Colombia – April 21st, 2013
Jutting off the coast of South America is the Guajira Peninsula, in northern Colombia (left) with a small strip belonging to northwestern Venezuela (right). Visible near the Venezuelan side are sediments in the Gulf of Venezuela and the entrance to Lake Maracaibo (below). A fire can be seen, marked by a red square, near the Colombia-Venezuela border south of the base of the peninsula.
Venezuela – January 17th, 2013
Visible at the bottom left of this image is Lake Maracaibo, in Venezuela, connected to the Gulf of Venezuela via the 55 km long Tablazo Strait. Some green swirls of color on the lake are due to the growth of duckweed, a problem plaguing the lake since the early 2000s. At times, over 18% of the lake has been covered by duckweed, and although efforts to remove the plant have been underway, the plant – which can double its size every 48 hours – occupies over 130 million cubic metres of the lake.
The only way to remove the weed is to pull it out of the lake physically – no chemical or biological method has been found to treat the weed. The government has been spending $2 million monthly to clean the lake, and the state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. has created a $750 million cleanup fund. Current efforts are barely keeping up with the growth of the plant. The removal process has proven to be particularly difficult in the center of the lake where a specially equipped ship may be needed to pull the weed off the lake.
Venezuela and Colombia – January 6th, 2013
Sediments can be observed in the Gulf of Venezuela, a gulf of the Caribbean Sea bounded by Venezuela and Colombia. A 54 km (34 mi) strait connects it with Maracaibo Lake to the south. Here, brown sediments can be observed south of the Paraguaná Peninsula, in Venezuela (right), and streaming from the Guajira Peninsula, shared by Venezuela and Colombia, to the entrance to Maracaibo Lake.
Venezuela and Colombia – November 19th, 2012
The Gulf of Venezuela is a gulf of the Caribbean Sea, in the north of South America. It is located between Paraguaná Peninsula (right) of the Falcón State in Venezuela and Guajira Peninsula (left) in the Guajira Department of Colombia. A 54 km (34 mi) strait, actually an artificial navigation channel, connects it with Maracaibo Lake to the south (partially visible through the clouds). Although some greenish sediments can be seen in the gulf, it is considerably clear in comparison with past image (click here)
Venezuela - December 24th, 2011
Lake Maracaibo (below) is a large brackish bay in Venezuela. It is connected to the Gulf of Venezuela by Tablazo Strait (55km) 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.
While the lake appears mostly sediment-free, tan and green sediments can be seen in the Gulf of Venezuela to the north. It is a gulf of the Caribbean Sea bounded by the Venezuelan states of Zulia and Falcón and by Guajira Department, Colombia. Also of note in the image is the city of Maracaibo, visible as a grey area on the western bank of the Tablazo Strait.
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