Ms. Soles

Social Studies: South America

Lesson 10

The Physical Geography of South America

Shall we take a closer look at the part of the world we

will be learning about?

www.GoogleEarth.com

Lesson Goals

6.1.03 Use geographic tools to compare countries.

6.2.01 Influence of physical features and climate on cultures.

6.202 Factors that influence distribution of population, resources, and climates.

6.5.01 How the location of natural resources affects economic development.

6.5.03 Scarcity requires decisions regarding production and distribution of goods and services.

6.6.03 Effects of over-specialization.

Terms to Know

Amazon River A very long river in northern South America, 2nd longest in the world.

Rainforest An extremely dense evergreen forest that has a great deal of rainfall all year long.

Tributary A river or stream that flows into a larger river.

Plateau A large and raised area of land that is mostly level.

Pampas A very large region of flat grasslands.

Isthmus A strip of land that has water on both sides of it that connects two larger bodies of land.

South America

Where is South America located?

In the Western and the Southern Hemispheres.

Bordered on the West Side by the Pacific Ocean.

Bordered on the East Side by the Atlantic Ocean.

More About Location----

North America and the Caribbean Sea are Northwest.

The continent of Antarctica is South of it.

Physical map of South America

http://www.freeworldmaps.net/southamerica/index.html

The Three Regions of South America

The Andes Mountains

The Central Plains

The Eastern Highlands

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about 7,000 km (4,300 mi) long, about 200 km (120 mi) to 700 km (430 mi) wide, and of an average height of about 4,000 m (13,000 ft).

Andes Between Chile and Argentina

Aconcagua(Highest peak)

Astronaut Photo of Andes Mts. with Line of Young

Volcanoes

The Central Plains

Northern Part: The Amazon River Basin

Can you find the Central Plains?

• America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The basin is located mainly (40%) in Brazil, but also stretches into Peru and several other countries. The South American rain forest of the Amazon is the largest in the world, covering about 8,235,430 km2 (Amazon Basin is the part of South 3,179,720 sq mi) with dense tropical forest.

Floating Village of Amazonas

Southern Central Plains

The Pampas (from Quechua, meaning "plain") are the fertile South American lowlands, covering more than 750,000 km2 (289,577 sq mi)

The Eastern Highlands This region is made

up of mostly rounded hills and plateaus that is north and southeast of the Amazon Basin. They spread across two separate areas of the continent, the northernmost covering part of Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname.

Brazilian Highlands

Three Main parts:

Atlantic Plateau

Southern Plateau

Central Plateau

The Amazon River

http://video.search.yahoo.com

Mouth of the Amazon River

Source of the Amazon

Facts About the Amazon River

Amazon River of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined (not including Madeira and Rio Negro, which are tributuaries of The Amazon). The Amazon, which has the largest drainage basin in the world, about 7,050,000 square kilometres (2,720,000 sq mi), accounts for approximately one-fifth of the world's total river flow.

Amazon Rainforest Region(5,500,000 square km)

Let’s visit the Amazon Rainforest!

http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/tdc02_vid_rainforest/

Now you know what much of South America looks like! Time to

say good-bye, until our next lesson!

www.GoogleEarth.com

Resources

http://www.wikipedia.com

http://www.GoogleEarth.com

http://www.freeworldmaps.net

http://www.teachersdomain.net