Auyán-tepui

The Auyán - Tepui at dusk

The bizarre plateau of Auyán - Tepui

The Auyán - Tepui ( from Pemón: Auyán "devil" and Tepui "house" ) is a up to 2,535 meters high table mountain ( tepui ) in the south of Venezuela in the Canaima National Park.

Location and data

In the südvenezolanischen grasslands Gran Sabana are 97 tepuis, of which the Auyán - tepui is one of the largest. The surface of the Auyán - tepui is about 700 km ² and it rises up to 1,000 meters above the tropical rain forest and the Gran Sabana.

At its highest point the Auyán - Tepui measures 2,535 meters in height.

The high- tableau is a rugged rock maze with canyons, panels, towers and columns. The sandstone is 95 percent pure Roraima quartzite. In the Schwemmwannen therefore is often finest to find white quartz sand. The most impressive geological phenomenon are the Sima, several hundred meters deep holes in the rock, whose origins are likely to be from the water washed and then collapsed caves.

From its eastern flank of the tea brown colored from the tannin tannin Río Churún crashes as Salto Ángel nearly 1,000 feet in depth, forming the highest waterfall in the world.

Flora and Fauna

The lack of nutrients in the washed Tepuis allows only a sparse vegetation, composed mainly of sceptrum lichens, grasses, Stegolepis guianensis and Orectanthe. Many carnivorous plants such as Heliamphoren, sundew, water hose, Genlisea, and Catopsis Brocchinia try to compensate the sparseness with animal protein. In places, countless orchids to be found. The central regions of the Auyán - tepui and the bottoms of the canyons are covered by impenetrable forests of a few small sized trees.

The fauna consists of insects, birds, amphibians and small reptiles ( snakes, lizards ) and mammals ( mice).

Many of the plants and animals on the tepuis are due to the climatic and geological barrier that represent the rock walls, endemic. The tepuis are biologically largely isolated islands. Your genetically closest relatives are not found in the 1,000 meters deeper Gran Sabana or in the rain forest on the mountain slopes, but in Africa, which was connected million years ago 120 still as a huge continent Gondwana to South America.

Formation

The tepuis are remnants of the Guiana Shield, one of Roraima quartzite sedimentary rocks, whose age is estimated to be at least 1.7 billion years.

The sedimentary rock contains no fossils, since life has only produced single-celled to the Paleoproterozoic. Therefore, the age of the tepuis could be determined only with the geophysical method of uranium - lead dating.

History

The resident Pemon Indians are the tepuis sacred, which is why they never made ​​an attempt to climb this. It was not until the early 30s tried the Cardona Puig Venezuela researcher Felix to find a way to Auyán - tepui. The expedition discovered the only recipient of the walk for non- climbers climb. 1937 ended the American bush pilot Jimmie Angel, his wife and Felix Cardona Puig on the plateau, but suffered a crash landing. Only thanks Cordonas knowledge of a descent route they could save themselves. Finally, in 1956 ascended the first scientific expedition with 40 participants, led by Volkmar Vareschi the Auyán - tepui.