Táchira depression

Táchira depression
Depresión de Táchira
City of Rubio, Táchira
Elevation	1,020 m (3,346 ft)
Location	Táchira, Venezuela
Range	Cordillera Oriental – Cordillera de Mérida
Coordinates	7°41′38″N 72°24′36″W / 7.6938°N 72.4099°W / 7.6938; -72.4099Coordinates: 7°41′38″N 72°24′36″W / 7.6938°N 72.4099°W / 7.6938; -72.4099
Location in Venezuela

The Táchira depression (Spanish: Depresión de Táchira) is a saddle of land connecting the Lake Maracaibo basin to the Orinoco basin in the state of Táchira, Venezuela. It forms a break in the eastern Andes, separating the Tamá Massif to the west from the Cordillera de Mérida to the east. The depression has been thought to present a barrier to the movement of species between the Colombian and Venezuelan Andes, but this effect may have been relatively low during the recent ice ages. The mountains of the region have potential for coffee farming and hydroelectric power generation, while the lower levels are suitable for farming.

The Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes forks from the Pamplona Node into two long branches. The Cordillera de Periiá extends northward and the Tamá Massif and Cordillera de Mérida extends in a northeast direction. The second branch is divided by the Táchira depression, an area of low lands between the valleys of the Táchira River to the west, the Lobaterita and Torbes rivers to the east and the Quinimarí to the south.

The Táchira depression covers an area of about 9,317 square kilometres (3,597 sq mi). The depression has a northern slope in the basin of Lake Maracaibo, drained by the Táchira, Lobatera, La Grita, Orope and Escalante rivers, and a southern slope in the Orinoco basin drained by the Uribante, Torbes, Quinimarí, Doradas, Sarare, Piscuri and Narvay rivers.

More than 50 million years ago the Táchira depression was a strait that connected Lake Maracaibo with the Orinoco basin. Today it separates the Tamá Massif, a prolongation of the Cordillera Oriental of the Colombian Andes, from the Cordillera de Mérida in the Venezuelan Andes. This gap between the Colombian and Venezuelan Andes is a product of orogenic movements in the Paleogene period that created major faults, raised blocks and formed rifts including the Táchira Depression. There are four faults with northwest-southeast trends aligned in echelon across the Tachira depression between Córdoba in Colombia to the west and Torondoy in Venezuela to the east. This pattern indicates that the region to the south of the depression must have moved westward relative to the region to the north.