Lake Maracaibo is a body of water located in western Venezuela, in the states of Zulia, Trujillo and Merida. According to the authors, it is defined as a large bay semi-enclosed and brackish, or more commonly it is considered a lake; in this case, with an area of between 13 210 and 13 820 km², it would be the largest in Latin America and 19th among the largest lakes in the world. The geological record showed that in the past it has been an indisputable lake, and as such, the second oldest on Earth, with an age of between 20 and 36 million years. Although it is connected to the sea in a similar way to a lagoon, the enormous antiquity, its geological history and the important depth of the Maracaibo differentiate it from the real lagoons, which have a modern geological history (with antiquities of a few thousand years) and a shallow depth (usually less than 5 meters) that relates them to the lagoons
