The Amazon Basin

The River

The Amazon River  The Amazon river is the biggest (not the longest that’s the nile) in the world.  It travels for 7200 km  Has a catchment area of 5.7 million square km  At the mouth is 100m deep and 70 km wide.  New Zealand’s biggest river the waikato is only 425km long.

Features  The amazon basin has a number of features these include:  Volcanoes like Mt. Sangay  Fold Mountains the Andes  Ancient Hard rock Plateau’s the Brazilian and Guyanian plateau  The amazon river  The amazon rainforest  River delta’s  Etc.

 Over 20 million species of animals live in the rainforest.  Some of them extremely big some small  The Amazon is one of the most diverse places on earth.

People  The Amazon is home to many different indigenous tribes that live completely independent of modern lifestyles.

Relief of the landscape  The Amazon Basin is fed from the eroded material coming from the Andes.  Draw Image of the Amazon:  Explain regions and what is created by these features.  I.e. which regions have white, black and clear rivers?

The Amazon  Insert here:  Relief and the river  The climate  Soil and vegetation  Stratification  The evolution of the landscape

The Amazon processes  The present Amazon Basin was with land building (the andes), Volcanism (Mt. Sangay), Denudation processes (The Andes), Mass Movement (the Andes), Transportation (the basin) Depostion (The basin and the delta).  Explanation with the different zones.  Letter writing activity

The Climate in the Basin  The Amazon basin moisture predominantly comes from convection rainfall.  Pg 50 how does this occur? Copy in diagram.  The Sculpter: Water is the shaper of earth’s surfaces so sometimes it is called the sculptor. It wears and redistributes material creating landforms.

Climate  Using page 50 find the following words and give the definition of each.  Hydrological cycle  Aquifer  Dew Point  Orographic rainfall  Frontal rainfall  Convectional rainfall  What is significant about these words on these pages?

ITCZ  The ITCZ or Inter-tropical convergence zone is the region where the trade-winds meet due to the formation of a low pressure zone created by the sun heating the ocean. It dictates the type of rainfall in the Amazon Basin as this formation of a low pressure zone creates vast amounts of convection rainfall.

ITCZ

Vegetation and Soil  Competition for Sunlight causes rainforest to be stratified.  Pg 53 diag  Rainfall: Rainfall is plentiful in the Amazon. Due to the movement of the ITCZ there is a wet and dry season for a large portion of the rainforest. This can put pressure on the soil as it becomes saturated. Luckily due to the stratified nature of the foliage the water gets filtrated.  Diag  Copy in reverse flow

Continued  Soil: The soil is a very important factor for the Amazon Basin as it has shaped the landscape. The alluvial sediment which has been eroded from the Andes has travelled down and filled in the basin. On top of this alluvial sediment a rich Humus layer has develop from dead plant matter. The water that percolates through the humus layer has leached nutrients out of the alluvium. To negotiate this tree’s are buttressed out instead of digging deep for stability.  54 Copy in bullet points and  Activities 1, 2, 4, 5, 6. Also do Question 11 page 47!!!