Lake Maracaibo (Spanish: Lago de Maracaibo) is a large brackish bay in Venezuela at 09°48′57″N 71°33′24″W / 9.81583°N 71.55667°W / 9.81583; -71.55667. It is connected to the Gulf of Venezuela by Tablazo Strait (55 km) at the northern end, and fed by numerous rivers, the largest being the Catatumbo. It is commonly considered a lake rather than a bay or lagoon, and at 13,210 km² it would be the largest lake in South America. The geological record shows that it has been a true lake in the past, and as such is one of the oldest lakes on Earth at 20-36 million years old.
Lake Maracaibo acts as a major shipping route to the ports of Maracaibo and Cabimas. The surrounding Maracaibo Basin contains large reserves of crude oil, making the lake a major profit center for Venezuela. A dredged channel gives oceangoing vessels access to the bay. The General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge (8.7 km long; completed 1962), spanning the bay's outlet, is one of the longest bridges in the world.
The lake is also the location of Catatumbo lightning.
Read more about Lake Maracaibo: History, Islands, Fishing, Settlements, Subsiding Ground, Duckweed Infestation
Famous quotes containing the word lake:
“What a wilderness walk for a man to take alone! None of your half-mile swamps, none of your mile-wide woods merely, as on the skirts of our towns, without hotels, only a dark mountain or a lake for guide-board and station, over ground much of it impassable in summer!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)