Salinity of water in the epilimnion of Lake Maracaibo

Abstract

Lake Maracaibo is the largest reservoir of water in South America and the largest in the world with access to the sea. It is part of the Maracaibo System composed of the Saco, the Gulf of Venezuela, the El Tablazo Bay, the Strait and the tributary rivers. It has a bag shape and occupies 12,958 km2. This body of water discharges most of the 135 rivers of the system and its approximate volume is 
283,000 million m3. The basin is surrounded to the east, south and west by chains of mountains arranged in a 
horseshoe shape. In the past, it was a body of fresh water, an elevation of the sea level during the last period of glaciation, I create a communication with the sea. The salinity of the water has increased with the years due to the dredging of the Navigation Channel, in the past, its waters were used for the human supply of the coastal populations. Since 1937, there are records of the salinity of the water in the epilimnion that show this general increase. However, measurements made since 1990 indicate that salinity has been decreasing in recent 
years, from 2.06% in August-September 2011 to 1.98% in February 2012 and 1.84% in September. April May 2012, probably due to the high climatic variability of recent years and rainy multi-year periods. These relatively low salinity values had not been recorded since 1972.