Northern Karst Belt

Mogotes in the Northern Karst of Puerto Rico.

The Northern Karst Belt (Spanish: Cinturón del Carso Norteño) is a limestone karst landscape located in the northwestern region of Puerto Rico. A karst is a topographical zone formed by the dissolution of soluble porous rocks, such as limestone, with features such as mogotes, canyons, caves, sinkholes, streams and rivers, all of which are common on this region of the island.[1] Some of the island's main rivers, including its longest (La Plata River), traverse the karst and form some of the most distinctive Puerto Rican geographical features such as the Camuy caverns. Many of these rivers feed into and are important in the formation of many marshy areas such as the Caño Tiburones wetlands.[2]

  1. ^ "WHAT IS KARST?". Commission on Karst Hydrogeology. Retrieved 2021-09-19.
  2. ^ U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. "Puerto Rican Karst" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-09-18.