Caracterización físico-geográfica de la cuenca superficial del río Ikabarú, estado Bolívar, República Bolivariana de Venezuela.

Abstract

The present article shows a description of the main physical geographic components of the Ikabarú river basin. It constitutes an affluent of the Orinoco river in the Bolivariana Republic of Venezuela. This basin is subject to a strong environmental stress due to the artisanal gold and diamond prospection and exploitation miner that is generate within its natural limits and associated with the kind of technology used and with the anarchic of this activity. The affectation includes the burning of vegetation with the resulting deforestation in wide forest zones, the contribution from important volumes of sediments and mercury to the superficial currents, the destruction and uncontrolled rectification of fluvial beds as well as other not controlled socioeconomic activities.