GCTG LESSON 6

SOUTH AMERICA

fourth-largest

South America is the — continent and extends from the sunny beaches of the Caribbean Sea to the frigid waters near the Antarctic Circle.

The Andes / Nazca plate

— is Earth’s longest terrestrial mountain range, stretching the entire length of South America. Many active volcanoes dot the range. These volcanic areas are fueled by heat generated as a large oceanic plate, called the — Plate, grinds beneath the plate carrying South America.

AMAZON RIVER AND RAINFOREST, BRAZIL

• is the greatest river of South America and the largest drainage system in the world in terms of the volume of its flow and the area of its basin.

• The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species

RIO CARNIVAL, BRAZIL

is a festival held every year before Lent and considered the biggest carnival in the world with two million people per day on the streets. The first Carnival festival in Rio occurred in 1723.

CHRIST THE REDEEMER, BRAZIL

• a colossal statue of Jesus Christ at the summit of Mount Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil.

• Celebrated in traditional and popular songs, Corcovado towers over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s principal port city.

• was completed in 1931 and stands 98 feet (30 metres) tall, its horizontally outstretched arms spanning 92 feet (28 metres).

• The statue has become emblematic of both the city of Rio de Janeiro and the whole nation of Brazil.

IGUAZU FALLS, BRAZIL – ARGENTINA

• is a series of cataracts on the Iguaçu River, 14 miles (23 km) above its confluence with the Alto (Upper) Paraná River, at the Argentina-Brazil border.

• The falls resemble an elongated horseshoe that extends for 1.7 miles (2.7 km)

• nearly three times wider than Niagara Falls in North America and significantly greater than the width of Victoria Falls in Africa.

ANGEL FALLS, VENEZUELA

• The highest waterfall in the world, the cataract drops 3,212 feet (979 metres) and is 500 feet (150 metres) wide at the base.

• It leaps from a flat-topped plateau, Auyán-Tepuí (“Devils Mountain”), barely making contact with the sheer face.

• The falls are located in Canaima National Park, and, because of the dense jungle surrounding the falls, they are best seen from the air.

• Auyán-Tepuí

• (“Devils Mountain”)

TEPUIS, VENEZUELA

Along the southern border with Brazil are groups of massive plateaus and steep- sided mesas, known as tepuis (tepuyes), capped with erosion-resistant sandstone and covered with intermingled savanna and semideciduous forest.

Camón, Chimanta, Mount Roraima

larger tepuis in the southeast are

SALT CATHEDRAL, COLOMBIA

is an underground Roman Catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt mine 200 metres (220 yd) underground in a halite mountain near the city of Zipaquirá, design by Mexican architect Carlos Mijares. It is a tourist destination and place of pilgrimage in the country.

KAIETEUR FALLS, GUYANA

cataract on the Potaro River, west-central Guyana. After a sheer drop of 741 feet (226 m)

MACHU PICCHU, PERU

also spelled Machupijchu, site of ancient Inca ruins located about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Cuzco, Peru. It is perched above the Urubamba River valley in a narrow saddle between two sharp peaks—Machu Picchu (“Old Peak”) and Huayna Picchu (“New Peak”)—at an elevation of 7,710 feet (2,350 metres). One of the few major pre-Columbian ruins found nearly intact, Machu Picchu was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983.

NAZCA LINES, PERU

groups of geoglyphs, large line drawings that appear, from a distance, to be etched into the Earth’s surface on the arid Pampa Colorada (“Coloured Plain” or “Red Plain”), northwest of the city of Nazca in southern Peru. They extend over an area of nearly 190 square miles (500 square km).

MT. ACONCAGUA, ARGENTINA

Spanish Cerro Aconcagua, mountain in western Mendoza province, west-central Argentina, on the Chilean border. It is the highest point in the Western Hemisphere as well as in South America.

LAKE TITICACA, BOLIVIA – PERU

The world’s highest lake navigable to large vessels, lying at 12,500 feet (3,810 metres) above sea level in the Andes Mountains of South America, astride the border between Peru to the west and Bolivia to the east. Titicaca is the second largest lake of South America (after Maracaibo).

ATACAMA DESERT, CHILE

A desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. It is the world’s driest non-polar desert.

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, ECUADOR

An island group of the eastern Pacific Ocean, administratively a province of Ecuador. In 1978 the islands were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, and in 1986 the Galapagos Marine Resources Reserve was created to protect the surrounding waters. The Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz (Indefatigable) Island promotes scientific studies and protects the indigenous vegetation and animal life of the Galapagos.

EASTER ISLAND, CHILE

Also called Rapa Nui, Chilean dependency in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost outpost of the Polynesian island world. It is famous for its giant stone statues which are called moais.

PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA

a semiarid scrub plateau that covers nearly all of the southern portion of mainland Argentina. It constitutes a vast area of steppe and desert that extends from the Atlantic Sea, Strait of Magellan, up to the Andes Mountain Range.