Nicaragua - Geography
Nicaragua, approximately the size of New York state, is the largest country in Central America. The country covers a total area of 129,494 square kilometers (120,254 square kilometers of which are land area) and contains a diversity of climates and terrains. . It is nestled between Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. Its western shores are lapped by the waters of the North Pacific Ocean while its eastern beaches enjoy the turquoise azure of the Caribbean Sea. As a result it enjoys some 910 km of stunning and varied coastline. Add to this the some 9240 sq km of water and you will find that Nicaragua is a virtual water wonderland filled with amazing and sometimes surprising opportunities. Nicaragua, as the largest Central American country, is even home to the largest body of freshwater in Central America, Lago de Nicaragua. The country's physical geography divides it into three major zones: the Pacific lowlands, the central highlands, and the Caribbean lowlands.
More than 60 percent of Nicaraguans live within the narrow confines of the Pacific lowlands. About half as many live in the central highlands, but the Caribbean lowlands, covering more than half of the national territory, hold less than 10 percent of the population. Much of the urban growth is concentrated in the capital city. The inhabitants of Managua constituted 7.5 percent of the national population in 1940, 15 percent in 1960, and 28 percent in 1980.
Pacific Lowlands
The Pacific lowlands extend about seventy-five kilometers inland from the Pacific coast. Most of the area is flat, except for a line of young volcanoes, many of which are still active, running between the Golfo de Fonseca and the western shore of Lago de Nicaragua. These peaks lie just west of a large crustal fracture or structural rift that forms a long, narrow depression passing southeast across the isthmus from the Golfo de Fonseca to the Rio San Juan. The rift is occupied in part by the largest freshwater lakes in Central America: Lago de Managua (fifty-six kilometers long and twenty-four kilometers wide) and Lago de Nicaragua (about 160 kilometers long and seventy-five kilometers wide). These two lakes are joined by the Rio Tipitapa, which flows south into Lago de Nicaragua. Lago de Nicaragua drains into the Rio SanJuan (the boundary between Nicaragua and Costa Rica), which flows through the southern part of the rift lowlands to the Caribbean Sea.
The valley of the Rio San Juan forms a natural passageway close to sea level across the Nicaraguan isthmus from the Caribbean Sea to Lago de Nicaragua and the rift. From the southwest edge of Lago de Nicaragua, it is only nineteen kilometers to the Pacific Ocean. This route was considered as a possible alternative to the Panama Canal at various times in the past. Surrounding the lakes and extending northwest of them along the rift valley to the Golfo de Fonseca are fertile lowland plains highly enriched with volcanic ash from nearby volcanoes. These lowlands are densely populated and well cultivated. More directly west of the lake region is a narrow line of ash-covered hills and volcanoes that separate the lakes from the Pacific Ocean. This line is highest in the central portion near Leon and Managua.
Because western Nicaragua is located where two major tectonic plates collide, it is subject to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Although periodic volcanic eruptions have caused agricultural damage from fumes and ash, earthquakes have been by far more destructive to life and property. Hundreds of shocks occur each year, some of which cause severe damage. The capital city of Managua was virtually destroyed in 1931 and again in 1972.
Concepción is one of Nicaragua’s highest and most active volcanoes. The symmetrical cone occupies the northeastern half of a dumbbell shaped island called Isla Ometepa in Lake Nicaragua. The dormant volcano, Maderas, occupies the southwest half of the island. A narrow isthmus connects Concepción and Maderas volcanoes. Concepción volcano towers more than 1600 m above Lake Nicaragua and is within 5 to 10 km of several small towns situated on its aprons at or near the shoreline. These towns have a combined population of nearly 5,000. The volcano has frequently produced debris flows (watery flows of mud, rock, and debris—also known as lahars when they occur on a volcano) that could inundate these nearby populated areas.
Concepción volcano has erupted more than 25 times in the last 120 years. Its first recorded activity was in AD 1883. Eruptions in the past century, most of which have originated from a small summit crater, comprise moderate explosions, ash that falls out of eruption plumes (called tephra), and occasional lava flows. Near the summit area, there are accumulations of rock that were emplaced hot (pyroclastic deposits), most of which were hot enough to stick together during deposition (a process called welding). These pyroclastic rocks are rather weak, and tend to break apart easily. The loose volcanic rock remobilizes during heavy rain to form lahars. Volcanic explosions have produced blankets of tephra that are distributed downwind, which on Isla Ometepe is mostly to the west. Older deposits at the west end of the island that are up to 1 m thick indicate larger explosive events have happened at Concepción volcano in prehistoric time. Like pyroclastic-flow deposits, loose tephra on the steep slopes of the volcano provides source material that heavy rainstorms and earthquakes can mobilize to trigger debris flow.
Central Highlands
The triangular area known as the central highlands lies northeast and east of the Pacific lowlands. This rugged mountain terrain is composed of ridges 900 to 1,800 meters high and a mixed forest of oak and pine alternating with deep valleys that drain primarily toward the Caribbean. Very few significant streams flow west to the Pacific Ocean; those that do are steep, short, and flow only intermittently. The relatively dry western slopes of the central highlands, protected by the ridges of the highlands from the moist winds of the Caribbean, have drawn farmers from the Pacific region since colonial times and are now well settled. The eastern slopes of the highlands are covered with rain forests and are lightly populated with pioneer agriculturalists and small communities of indigenous people. The eastern Caribbean lowlands of Nicaragua form the extensive (occupying more than 50 percent of national territory) and still sparsely settled lowland area known as Costa de Mosquitos.
Caribbean Lowlands
The Caribbean lowlands are sometimes considered synonymous with the former department of Zelaya, which is now divided into the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (Region Autonomista Atlantico Norte) and the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (Region Autonomista Atlantico Sur) and constitutes about 45 percent of Nicaragua's territory. These lowlands are a hot, humid area that includes coastal plains, the eastern spurs of the central highlands, and the lower portion of the Rio San Juan basin. The soil is generally leached and infertile. Pine and palm savannas predominate as far south as the Laguna de Perlas. Tropical rain forests are characteristic from the Laguna de Perlas to the Rio San Juan, in the interior west of the savannas, and along rivers through the savannas. Fertile soils are found only along the natural levees arid narrow floodplains of the numerous rivers, including the Escondido, the Rio Grande de Matagalpa, the Prinzapolka, and the Coco, and along the many lesser streams that rise in the central highlands and cross the region en route to the complex of shallow bays, lagoons, and salt marshes of the Caribbean coast.
The humid jungle extending along the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua is one of the last frontiers of Central America is . Much of this sparsely populated territory has been designated for use as parks and reserves. The indigenous and Afro-Caribbean communities that live there speak languages other than Spanish and are culturally distinct from the majority of Nicaragua’s population. But there is trouble in paradise. Despite laws on the books to protect this rain forest, huge swaths are cleared every year to make way for industrial-scale cattle ranches and plantations of African palm. Traffickers move drugs over the isolated terrain and along the lengthy coastline to transport points for shipment to the United States by land, air and sea. All this pressures farmers to sell their land and take up a hardscrabble existence as day laborers.
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