Venezuelan Llanos

Venezuelan Llanos
Llanos Venezolanos
Geographic/Natural Region
Typical landscape of Los Llanos
Country	Venezuela
States	Apure, Barinas, Portuguesa, Guárico, Cojedes, Anzoátegui, Monagas
Region	Los Llanos
Coordinates	8°N 66°W / 8°N 66°W / 8; -66Coordinates: 8°N 66°W / 8°N 66°W / 8; -66
Highest point	Mesa de Urica
- elevation	450 m (1,476 ft)
Lowest point
- elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Length	966 km (600 mi)
Width	100–400 km (62–249 mi)
Area	243,774 km2 (94,122 sq mi)
Geographic map of Los Llanos natural region.

The Venezuelan Llanos (Spanish: Llanos Venezolanos) also simply known as Los Llanos (English: the Plains) in Venezuela, is a large central depression very flat in a vast natural region of approximately 243,774 km² of extension, equivalent to 26.6% of the total continental territory of the country.

It is the largest sedimentary basin of Venezuela of Quaternary origin; since the large volumes of sediments, which are fundamentally alluvial, were deposited during the last two million years of the geological history of the planet. Consequently, the sedimentary fill and its modeling in plain is very recent.

It extends between the Guiana Shield, to the south; the Venezuelan Coastal Range to the north; and the Cordillera de Mérida to the west. It presents two natural exits to the sea; the Unare Depression puts it in contact with the Caribbean Sea in the central-eastern part, and on the east it has access to the Atlantic Ocean, without interruption of continuity, through the Orinoco Delta.

Although it is the most uniform relief region of the country, the detailed study of the same makes it possible to distinguish three large subregions, with their own morphological and topographical characteristics, that affect the possibilities of use and exploitation by human groups that occupy it. This subregions are:

It is surrounded by orography that date of different ages: to the south the Guiana Shield, of Precambrian origin; and to the north and northwest the Venezuelan Coastal Range and Venezuelan Andes, whose genesis occur in the course of a long period ranging from the Cretaceous to the Pliocene. These emerged areas discharge most of their current waters to this plain, therefore, filled and acquired its present form as a result of the deposition processes caused by the large sedimentary masses that these water currents carry. That is why its origin is in that long process of filling that is fulfilled in the Tertiary; this process of landfilling is still maintained today.