South America Knowledge Organiser (Y8 Geography)

Vocabulary terms and geographical concepts regarding the formation, early history, and diverse ecosystems of South America.

Magma

Molten rock underground.

Tectonic plates

Chunks of the Earth’s crust that move around.

Agriculture

Another word for farming – the growing of crops and keeping of animals for food and trade.

Hierarchy

Ordering by importance.

Civilisation

A human society that is very complex and well organised.

Ecosystem

A group of organisms (living things) and their environment (non-living things).

Climate change resilient

Finding ways to cope with a change in the climate.

South America Formation

Formed when magma bubbled up between tectonic plates and the lava cooled to form new land.

Continental drift

The process by which South America and Africa were broken apart like puzzle pieces.

Latin America

The region formed when South America joined to North America.

Nomadic hunter gatherers

The first people to arrive in South America who travelled the land in search of food and resources.

Land bridge

A path between Asia and North America that early peoples likely walked across during the last ice age.

Aztec priests

Leaders who could organise sacrifices to the gods to ensure a good harvest.

Inca stone terraces

Structures created in the mountains to grow crops in cold weather by trapping the heat of the sun.

Amazon Rainforest

An ecosystem with loads of sun and rainfall, billions of trees, fruit and veg, and dangerous animals.

Andes Mountains

A mostly cold and wet ecosystem with steep slopes and 600 mammals including llamas and alpacas.

Atacama Desert

A cool and extremely dry ecosystem with virtually no water and lots of gold, copper and silver buried underground.

Pampas Grasslands

A warm and quite wet ecosystem good for grazing animals, where thunderstorms, tornadoes and wildfires are common.