Page 70 - Super Earth Encyclopedia

LOST WORLD

MOUNT RORAIMA

Surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs that tower above
the steamy rainforests, Mount Roraima is the highest of the
South American tabletop mountains known as tepuis. Its
summit is a huge slab of hard, ancient sandstone, which
was once part of a plateau linking Mount Roraima to other
tepuis in the region. It now stands isolated—its flat summit
almost inaccessible to people and wildlife alike. As a result,
Mount Roraima is the home of several species of animal
and plant found nowhere else. This isolation inspired
Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912 novel The Lost World, in
which explorers discover dinosaurs still surviving on
top of a very similar mountain.

AT A GLANCE

• LOCATION On the border of
Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana
• HEIGHT 9,219 ft (2,810 m) above
sea level
• AREA 12 sq miles (31 sq km)
• CLIMATE Tropical cloud forest

“The word tepui

means house of

STATS AND FACTS

FORMIDABLE FORMATIONS
1884 RAINFALL RORAIMA TOADS the gods in the
It rains almost The tiny pebble
every day on toads of Roraima
FIRST CLIMBED the summit of cannot jump very local Pemón
Mount Roraima. far; they roll into
a ball to escape.
The tepuis of this
region are some of CLIFF HEIGHT TRIPLE BORDER language.”
the world’s oldest
rock formations. Mount Roraima’s About 85% of
cliff face is more Roraima lies
than 1,300 ft in Venezuela,
FORMATION (400 m) high. 10% in Guyana,
and 5% in Brazil.
ABOUT
2

BILLION
YEARS AGO
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