Brazilian Geography
Brazil is a vast and fascinating country, which occupies about half of the continent of South America. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and has an area of over eight and a half million square kilometers. The highest point in Brazil, Pico da Neblina, reaches ninety-eight hundred feet into the air. Brazil is also bordered by the South American countries of Argentina, Colombia, French Guinea, Bolivia, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Brazil is only slightly smaller in land mass than the United States.
The country has numerous different climates, with the majority being tropical, though the South is very temperate. The largest river in Brazil, the Amazon, is also one of the longest in the world. The rainforest in the Amazon Basin accounts for almost half of the rainforests on earth.
The only countries in the world that are larger than Brazil are Russia, Canada, and the People’s Republic of China. The national territory extends over four thousands kilometers both from north to south and east to west. It also spans three time zones.
Brazil posses the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha which is located three hundred and fifty kilometers northeast of its horn and also posses a handful of small islands in the Atlantic, including Abrolhos, Atol das Rocas, Rindade, and Martim Vaz. On the east coast, the Atlantic coastline stretches over seven thousand kilometers, and it shares fifteen and a half thousand kilometers of borders with other South American countries.
Brazil has a very old geological formation. Thirty-six percent of the territory is shielded by Precambrian crystalline, and it is especially concentrated in the central area. The highest mountains are the Tumucumaque, Imeri, and Pacaraima ranges. There is also a vast central plateau in Brazil’s Central Highlands. The costal zone and miles of tropical beaches are noted for their mangroves, lagoons, and dunes, as well as coral reefs.
Brazil’s major natural resources include gold, iron ore, manganese, phosphates, nickel, bauxite, platinum, uranium, tin, hydropower, petroleum, and timber. For many years Brazilwood was the country’s major export, and it later gained great profit from using slaves to harvest sugar crops. Later in Brazil’s history, it entered the gold trade which was very prosperous for many years.
Brazil’s tropical soils produce over seventy million tons of grain per year. Even the earliest Portuguese explorers reported that the land they had discovered was extremely fertile and hat everything they planted grew extremely well. The largest areas of fertile soils or red earth are found in the states of Parana and Sao Paulo. The least fertile areas are found in the Amazon due to the density of the rain forest.
There are many environmental issues that face the vast country of Brazil. The clearing and burning of the Amazon rainforest is one of the most pressing issues. In the 1970s and 1980s, the deforestation was occurring at alarming rates, but since then, great measures have been taken to protect the natural environment of Brazil.
Brazil’s geography is extremely diverse and makes the country a varied and beautiful place.