ABOUT DRP
 » CCNY
 » History of the Cibao Valley
 » Research in the Cibao Valley
 » Carlotta Joaquin Maury
 » Multidisciplinary Research
 » Participants in DRP Research
 » Bibliography of DRP Research
PEOPLE
CAREERS
PARTNERSHIPS
SCIENCE RESEARCH
SCIENCE EDUCATION
TEACHER WORKSHOPS
MULTIMEDIA RESOURCES

"Cibao" is a word originally used by the Tainos (the original inhabitants of the Dominican Republic ) to describe the rocky lands of the central mountain range (the Cordillera Central ). But today "Cibao" is primarily used to describe the fertile valley that lies between two mountain ranges. The Cibao Valley is bordered on the north by the Cordillera Septentrional and on the sourth by the Cordillera Central. A large river, the Rio Yaque del Norte, runs through the east-west axis of the valley. A series of north-south trending rivers (e.g., the Rio Cana, Rio Gurabo, and Rio Mao) connect to the Rio Yaque del Norte. The Cibao Valley may be divided into two major regions: The Western Cibao and the Vega Real. The Vega Real contains the country's richest and deepest topsoil. Tobacco, first cultivated by the Tainos, remains one of the major cash crops of the Vega Real. The Western Cibao contains less fertile soils than the Vega Real but also specializes in agricultural production (rice and other crops). The Western Cibao becomes drier as one moves from east to west.

The Cibao Valley has been the country's major agricultural region for at least 600 years. The Cibao Valley contains the Dominican Republic 's second largest city, Santiago , which along with Mao serves as a major agricultural transport hub for the region. Santiago was originally founded as a mining town but was destroyed in the great earthquake of 1562. It was rebuilt nearby and has been used as a hub for transporting tobacco and other crops since the 1600's.

Through time, the Rio Yaque del Norte and connecting trubutaries have cut through the soil and earth of the Cibao Valley and exposed thick layers of fossil rich sedimentary rock along the steep banks of the rivers. Today the valley contains areas of rich soils on top of these rocks, but millions of years ago the region was under the Caribbean Sea. We know this from several different and independent sources of scientific information. The presence of coral reefs and an abundance of marine-restricted mollusks in the sedimentary rocks of the valley indicate that the region must have been below sea level. The geological features of the rock, including the depositional features and composition, also indicate that it was once the floor of the ocean. Finally, geochemical studies of the fossils and rocks indicate their age and confirm their marine origin.