South America Geography

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1.1 Physical Geography

•South America’s physical features vary widely.

•The continent contains the Andes Mountains, the massive Amazon River

•Wide open grasslands and plains.

High Mountains, Large Basin

•Andes Mountains stretch 5,500 miles along the western side of S.A.

•2nd tallest mountain range in the world.

•The climate is cool and dry.

•There are few types of vegetation or plants, grow here.

•The Amazon River Basin is the largest river basin on Earth.

•It covers 2,700,000 square miles.

•River flows from the Andes and drain almost the entire width of the continent.

•The climate is warm and wet and have many different species of plants and animals.

Northern Grasslands, Southern Plains

•Northern part has warm climate, has both low and high elevations.

•Cattle ranching dominates the Llanos, or grasslands wide open areas used for grazing and crops.

•The Guiana Highlands in the north boast unusual plants and animals.

•Angel Falls is the worlds highest waterfall and is located in Venezuela.

•The southern part has a mild climate.

•Grassy plains in Argentina is called Pampas.

•They grow alfalfa, corn, and wheat.

1.2 Life at Different Elevations

•The people of South America must adapt, or modify, their economic activities to fit the different elevations and climates of the region.

•Life can vary greatly from one part of South America to another.

Elevation and Climate

•More people live in the mild climate of grasslands and plains than the extreme climates.

•Temperate zones are called the tierra templada elevation zone.

•Cool dry elevation zone of the Andes is called tierra fria.

•Further up in the Andes the high cold zone is called tierra helada.

•The hot humid zone along the Amazon River Basin is called tierra caliente.

Using the Land

•Elevation and climate determine how people use the land.

•Farmers in the Andes are subsistence farmers only growing enough food for their families.

•Some sell wool to European manufactures.

•Plains higher rainfall provides ranching and large scale farming.

1.3 The Amazon River

•Amazon River flows from the Andes east for 4,000 miles across the continent into the Atlantic Ocean.

•This river has more than 1,000 tributaries, or small rivers that drain into a larger river. Seven of those tributaries are more than 1,000 miles in length.

Life Along the River

Amazon river is the world’s second longest river.

Has the world’s largest tropical rainforest.

The variety of species in an ecosystem is called biodiversity.

The river experiences annual flooding providing nutrients to crops.

Growing population uses the land for mining, logging, framing and land development.

1.4 Cold and Warm Currents

•Like elevation, wind currents and ocean currents influence climate too.

•Currents are the continuous movement of air or water in the same direction.

Currents and Climates

•Cold wind and ocean currents flow from high latitudes near the South Pole.

•West coast is generally cool and dry.

•Warm wind and ocean currents flow from the equator making it warm and humid.

•Moist wind currents do not reach the Atacama Desert, located on the western side of the Andes.

•This desert lies in a rain shadow, a dry region on one side of a mountain range.

•The Andes prevent moisture to get to the desert.

•It gets only half inch of rain fall each year.

•El Niño's on the Pacific Coast

•El Nino happens when the usual wind and ocean currents reverse.

•This reversal brings warm air currents and water currents that produce high rainfall in coastal areas.

•El Nino occurs every 12 years.

•Heavy rains saturate, or soak coastal areas.

•These rains cause severe flooding.

1.5 Rain Forests and Climate Change

How Rain Forests Work

•Through a process called transpiration, plants and trees release water vapor into the air.

•Plants in the Amazon Rainforest perform an important function they absorb green house gases.

•A greenhouse gas is a gas that traps heat energy, warming the earth.

•Burning fossil fuels causes greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

•Rain forest help clean Earth’s air.

Climate change and global warming are topics that are often in the news.

Changes in the Rain Forest

•Large sections of the Amazon rain forest have been cut down.

•20% of the rain forest has been lost in the last 40 years.

•Widespread deforestation threatens the biodiversity of the Amazon.

Global Climate Challenge

Climate change is a gradual shift in Earth’s climate due to natural causes.

Global warming is a term used to describe the rapid warming of the Earth

The Earth has warmed 1.4 degrees F since the 20th century.

Scientist acknowledge, or recognize, that change of even one or two degrees is cause for concern.

Protecting the rain forests is critical to the health of the planet.