Map of Dominican Republic

Geography

The mountain's elevation was debated for decades, up until the mid-1990s, when it was still held to be 3,175 metres (10,417 ft) high. In 2003, it was measured by a researcher using GPS technology, and it was found to be 3,098 metres (10,164 ft) tall. The official elevation as recorded by Dominican government agencies is 3,087 metres (10,128 ft), a measurement that has been confirmed by several groups of hikers using personal GPS consoles (the most recent verified one in January 2005). In 2021 a team of researchers using GSSM technology found that its altitude is 3,101.1 metres (10,174 ft) with a margin of error of 0.3 metres (1 ft 0 in).

History

The first reported climb was made in 1851 by a German who was British consul: Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk. He named the mountain "Monte Tina" and estimated its height at 3,140 metres (10,300 ft). In 1912, Father Miguel Fuertes dismissed Schomburgk's calculations after climbing La Rucilla and judging it to be the tallest summit of the island. A year later, Swedish botanist Erik Leonard Ekman sided with Schomburgk's estimate, and called the sister summits "Pelona Grande" and "Pelona Chica" ("Big Bald One" and "Small Bald One", respectively). During the Rafael Trujillo Molina regime, the taller of the two was called "Pico Trujillo". After the dictator's death, it was renamed Pico Duarte, in honor of Juan Pablo Duarte, one of the Dominican Republic's founding fathers.

Ecology

The area has an oceanic climate that very few would associate as typical of a Caribbean island, with cool temperatures all year round, going several degrees below freezing during winter nights.

The mountain and the surrounding landscape are covered in pino de cuaba (Pinus occidentalis) forests. The pines frequently host the epiphytes guajaca (Tillandsia spp.) and the parasitic Dendropemon pycnophyllus. Some areas, like the Valle de Lilís, are treeless meadows of tussock-like pajones (Danthonia domingensis). The understory is composed of shrub such as Lyonia heptamera, Myrica picardae, Myrsine coriacea, Ilex tuerkheimii, Garrya fadyenii and Baccharis myrsinites. All of these species are adapted to the acidic soil of the area.

Reptiles in the area include the endemic Panolopus marcanoi.

Geography

The lake lies in a valley that stretches from near Port-au-Prince in Haiti to Bahia de Neiba in the Dominican Republic. The valley is known as the Hoya de Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic and as the Plain du Cul-de-Sac in Haiti. Parts of the depression are below sea level and are covered by large salt lakes, including Lake Enriquillo and Étang Saumâtre, Hispaniola's second largest lake (as well as Haiti's largest).

There historically were three islands in the lake: Barbarita, Islita, and Isla Cabritos. Once, when water levels dropped during dry spells, the islands were linked to one another by sandbars. As of December 2011, only Isla Cabritos remains; the other two islands were submerged by the rising levels of the lake.

Hydrology

Lake Enriquillo covers an area of 380 km2 (150 sq mi), and is the lowest point for an island country, falling 46 m (151 ft) below sea level. Its drainage basin includes ten minor river systems. The rivers that rise in the Neiba Mountains to the north (lower center and lower right of the image) are perennial. Those rivers that rise in the Baoruco Mountains to the south are intermittent. Lake Enriquillo has no outlet, making it an example of an endorheic lake. The lake's water level varies because of a combination of storm-driven precipitation events and the region's high evaporation rate. Salinity in the lake can vary between 33 parts per thousand (comparable to seawater) and over 100 parts per thousand (hypersaline).

The region has a hot, semiarid climate.

Geology

Lake Enriquillo is located within a linear depression that formed as a ramp basin between the Haiti fold and thrust belt to the north and the uplifted oceanic crust of the Massif de la Selle and Sierra de Bahoruco mountain ranges to the south. The Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault is a later strike-slip fault, cutting across the depression, which extends from Jamaica in the west to near Neiba in the Dominican Republic in the east. The valley, a former marine strait, was created around one million years ago when the water level fell and the strait was filled in by sediments of the Yaque del Sur River. Due to this, tremors in the region are common.

History

The lake is named after Enriquillo, a cacique of the indigenous Taíno, who rebelled against the Spaniards in the early 16th century, and hid in the mountains south of the lake. It was previously called Lake Xaragua, after the Taino chiefdom in which it was located.

Geography

Étang Saumâtre is located on the arid part of the valley Cul-de-Sac, 29 kilometres (18 mi) east of Port-au-Prince in the Ouest department. Its eastern side is part of the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic; the Dominican city of Jimaní is less than 1 km from the southeast end of the lake.

The lake itself is part of a chain of nearby saline lakes that lie within the rift valley known as the Cul-de-Sac Depression in Haiti and the Hoya de Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic. Because the region was a former marine strait, several areas of the valley are below sea level. It is a tectonic lake formed by movement in the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone, with a depression of16 kilometres (9.9 mi) long and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) wide.

Geography

Hispaniola is the second-largest island in the Caribbean (after Cuba), with an area of 76,192 square kilometers (29,418 sq mi), 48,440 square kilometers (18,700 sq mi) of which is under the sovereignty of the Dominican Republic occupying the eastern portion and 27,750 square kilometers (10,710 sq mi) under the sovereignty of Haiti occupying the western portion.

The island of Cuba lies 80 kilometers (50 mi) to the west across the Windward Passage; to the southwest lie Jamaica, separated by the Jamaica Channel, the Cayman Islands and Navassa Island; 190 km (120 mi). Puerto Rico lies 130 km (81 mi) east of Hispaniola across the Mona Passage. The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands lie to the north. Its westernmost point is known as Cap Carcasse.

History

The Archaic Age people arrived from mainland Central America or northern South America about 6,000 years ago and are thought to have practiced a largely hunter-gatherer lifestyle. During the 1st millennium BC, the Arawakan-speaking ancestors of the Taino people began to migrate into the Caribbean. Unlike the Archaic peoples, they practiced the intensive production of pottery and agriculture. The earliest evidence the Ostionoid people, which dates to around 600 AD. The Taino represented the dominant group on the island during the period of European contact. Each society was a small independent kingdom with a leader known as a cacique.

Demographics

Hispaniola is the most populous Caribbean island with a combined population of 23 million inhabitants as of July 2023.

Judaism, Islam and Baháʼí Faith, Hinduism, Buddhism, Unitarian Universalism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostalism and others also exist.

Haiti is a Creole-speaking nation of roughly 11.7 million people. Although French is spoken as a primary language by the educated and wealthy minority, virtually the entire population speaks Haitian Creole, one of several French-derived creole languages. Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion, practiced by more than half the population, although in some cases in combination with Haitian Vodou faith. Another 25% of the populace belong to Protestant churches.