9781422286463

The Land 11

There are not many lakes in South America. The largest is Lake Titicaca, on the Peru-Bolivia border. At 3,141 square miles (8,132 sq km), it is only the 19th largest in the world, but it lies at an altitude of 12,500 feet (3,812 meters), making it the world’s highest. There is also Lago de Maracaibo, in Venezuela; although it is called a lake, its narrow opening to the Caribbean Sea techni- cally makes it a gulf. The continent’s flatlands include the Brazilian plateau, which takes up much of that country south of the Amazon. Another plain extends from the grassy Argentinean Pampas (plains) south into rocky Patagonia. A third, smaller plain is the Venezuelan llanos, squeezed between the Andes, the Guiana Highlands, and the Atlantic Ocean. In the northern half of South America, a strip of flatlands runs along the Pacific coast west of the Andes. South America also has important wetlands. The Pantanal, in Brazil, is the world’s most extensive swamp. Other marshy areas are along the river deltas, especially at the mouths of the Orinoco and the Amazon. Much of the land along those rivers is prone to flooding. One of the lesser-known geographic features of South America is the coast of southern Chile, with its thousands of islands and islets, fjords , and glaciers that seem as if they belong not in South America but in Scandinavia. Climate The bulk of South America lies between the equator and the tropic of Capricorn, and so most of the continent has a tropical climate. But there are notable exceptions. The Southern Cone has a temperate climate, and there are bitterly cold regions as well, even in the tropical areas.