Physical Geography of South America

The Andes is the longest continental mountain range in the world. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America.

The Andes is the world's highest mountain range outside of Asia.

The Amazon rainforest, also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the

Amazon Basin of South America.

The Iguazu River rises near the city of Curitiba. For most of its course, the river flows through Brazil, however,

most of the falls are on the Argentine side

strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes mountains. It is the driest non-

polar desert in the world. Most of the desert is composed of stony terrain, salt lakes, sand, and felsic

lava that flows towards the Andes.

Patagonia is a sparsely populated region located at the southern end of South America, shared

by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes mountains as well as

the deserts, steppes and grasslands east of this southern portion of the Andes. Patagonia has two

coasts; a western one towards the Pacific Ocean and an eastern one towards the Atlantic Ocean.

The climate in most of South America is usually tropical. It is humid (dry) tropical and tropical savanna in the north. It is humid subtropical in the southeast. Rainfall is different depending on the place.