science

Lake Fúquene

Lake Fúquene is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lake Fúquene rather than just read about it. In short: Lake Fúquene is a heart-shaped lake located in the Ubaté-Chiquinquirá Valley, part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, in the north of Cundinamarca, Colombia, at the border with Boyacá. The Andean lake, at an average altitude of 2,540 metres (8,330 ft), was considered sacred in the religion of the Muisca who inhabited the area before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca in the 1530s.

Key takeaways

Lake Fúquene belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lake Fúquene to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lake Fúquene from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lake Fúquene is a heart-shaped lake located in the Ubaté-Chiquinquirá Valley, part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, in the north of Cundinamarca, Colombia, at the border with Boyacá. The Andean lake, at an average altitude of 2,540 metres (8,330 ft), was considered sacred in the religion of the Muisca who inhabited the area before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca in the 1530s. Due to drainage of the waters for agriculture and dairy farming, the lake levels have dropped drastically in recent years and many flora and fauna species have disappeared.

Etymology In the Chibcha language of the Muisca, Fúquene means "Place of swamps covered with fog", "Bed of the fox" or "Holy People", referring to the religious rituals of the Muisca. Muisca means "people" in Chibcha.

History Lake Fúquene, the lake in the Ubaté-Chiquinquirá Valley, one of the four major valleys of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, was an important ritual lake in the culture of the Muisca. It formed the connection between the territories of the zipa in the south and zaque in the north and merchants between the two parts of the Muisca Confederation would pass the lake. When conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and his troops arrived at the lake in 1537, the water level was 10 metres (33 ft) to 15 metres (49 ft) higher. Since 1934 about 70% of the lake surface has shrunk, from 100 square kilometres (1.1×109 sq ft) to 30 square kilometres (320,000,000 sq ft). In this time, the lake level has dropped by 1 metre (3.3 ft).

Flora, fauna and environmental issues Around 47 bird species visit in Lake Fúquene, among them Agelaius icterocephalus bogotensis and Fulica americana. In 1940, more than 80 fauna species were foraging around the lake, a number that had reduced to 58 in 2014. In and around the lake 248 plant species have been identified. Some of the flora species are Scirpus californicus, Typha, Ixobrichus exilis bogotensis, and Alnus jorullensis. In recent years, 40% of the biodiversity has disappeared in the past 60 years. In 2014, around 207,000 inhabitants of the area lived around the lake. Fifty dairy farming industries exist around it, with the most important in Ubaté, Chiquinquirá and Simijaca.

See also Muisca religion Lake Guatavita, Iguaque, Suesca, Tota, Siecha Lakes

References

Bibliography Cabrera Ortiz, Wenceslao (1957), "La laguna de Fúquene - Lake Fúquene" (PDF), Boletín de la Sociedad Geográfica de Colombia (in Spanish), XV (53): 1–20, retrieved 2016-07-08 Hoeck, Hendrik, Laguna de Fúquene, Colombia - Lake Fúquene, Colombia (PDF), pp. 1–27, retrieved 2016-07-08 Ocampo López, Javier (2013), Mitos y leyendas indígenas de Colombia - Indigenous myths and legends of Colombia (in Spanish), Bogotá, Colombia: Plaza & Janes Editores Colombia S.A., pp. 1–219, ISBN 978-958-14-1416-1

External links

(in Spanish) Tourism at Lake Fúquene (in Spanish) La laguna de Fúquene, escenario de concertación y acciones colectivas - WWF

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lake Fúquene

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lake Fúquene claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lake Fúquene before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lake Fúquene ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lake Fúquene

In research: Lake Fúquene appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lake Fúquene in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lake Fúquene is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Environmental impact of agriculture, Geography of Cundinamarca Department, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lake Fúquene outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lake Fúquene in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lake Fúquene means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lake Fúquene out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lake Fúquene in simple terms?

Why does Lake Fúquene matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lake Fúquene?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lake Fúquene.