Point to remember: South America | Geography for UPSC CSE PDF Download

South America

• Situation: Situated to the south of North America, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere.
• It is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the east, the Antarctic Ocean in the south and the Pacific Ocean in the west.
• South America as well as Mexico, Central America and West Indies are collectively known as Latin America.

Important Gulfs, Peninsulas and Straits

Important River Basin of South America

Amazon River Basin

• Source: Andes Mountain, Peru
• Mouth: Macapa (Brazil) in the Atlantic Ocean
• 6,500 km long river flowing through Peru and Brazil to the Atlantic Ocean.
• World’s second-longest river after the Nile and has the greatest volume.
• Madeira is the largest tributary of the Amazon River.
• The river basin is covered with dense equatorial forest which is locally called Selvas. 
• Rubber was first discovered in its wild state as Para rubber in the Amazon basin. 
• Guias practice subsistence agriculture in the river basin.

Orinoco River Basin

• Source: Guiana highlands.
• Mouth: Enters the Atlantic Ocean via huge delta.
• The river basin is covered with Lianos, Savanna vegetation.
• Angel Falls, the highest in the world is located on the river.

The Western Mountains

Forms the second-highest mountain system in the world, next to the Himalayas.

The Andes Mountain System

• Aconcagua (6960 m), an extinct volcano is the highest peak of the Western Hemisphere lies in Argentina.
• A part of seven countries; Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Argentina.
• The Andes range is widest in Bolivia (640 km) and comprises two-chain (the Cordillera Occidental and Oriental); the Altiplano (high plateau) lies between these two chains.
  (i) Cordillera Occidental
  (ii) Cordillera Central
  (iii) Cordillera Oriental
• Three parallel north-south ranges of the Andes dominate the western part of Colombia with altitudes between 3,000 m and 5,000m.
• The two parallel north-south ranges of the Andes dominate Central Ecuador. 
• Chimborazo (6,310 m) is the highest peak of Ecuador and Mt Ojas del Salado the highest active volcano in the world, is in Argentina.

Brazilian Highlands

• Rising from Brazil’s Atlantic coast and levels off into high towards the western side of Brazil.
• Rich in mines, coffee plantation, and cattle ranches.
• The Highland region is characterized by coniferous forest while the drier region is covered with Savanna-like grassland (Campos).

Gran Chaco

• A great lowland centred on western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and southeastern Bolivia.
• It has a warm temperate forest and grassland to the south of Selvas.
• Dry scrubland used mainly for cattle rearing.
• It means ‘The Hunting Land’ in the local language.

Atacama Desert

• A coastal desert in Chile.
• The world’s driest desert.
• It contains a number of salt lakes.
• Rich in gold, nitrate (caliche), copper and sulphur.

Pampa

• Vast monotonous temperate grassland that covers about 20% area of Argentina’s heartland.
• One of the world’s greatest agricultural regions for grain and beef.
• Alfa-Alfa, a nutritious leguminous grass is grown for commercial grazing.

Patagonia Plateau

• Piedmont plateau of the Southern Argentina, rain shadow region with little rain called Patagonia desert.
• Grazing land for sheep and cattle.