Geography
The total area is 32,682 km² (12,619 mi²) which are distributed as follows: 13,716 km² (5296 mi²) of forests, 15,423 km² (5955 mi²) of agroecosystems, 2567 km² (991 mi²) of páramos, 43 km² (17 mi²) of nival (snow) zone, 924 km² (357 mi²) have xerophytic vegetation and 9 km² (3 mi²) of urban settlements. The altitude varies between 2600 and 4700 MASL (8530 ft and 15,420 ft).
This is area is identified as the source of 70% of the Colombian safe water for human consumption and irrigation. The headwaters of the Magdalena and Cauca Rivers (Caribbean slope), Caquetá and Putumayo Rivers (Amazon Basin) and the Patía River (Pacific slope).
The massif contains 362 high mountain bodies of water, 13 páramos and other ecosystems rich in flora and fauna. From south to north are the páramos of Cutanga, Letero, Las Papas (Potatoes), Apio (Celery) and Buey (Ox). Sotará and Puracé are the prominent volcanoes of the area, the latter being with the Puracé National Natural Park.
Very few people have traversed the mountains of this region because it is covered by rugged mountains and an impenetrable and cold páramo environment, both of which are natural guardians which preserve the great water supply that provides water for half of Colombia before emptying into the sea.
Read more about this topic: Colombian Massif
Famous quotes containing the word geography:
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)
“Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)