South America

South America is a region according to our classification and a continent geographically. Located in the southern hemisphere. South America is washed by the Pacific Ocean in the west and in the east by the Atlantic. It borders the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Strait of Magellan to the south. The border between North and South America is the Isthmus of Panama.

The predominant part of the continent (5/6 of the area) is located in the Southern Hemisphere. The continent of South America has the greatest width in equatorial and tropical latitudes. This continent is the western part of the once-existing supercontinent Gondwana.

South America is the fourth largest and fifth most populated continent on Earth. The area with the islands is 18.3 million km. sq. South America also includes the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, the Chilean Islands and the Galapagos.

Nature and population

There are few lakes in South America. The exceptions are oxbow lakes and mountain lakes in the Andes. On the same continent is the largest alpine lake in the world - Titicaca, in the north there is a large lagoon lake Maracaibo.

Large areas on the mainland are occupied by moist equatorial and tropical forests and various types of light forests, savannahs. But there are no deserts characteristic of and in South America.

In general, there are much more indigenous people in South America - Indians than in North America. In Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, they even make up about half of the total population.

The population that arrived from Europe gradually mixed with the indigenous peoples of the continent. The Spanish and Portuguese conquerors came here without families, they took Indian women as their wives. That's when mestizos began to appear. Now there are almost no "pure" representatives of the European race left, all have admixtures of Indian or Negro blood.

South America. Climate and nature

The most significant mountain formation is the Andes mountains. They stretched along the west of the continent. The nature of South America is all diverse, how great is its length from north to south. There are high mountains, forests, plains and deserts. The highest point is Mount Aconcagua, the mountain is 6960 m high. The largest rivers in South America are:

• Amazon,
• parana,
• Paraguay
• Orinoco.

The climate on this continent is subequatorial and tropical, subtropical and temperate in the south, and equatorial and constantly humid in the Amazon.

Continent countries

On the modern map of the continent of South America, there are 12 independent states. In terms of area and economic power, Brazil remains the undisputed leader. The second largest state is Argentina, which is located in the south of the mainland.

Chile occupies a narrow and long territory in this region. It is mainly a mountainous country, on the territory of which are the Andes mountain ranges.

Venezuela is located in the north of the continent, as well as the small and little-known states of Guyana and Suriname.

On the coast of the Atlantic Ocean is a small piece of the colonial past - the French territory of Guyana.

Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are located in the west and northwest of South America.

The state of Uruguay is located in the southeast of the mainland, bordering Brazil and Argentina.

There are two countries on the continent that do not have access to the ocean. Their territory is completely covered with forests. These are Bolivia and Paraguay.

Here is such a brief geography of this unique and interesting piece of Earth!

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