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Name : Mount Roraima
Location : Tripoint between Venezuela , Brazil and Guyana
Mount Roraima is often surrounded by clouds, making it look like a floating island.
Coordinates:5.131793939771963 , -60.758709443048986
Why it ’s unbelievable : The mountain attend like a floating island from the sky .
Mount Roraima is a tableland with near - vertical side that sit down on the triple delimitation point between Brazil , Venezuela and Guyana . The plateau is often encircle by a ring of clouds , which makes the summit appear like an island swim in the sky .
The summit of Mount Roraima harbors a rare ecosystem.
The flock loom 9,219 feet ( 2,810 meter ) above the surrounding savanna , jutting out like a giant tabletop . geologist call this sort of formation a " tepui , " which mean " family of the deity " in the language of the Pemon , the local Indigenous multitude . The Pemon believe tepuis to be sacred , and that Mount Roraima is the pulpit of a supernatural tree that hold all the yield and vegetables of the world until a mythological figure named Makunaima felled it , accord to theInternational Business Times .
But scientists have another explanation for how Mount Roraima come to be . Tepuis are exclusively find in South America , and specifically in Venezuela and western Guyana , where they number more than 100 . grant to theGeological Society of London , tepuis are the remainder of a vast block of sandstone that form in this region around 1.8 billion days ago as expectant sand dunes slow solidified into rock .
Over the next 1.5 billion years , other type of rock pile up on top of the sandstone , but these layers were eroded away roughly 180 million years ago , according to the Geological Society . Wind and piss then run to solve on the sandstone , chip at out the jumbo , steep - sided tableland we see today , agree toGeology Science . last , geologic upheaval raised the plateaus to their current height , grant to Geology Science .
associate : Snake Island : The isle writhing with vipers where only Brazilian military and scientists are earmark
Like other tepuis , Mount Roraima ’s summit meeting harbors a " lost mankind " ecosystem that has been sheltered from the surrounding region for about 70 million to 90 million years , according to a 2012 study .
Much remains unknown about the agency that tepui ecosystem have foregather and evolve , but researcher judge that a high proportion of the plant life and fauna on the summits are endemic , meaning that they are n’t find elsewhere . For example , about one - third of the flora establish at the top of all tepuis , include carnivorous plant and orchids , is endemic , according to theWorld Wildlife Fund .
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However , the 2012 study incur that these ecosystems are n’t completely isolated . The investigator analyzed the desoxyribonucleic acid of four tree frog species living on separate tepuis to see whether these species have had any contact with each other in the past 70 million years . The scientists discovered that the frog shared a common ascendant as recently as 5.3 million twelvemonth ago , suggesting that tree frogs — and perhaps other creatures as well — can migrate up and down the cliffs of tepui formations .
rarefied ambrosia - sucking dame and other unusual creatures , such as the Roraima black frog ( Oreophrynella quelchii ) , thrive at the top of Mount Roraima thanks topools of crystallization - exculpated water and streamsthat feed waterfalls down the tepui ’s sides . These cascade are fed by rainwater and include the Crystal Valley Falls and Triple Point Falls .
Mount Roraima ’s summit and its incredible views are accessible to tourists , but ascending to the top ask a multi - day trek through challenge terrain , harmonize to Geology Science .
expose moreincredible places , where we foreground the wonderful chronicle and science behind some of the most dramatic landscapes on Earth .
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