Nevado Mismi

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Nevado Mismi
Nevado Mismi from the south-east

Nevado Mismi from the south-east

height 5597  m
location Arequipa region , Peru
Mountains To the
Coordinates 15 ° 31 ′ 31 ″  S , 71 ° 41 ′ 27 ″  W Coordinates: 15 ° 31 ′ 31 ″  S , 71 ° 41 ′ 27 ″  W
Nevado Mismi (Peru)
Nevado Mismi

The Nevado Mismi is a mountain range in the high mountains of the Cordillera Chila , which belongs to the Peruvian Andes .

The Nevado Mismi has an altitude of 5597  m and is located fifteen kilometers northwest of the city of Chivay in the Arequipa region in the Lari district in the Caylloma province, about 160 kilometers west of Lake Titicaca and 700 kilometers southeast of Lima , the capital of Peru. It consists of a central ridge several hundred meters long, with two pyramids in front of it to the north and south.

Numerous researchers and expeditions have visited the mountain since 1971 the National Geographic Society joined the hypothesis that the Amazon rises on the massif . In 1987 Jacques Cousteau and his son Jean-Michel also visited the glacier on their Amazon journey.

In 2016, scientists determined a worrying degree of glacier melt on the massif, whose importance as a drinking water resource for the Colca Valley appears to be endangered in the long term.

Once a year, usually in July or August, residents of the Colca Valley climb the summit of Mismi and pay homage to Apu, who is revered there .

Amazon source

Since the 1930s, the source of the Amazon River furthest from the mouth has been sought in the headwaters of the Río Ucayali river . In 1969 the Peruvian geographer Carlos Peñaherrera del Águila first suggested the Nevado Mismi as a localization of the Amazon spring. In 1971 the American Loren McIntyre also identified the Ucayali tributary Río Apurímac , the most distant sources of which are on the Mismi, as the main source of the Amazon river. The location of the Amazon springs on the glacier massif in southern Peru was subsequently confirmed by several expeditions and studies in the 1990s and 2000s.

For more than 25 years, the Carhuasanta Spring on the northern slope of the Nevado Mismi was recognized as the most distant spring in the Amazon

In the Carhuasanta Gorge on the northern slope of the Nevado Mismi, a glacial stream rises at an altitude of 5186  m , which flows into the Río Hornillos via the Lloqueta . This transports the glacier water of the mountain range into the Río Apurímac . It continues to flow north over the Río Ene , Río Tambo and Río Ucayali until it joins the waters of the Río Marañón to the upper reaches of the Amazon in northeastern Peru .

Until the mid-1990s, the stream that rises in the Carhuasanta Gorge was generally accepted as a source of the Amazon. In 1996, the Polish geographer Jacek Palkiewicz of the Royal Geographical Society was the first to propose that instead of the Carhuasanta source stream, another, somewhat longer drainage from the neighboring Apacheta Gorge should be considered as the Amazon source. In June 2007, a Peruvian-Brazilian expedition consisting of researchers from the Peruvian Instituto Geográfico Militar , the Peruvian Water Authority ANA, the Brazilian Geographic Institute IBGE and the Brazilian spatial research institute INPE visited both the Carhuasanta Gorge and the Apacheta Gorge, a few kilometers to the west. Gorge on Nevado Quehuisha (Kiwicha Mountain), the 5170  m high neighboring mountain of Mismi. This Apacheta source brook proved to be water-bearing all year round and about 10 km longer than the Carhuasanta. Since 2007, the source in the Apacheta Gorge has been recognized as the farthest Amazon source from the mouth and has been identified as the source of the Amazon by an official marker board of the Geographical Society of Lima since September 11, 2011 .

The source streams Apacheta and Carhuasanta together form the Lloqueta, which in turn flows into the Río Hornillos after 13 km. The two springs can be visited by hikers on foot on a day's hike and they differ significantly from each other. While in the Carhuasanta Gorge you come across a constantly powerful bubbling spring, which corresponds well to the usual idea of ​​a brook spring, the Apacheta spring looks much more inconspicuous and, depending on the season, can only be recognized as a sparse trickle trickle on a rock wall. The streams fed by the two sources are also very different: The Apacheta stream, which is six times more watery and is fed by numerous other sources, including the neighboring Nevado Choquequirao, can be clearly identified in its course through the valley, while the Carhuasanta stream flowing down from the Mismi Stream like a torrent, steeper, wider and largely without a real river bed on the rock.

Individual evidence

Catchment area of ​​Hornillos and Apurímac
  1. ^ A b Nevado Mismi and Nevado Quehuisha. Travel report of a hiker from August 18, 2014, documented on Hikr.org . Accessed July 2017.
  2. a b En Baños Mayores. In: Caretas (Peru), No. 1421, July 4, 1996.
  3. ^ National Geographic Channel : Return to the Amazon. Editorial text for episodes 1 and 2 of the television series Ocean Adventure, produced by Cousteau and broadcast in 2009 . Accessed July 2017.
  4. Se debilita cobertura glaciar de nevado Mismi en Arequipa. In: RPP Noticias , September 18, 2016, accessed February 19, 2017.
  5. Carlos Peñaherrera del Águila: Geografía General del Perú. Editorial Auzonia, Lima 1969.
    Proven by: Zaniel I. Novoa Goicochea ( PUCP ): El Origen del Amazonas. In: Espacio y Desarrollo , No. 8/1996, pp. 115-160 (here: 120, 160).
  6. ^ Loren McIntyre: The Amazon-Mightiest of Rivers. National Geographic, Washington 1972.
    Identified by: Zaniel I. Novoa Goicochea (PUCP): El Origen del Amazonas. In: Espacio y Desarrollo , No. 8/1996, pp. 115-160 (here: 120, 159).
  7. Source of the Amazon discovered. In: Spiegel Online , December 14, 2000, accessed on February 18, 2017.
  8. To the source of the Amazon. Travel documentation of the motorcycle tourist "Karl" from June 6, 2016. Accessed in August 2017.
  9. ^ A b Alarich R. Schultz, Raymond E. Crist, James J. Parsons: Amazon River. As of May 25, 2017 (accessed July 2017).
  10. Lucia Magi: El rey de todos los ríos ya tiene un nacimiento cierto. In: El País , May 26, 2008, accessed July 2017.
  11. ^ Estudo do INPE indica que o rio Amazonas é 140 km mais extenso do que o Nilo. INPE press release of July 1, 2008, accessed July 2017.
  12. Valle del Colca será sede de la carrera pedestre a mayor altura. In El Comercio , September 10, 2014, accessed July 31, 2017.
  13. Universidad del Pacífico (ed.): Perspectivas del medio ambiente en la Amazonía (Geo Amazonia). UNEP / Earthprint, Lima 2009, ISBN 978-92-807-2946-7 (scientific textbook), p. 35.

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