition to the sources of the Amazon en route for Lima , Peru. At Callao , the main port for Peru, Humboldt observed the transit of Mercury on 9 November and studied the fertilizing properties of guano , rich in nitrogen, the subsequent introduction of which into Europe was due mainly to his writings. Humboldt and Bonpland had not intended to go to New Spain, but when they were unable to join
22632-490: The total area of the Danube Delta reaches 5,165 km (1,994 sq mi). The Danube Delta is also the best-preserved river delta in Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 1991) and a Ramsar Site . Its lakes and marshes support 45 freshwater fish species. Its wetlands support vast flocks of migratory birds of over 300 species, including the endangered pygmy cormorant ( Phalacrocorax pygmaeus ). These are threatened by rival canalization and drainage schemes such as
22796-421: The trade winds soon transfer towards the south-east forming what now constitutes the Santos Luzardo National Park , a name taken from one of the main characters in Doña Bárbara 's novel by Rómulo Gallegos . The direction of the winds during the dry season (of the summer as it is said in the Llanos) is on average very constant and with a considerable speed, from the north-east to the south-west, as can be seen in
22960-405: The true piedmont of the Andes (established modern, this yes, in the curve of level of the 200 altitude. Across the Orinoco basin, climates are isothermal, i.e, climates with few temperature variations throughout the year (the difference between the average temperature of the warmer months and the less warm months is only 3°C), as corresponds to the inter-tropical zone. Five major types of climate in
23124-490: The two shared botanical specimens for study. Banks also mobilized his scientific contacts in later years to aid Humboldt's work. Humboldt's passion for travel was of long standing. He devoted to prepare himself as a scientific explorer. With this emphasis, he studied commerce and foreign languages at Hamburg , geology at Freiberg School of Mines in 1791 under A.G. Werner , leader of the Neptunist school of geology; from anatomy at Jena under J.C. Loder ; and astronomy and
23288-414: The university. In 1794, Humboldt was admitted to the famous group of intellectuals and cultural leaders of Weimar Classicism . Goethe and Schiller were the key figures at the time. Humboldt contributed (7 June 1795) to Schiller's new periodical, Die Horen , a philosophical allegory entitled Die Lebenskraft, oder der rhodische Genius (The Life Force, or the Rhodian Genius). In this short piece,
23452-530: The use of scientific instruments under F.X. von Zach and J.G. Köhler . At Freiberg, he met a number of men who were to prove important to him in his later career, including Spaniard Manuel del Río, who became director of the School of Mines the crown established in Mexico; Christian Leopold von Buch , who became a regional geologist; and, most importantly, Carl Freiesleben [ de ] , who became Humboldt's tutor and close friend. During this period, his brother Wilhelm married, but Alexander did not attend
23616-455: The vegetation: many vegetal species per hectare, but few copies of each one in that surface. The other distinguishing note is the enormous annual biomass production: about 500 t/yr/ha, against about 300 in the coniferous forests of the Taiga area in the northern hemisphere, under the most favorable conditions. And it is this extra-ordinary diversity that makes it the most useful type of vegetation that exists, especially for its possibilities and for
23780-400: The very long term, the balance between production and consumption of both oxygen and CO 2 tends to be balanced, according to Lavoisier's principle that matter is not created or destroyed, but only transformed. But for millions of years (since the primary era, when the first plant species appeared on our planet) has accumulated an enormous amount of biomass on the earth's surface (and also in
23944-420: The voyage. Discouraged, the two left Paris for Marseilles , where they hoped to join Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt, but North Africans were in revolt against the French invasion in Egypt and French authorities refused permission to travel. Humboldt and Bonpland eventually found their way to Madrid , where their luck changed spectacularly. In Madrid, Humboldt sought authorization to travel to Spain's realms in
24108-419: The word cosmos from the ancient Greek and assigned it to his multivolume treatise, Kosmos , in which he sought to unify diverse branches of scientific knowledge and culture. This important work also motivated a holistic perception of the universe as one interacting entity, which introduced concepts of ecology leading to ideas of environmentalism . In 1800, and again in 1831, he described scientifically, on
24272-431: The world. Ordered from the source to the mouth they are: The Danube is navigable by ocean ships from the Black Sea to Brăila in Romania (the maritime river sector), and further on by river ships to Kelheim , Bavaria , Germany; smaller craft can navigate further upstream to Ulm , Württemberg , Germany. About 60 of its tributaries are also navigable. Since the completion of the German Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in 1992,
24436-610: Was Johann Paul von Humboldt (1684-1740), who married Sophia Dorothea von Schweder (1688-1749), daughter of Prussian General Adjutant Michael von Schweder (1663-1729). In 1766, his father, Alexander Georg married Maria Elisabeth Colomb , a well-educated woman and widow of Baron Friedrich Ernst von Holwede (1723-1765), with whom she had a son Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig (1762-1817). Alexander Georg and Maria Elisabeth had four children: two daughters, Karoline and Gabriele, who died young, and then two sons, Wilhelm and Alexander. Her first-born son, Wilhelm and Alexander's half-brother, Rittmaster in
24600-529: Was a German polymath , geographer , naturalist , explorer , and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science . He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography , while his advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement pioneered modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Humboldt and Carl Ritter are both regarded as
24764-608: Was a boon. He read the work of exiled Jesuit Francisco Javier Clavijero , which celebrated Mexico's prehispanic civilization, and which Humboldt invoked to counter the pejorative assertions about the new world by Buffon, de Pauw, and Raynal. Humboldt ultimately viewed both the prehispanic realms of Mexico and Peru as despotic and barbaric. However, he also drew attention to indigenous monuments and artifacts as cultural productions that had "both ... historical and artistic significance". One of his most widely read publications resulting from his travels and investigations in Spanish America
24928-446: Was a center of learning in the U.S., Humboldt met with some of the major scientific figures of the era, including chemist and anatomist Caspar Wistar , who pushed for compulsory smallpox vaccination, and botanist Benjamin Smith Barton , as well as physician Benjamin Rush , a signer of the Declaration of Independence , who wished to hear about cinchona bark from a South American tree, which cured fevers. Humboldt's treatise on cinchona
25092-574: Was a compendium of his botanical researches. That publication brought him to the attention of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who had met Humboldt at the family home when Alexander was a boy, but Goethe was now interested in meeting the young scientist to discuss metamorphism of plants. An introduction was arranged by Humboldt's brother, who lived in the university town of Jena, not far from Goethe. Goethe had developed his own extensive theories on comparative anatomy. Working before Darwin, he believed that animals had an internal force, an urform , that gave them
25256-406: Was a welcome foreign scientist and mining expert, the Spanish crown had established fertile ground for Humboldt's investigations into mining. Spanish America's ancient civilizations were a source of interest for Humboldt, who included images of Mexican manuscripts (or codices) and Inca ruins in his richly illustrated Vues des cordillères et monuments des peuples indigènes de l'Amerique (1810–1813),
25420-452: Was able to spend more time on writing up his research. He had used his own body for experimentation on muscular irritability, recently discovered by Luigi Galvani and published his results, Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser (Berlin, 1797) ( Experiments on Stimulated Muscle and Nerve Fibres ), enriched in the French translation with notes by Blumenbach. With the financial resources to fund his scientific travels, he sought
25584-644: Was already a student at Göttingen, but they did not interact much, since their intellectual interests were quite different. His vast and varied interests were by this time fully developed. At the University of Göttingen, Humboldt met Steven Jan van Geuns, a Dutch medical student, with whom he travelled to the Rhine in the fall of 1789. In Mainz, they met Georg Forster , a naturalist who had been with Captain James Cook on his second voyage. Humboldt's scientific excursion resulted in his 1790 treatise Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein (Brunswick, 1790) ( Mineralogic Observations on Several Basalts on
25748-495: Was himself a scientist, Humboldt wrote to him saying that he would be in the United States. Jefferson warmly replied, inviting him to visit the White House in the nation's new capital. In his letter Humboldt had gained Jefferson's interest by mentioning that he had discovered mammoth teeth near the Equator. Jefferson had previously written that he believed mammoths had never lived so far south. Humboldt had also hinted at his knowledge of New Spain. Arriving in Philadelphia , which
25912-414: Was much larger than today's Danube, can still be seen in (now waterless) canyons in today's landscape of the Swabian Alb . After the Upper Rhine valley had been eroded, most waters from the Alps changed their direction and began feeding the Rhine. Today's upper Danube is thus an underfit stream . Since the Swabian Alb is largely shaped of porous limestone , and since the Rhine's level is much lower than
26076-449: Was open to Humboldt's proposal. Spanish Foreign Minister Don Mariano Luis de Urquijo received the formal proposal and Humboldt was presented to the monarch in March 1799. Humboldt was granted access to crown officials and written documentation on Spain's empire. With Humboldt's experience working for the absolutist Prussian monarchy as a government mining official, Humboldt had both the academic training and experience of working well within
26240-413: Was part of Humboldt's general insistence that the data he collected be presented in a way more easily understood than statistical charts. A great deal of his success in gaining a more general readership for his works was his understanding that "anything that has to do with extent or quantity can be represented geometrically. Statistical projections [charts and graphs], which speak to the senses without tiring
26404-399: Was published in English in 1821. After arriving in Washington D.C, Humboldt held numerous intense discussions with Jefferson on both scientific matters and also his year-long stay in New Spain. Jefferson had only recently concluded the Louisiana Purchase , which now placed New Spain on the southwest border of the United States. The Spanish minister in Washington, D.C. had declined to furnish
26568-417: Was that of Alberto Contramaestre Torres in 1954. And there are other references to this expedition, for example, that of Pablo J. Anduce. From the birth of the Orinoco at the foot of the hill Delgado Chalbaud ( 2°19′5″N 63°21′42″W / 2.31806°N 63.36167°W / 2.31806; -63.36167 at an altitude of 1047.35 meters) until its opening in the Atlantic Ocean , the Orinoco describes
26732-446: Was the Essai politique sur le royaum de la Nouvelle Espagne , quickly translated to English as Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain (1811). This treatise was the result of Humboldt's own investigations as well as the generosity of Spanish colonial officials for statistical data. Leaving from Cuba, Humboldt decided to take an unplanned short visit to the United States. Knowing that the current U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson ,
26896-438: Was trained in Freiberg. Another was Andrés Manuel del Río , director of Royal College of Mines, whom Humboldt knew when they were both students in Freiberg. The Bourbon monarchs had established the mining court and the college to elevate mining as a profession, since revenues from silver constituted the crown's largest source of income. Humboldt also consulted other German mining experts, who were already in Mexico. While Humboldt
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