Pitch Lake
The asphalt lake or English. Pitch Lake is a natural asphalt lake and the largest deposit of its kind in the world. The lake is located in the southwestern Caribbean island of Trinidad, near the village of La Brea. For the Trinidad asphalt lake is a major tourist attraction and an important economic factor at the same time.
General
The asphalt lake covers an area of approximately 40 hectares. Its depth is variously given as 75 to 100 meters. More detailed test results to not present. The total amount of the asphalt is estimated at 10 million tons.
Asphalt " see" is a rather misleading name, because the asphalt is almost nowhere on the surface liquid. Instead, the surface of the lake is slightly wavy and walkable. In the depression is water. That the asphalt underneath is not really fixed, reflected in the fact that the " sea surface " springs in some places or pull the shoe soles when going about it sticky threads. At times when the asphalt was mined with pickaxes, two feet deep holes closed themselves within two days by itself The surrounding area of the lake superimposed on asphalt and is therefore relatively unstable. The result is guessed from the Lot of houses, vaulted floors and cracked walls of houses. The center of activity is in the middle of the lake, the so-called " Mother of the Lake", where gases and fresh asphalt to rise, making the rest of the asphalt compounds are circulated in all directions towards the edge: As in an unsuccessful deep drilling broke the linkage, appeared later, grotesquely deformed elsewhere again. Another indication of the movements of the asphalt are isolated islands of vegetation that change their position permanently.
Geology
In the depths of the lake penetrates resistant hot, liquid asphalt ( bitumen ) from the earth's crust and mixes with rock. This mixture is referred to as " natural asphalt, Trinidad ". It is believed that under the island of Trinidad abut two lithospheric plates and put pressure on an underlying oil deposits. The high pressure leads to the formation of hot bitumen, which seeks its way up and on the island is an output. This tectonic arrangement resulted in about 70 million years ago in the late Cretaceous. The lake surface is wrinkled and so far cured in many places that it is accessible. Similar developments, albeit on a smaller scale, can be found in the asphalt ponds of Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles.
Economic Importance
The Trinidad natural asphalt is due to its robust quality worldwide a popular additive in road construction. 150 to 200 tons of asphalt are mined daily and flow into the export. In Germany alone, 6,000 tons in the public road to be processed. Resulting from the degradation holes close in a very short time by the subsequently flowing from the depths of asphalt. Every year around 20,000 tourists in addition the " ugliest attraction of the Caribbean" and thus form an additional economic factor in Trinidad. There are regular tourist guides. The lake is cured in its edge zones at the surface and accessible to humans. In the center it will become softer and softer and there is not walkable.
Myth and History
According to an Indian legend, a rich village should have previously been connected with large orchards at the point of the asphalt lake. As more and more birds to feasting on fruit, they were hunted and eaten by the villagers, also regarded as sacred hummingbirds. For this outrage the gods punished the people and left the village overnight in the earth to swallow. In its place the asphalt lake, which was henceforth regarded as the entrance to the underworld was.
According to another version, according to this legend, which is told expressive in a mural painting on the terrace overlooking the lake, said to have been killed during a victory celebration of the warlike Indian tribe of Khaimah of their chief one of the sacred hummingbirds.
The European discoverer of the asphalt lake, Sir Walter Raleigh, came on 22 March 1595 the incidence and used it also equal to seal his ships. In the 17th century, the Spanish erected a refinery and transported to the asphalt in their home. From the mid 19th century, the demand in Europe increased due to the increasing road construction substantially, which led to another, lasted to the present day exploitation of the asphalt deposit. According to conservative calculations, the currently -stock asphalt amount of Pitch Lake is sufficient at least for 100 years. The name of the nearby village of La Brea is derived from the Spanish word for bad luck; The Spaniards called it Tierra de Brea.