Physical Features of Latin America

Latin America: Physical Geographers divide Latin America into three subregions. Middle America The Caribbean South America

Middle America The area of land stretching southeast from the US border to the continent of South America is referred to as Middle America. This region includes the following countries: Mexico Belize Guatemala Honduras El Salvador Nicaragua Costa Rica Panama

Middle America: Physical Facts … is an isthmus (narrow piece of land that links two larger land masses) … is mountainous! … has active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes … is dry and arid in the north. … mostly dense rainforest in the rest of the region.

Natural Life of Middle America

The Caribbean Islands of the Caribbean Sea (AKA the West Indies) can be divided into 3 groups. The Greater Antilles The Lesser Antilles The Bahamas The Greater Antilles include the largest islands – Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Jamaica. The Lesser Antilles and Bahamas are archipelagos, or groups of islands. The islands vary from mountainous to low lying. Some have fertile soil!

South America

South America Highlights Atacama Desert is the driest place on Earth. (1mm rain/year) The Andes Mountains is the longest range in the world stretching over 4,400 miles The Atacama Desert is created by a rain shadow The towering Andes

Angels Falls and the Amazon Angel Falls, in Venezuela, is world’s tallest waterfall at 3,212 feet! The Amazon is the largest river by water volume, with a greater water flow than the next top ten rivers combined. Most of the water of Angel Falls turns to mist before it reaches the bottom. The mouth of the Amazon - AKA Amazon estuary

The Amazon Rainforest The world’s largest tropical rainforest. (Almost 3 million sq miles.) 9 feet of rain/ year 1/3 of all living things are found here. 20% of the Earth oxygen is produced here giving it the nickname, “Lungs of our Planet”

The Uncontacted Tribes The Amazon may hold the most remote populations of the world. In fact, some of these people have never seen anyone or anything from the modern world. The Uncontacted Tribes of the Amazon

Deforestation The rainforest is being destroyed at a devastating rate to make land for farms and population. 1/5 of Brazil’s forested has been destroyed, an area about the size of Greece! The rainforest absorbs CO2, a gas that is suspected to increase global warming, without the rainforest the Earth’s temperature could increase significantly. Click on picture to link of deforestation website. MORE RAINFOREST FACTS

Other Important Waters Lake Maracaibo, in Venezuela, is Latin America’s largest lake. It contains some of Venezuela’s oil fields. The world’s highest lake is Lake Titicaca at 12,500 feet above sea level. Located in between Peru and Bolivia, it is an important transportation link to the population.

Cowboys of Latin America are known as gauchos. Llanos and Pampas Tropical grasslands known as the Llanos support some agriculture in Northern South America. The Pampas plain south of the rain forests are much like our Great Plains. The land is used for agriculture and ranching. Cowboys of Latin America are known as gauchos.

Economy Tied to Physical Features There is a large gap between the poor and the wealthy = economic disparity South American countries depend heavily on agricultural products such as coffee,nuts, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables and more recently beef. Tourism is another key industry. Unfortunately, an alarming amount of illicit drugs are produced in and exported from some of these countries. Some of the most beautiful beaches are found in South America U.S. forces discover a shipment of illegal drugs from Colombia A worker tosses coffee beans