South America

South America is the continent to the south of North America.^[1][2] These two continents are separated by the Panama Canal. There are seven continents which make up the globe, South America being the 4th largest. South America includes 12 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

The Andes.

South America is attached to Central America at the boundary of Panama.^[3] Geographically^[4] all of Panama – including the part east of the Panama Canal is usually included in North America alone,^[5][6][7] among the countries of Central America.^[8][9]

List of Countries

Flag	Official name(s)	Area (km² or sq mi)	Population	Density (pop. km²)	Capital	Official language(s)
	Argentina Argentine Republic	2,780,400 km2 (1,073,500 sq mi)	46,621,847	16	Buenos Aires	Spanish
	Bolivia Plurinational State of Bolivia	1,098,581 km2 (424,164 sq mi)	12,186,079	11	Sucre	Spanish Quechua Aymara
	Brazil Federative Republic of Brazil	8,515,770 km2 (3,287,960 sq mi)	218,689,757	17	Brasillia	Portuguese
	Chile Republic of Chile	756,102 km2 (291,933 sq mi)	18,549,457	22	Santiago	Spanish
	Colombia Republic of Colombia	1,138,910 km2 (439,740 sq mi)	49,336,454	23	Bogota	Spanish
	Ecuador Republic of Ecuador	283,561 km2 (109,484 sq mi)	17,483,326	44	Quito	Spanish
	Guyana Co-operative Republic of Guyana	214,969 km2 (83,000 sq mi)	791,739	4	Georgetown	English
	Paraguay Republic of Paraguay	406,752 km2 (157,048 sq mi)	7,439,863	18	Asuncion	Spanish Guarani
	Peru Republic of Peru	1,285,216 km2 (496,225 sq mi)	32,440,172	17	Lima	Spanish Aymara
	Suriname Republic of Suriname	163,820 km2 (63,250 sq mi)	639,539	4	Paramaribo	Dutch
	Uruguay Republic of Uruguay	176,215 km2 (68,037 sq mi)	3,416,264	33	Montevideo	Spanish
	Venezuela Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela	912,050 km2 (352,140 sq mi)	30,518,260	20	Caracas	Spanish

Natural resources

The soil in Argentina's Pampas is among the best in the world. Brazil's soil is very good for growing coffee.^[3] A great number of minerals have been found. Few, however, have been mined.^[3] Among those that were mined are iron, manganese, gold, and gemstones.^[3] The tropical forests are rich in valuable trees, like mahogany, ebony, and rubber.^[3] Oil is also a resource in some places.^[3]

Wildlife

South America is home to a large variety of animal life. These include animals such as jaguars, macaws, monkeys, anacondas, llamas, piranhas, toucans, rheas, tapirs, cougars, condors and chinchillas.

Tourist attractions

The most popular attractions are:

• Machu Picchu, a historic site in Peru which is a city made of stone and has an over 26 mile marathon.
• The Iguazu Falls, a waterfall on the border between Argentina and Brazil
• The Angel Falls, the world's tallest waterfall, in Venezuela
• Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is a huge city, famous for its extravagant (overly expensive) carnival, beaches (Copacabana and Ipanema), and 38m statue of Jesus Christ.
• The Patagonia region in Argentina and Chile

The Amazon rain forest

The amazon rain forest is a moist grassy land where many wild animals live and contains the amazon river which is the 2nd longest river in the world and has the largest volume of water. The world's longest river is the Nile in Africa. The forest is known as a rain forest as it rains very often but due to the dense surroundings not every droplet reaches the bottom. The Amazon is shared by eight countries (Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname) and stretches for 6.7 million kilometers². In the amazon rain forest, hundreds of thousands of trees have been cut down for wood and paper, meaning that the forest is endangered. Unlike the Boreial forest in Canada the trees are not getting replanted.

Related pages

• Latin America
• Americas
• Latin American Literature