Cerro Sarisariñama facts for kids
Cerro Sarisariñama is a special kind of mountain called a tepui. A tepui is a huge, flat-topped mountain with very steep sides. This amazing mountain is found in the Jaua-Sarisariñama National Park in the far southwest of Bolívar State, Venezuela. It's close to the border with Brazil.
Cerro Sarisariñama is about 2,350 m (7,710 ft) (or 7,700 feet) tall. Its name comes from a story told by the local Ye'kuana people. They say an evil spirit lives in the mountain's caves. This spirit supposedly eats people and makes a sound like "Sari... sari..."
This mountain is in a very remote part of Venezuela. The closest road is about 35 miles away. This makes it a truly wild and untouched place.
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What is Sarisariñama Made Of?
Like other tepuis, Sarisariñama is made of a very hard rock called quartzite. This rock is part of something called the Roraima formation. This rock formed a very, very long time ago, during a period called the Paleoproterozoic Eon. That was billions of years ago!
The flat top of Sarisariñama tepui covers a large area. It's about 546.88 km2 (211.15 sq mi) (or 211 square miles) wide. The sloped sides of the mountain cover an area of about 482 km2 (186 sq mi) (or 186 square miles).
Amazing Plants and Animals
Sarisariñama is very special because its flat top is completely covered by a tall forest. The trees there are usually 15 to 25 meters (about 50 to 80 feet) high. This forest is like its own isolated world.
Because it's so cut off from other places, this forest has many unique plants and animals. These are called "endemic species," meaning they are found only in this one place in the entire world.
Mysterious Sinkholes
The most famous parts of Sarisariñama are its giant sinkholes. These are huge holes that drop deep into the mountain. People first heard about them in 1954 when pilots flew over the tepui and saw them.
There are four known sinkholes on Sarisariñama. Two of them, called Sima Humboldt and Sima Martel, are incredibly large and well-known. They are so big that they have their own isolated forests growing at the very bottom!
The biggest sinkhole, Sima Humboldt, is truly massive. It's about 352 m (1,155 ft) (or 1,150 feet) wide and 314 m (1,030 ft) (or 1,030 feet) deep. That's deeper than the Eiffel Tower is tall!
Another sinkhole, Sima de la Lluvia, is about 1.35 km (0.84 mi) (or 0.8 miles) long. Scientists have learned a lot about how these sinkholes form by studying Sima de la Lluvia.
Exploring the Mountain
People became very interested in exploring Sarisariñama after 1961. That's when a pilot named Harry Gibson saw the two enormous sinkholes from his plane.
The very top of Sarisariñama was not reached until 1974. A helicopter had to fly thirty researchers to the top of the plateau. They started exploring both Sima Humboldt and Sima Martel. Some even went down to the bottom of Sima Humboldt.
Two years later, in 1976, a team from Venezuela and Poland did a more detailed study of the caves. They found another sinkhole, Sima de la Lluvia. For about twenty years, this was the longest known cave made of quartzite rock in the world. Exploring it helped scientists understand how these amazing sinkholes were created.
Today, only scientific researchers are allowed to visit Sarisariñama. This helps protect its unique and fragile ecosystem.
See also
In Spanish: Sarisariñama para niños
