Characterization and cartographic representation at 1/25 000 scale of the upper endorheic part of the almendares-vento endorheic part of the almendares-vento basin

Abstract

The upper endorheic part of the Almendares-Vento basin is one of the most important hydrological and karst regions in Cuba, since it contains most of the main subway recharge routes to the Vento aquifer, the main source of drinking water supply to the Cuban capital.  As part of the research projects that the Institute of Geology and Paleontology carries out in the different sub-basins of the Almendares river basin, the study of this upper endorheic sub-basin was carried out, introducing for the first time the geomorphological study and its cartographic representation for this sector at a detailed scale 1/25 000, which reviews from the chronomorphogenetic point of view the complex of types and forms of the relief of the territory, taking as a basis the survey of the old Havana provinces realized of Portela. Thus, it offers the classification of the surfaces by relief category, altitudinal floor, endogenous genesis of the orographic units; as well as the analysis of the active morphostructures of the original relief and the modified lithostructures, their forms of expression, the exogenous processes that gave rise to the present relief and the ages of the surfaces. This work is therefore a useful tool in the geoenvironmental study of the Almendares-Vento basin and specifically of its upper part, and it is expected to serve as a first step to extend this type of survey to the entire general hydrological unit, with a view to carrying out deeper and more advanced geomorphological and hydrological studies of the karst.