South American Adventure.

Part 1 of my South American adventure.

South America is located in the southern hemisphere to the west of Africa. It is surrounded by water and I connected to North America through Mexico the oceans surrounding it are the pacific to the west, Atlantic to the east, Carrabin in the north and Scotia sea to the south. The two major geographical features are the Andes and the Amazon basin/river.

In this post we will focus on the Amazon.

The Amazon River:

The source of the Amazon is the lake Lauricocha, in the part of the Andes found in Peru. The river has an average velocity but that increases dramatically at flood times . This therefore puts eight trillion gallons through the mouth of the amazon each day which is 60 times what the Nile does. The annual average output of the amazon is 6,350,000 cubic feet per second.

The Amazon basin;

The amazon basin is 4,195 miles long and covers 2,720,000 square miles including its tributaries. This makes it the largest river basin in the world. The average height above sea level is 300 feet and it is often subjected to heavy flooding during January to February each year. The temperature in the basin averages at 79 degrees and has an average rainfall of 80 inches. The temperature change between night and day is greater than between seasons.

The amazon rainforest is thought to be one of the oldest tropical forests in the world it is estimated to be over 100 million years old. The part of the amazon forest in the river basin is separated into categories of how often it gets flooded. These categories are never, rarely and often. There were 117 different species that have been found in half a square mile. There are also many types of animals and flora but they depend on geographical location, light and the amount of water in the area. The area of most life in the rainforest is the Canopy as it receives the most light and it does not flood.

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