Amazon

Basin
By Cadet Utkarsh Tripathi
5378
 Content
1. Amazon Basin
2. Climate and Weather at Amazon Basin
3. Amazon Rainforest
4. Amazon River
5. Quiz
6. Poster
 Amazon Basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the
Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an
area of about 6,300,000 sq.km covering 35.5 percent of South America
continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia,
Ecuador, , Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Francisco de
Orellana a Spanish soldier was the first European explorer of the Amazon
River in the year 1546. Plant growth is quite dense and its variety of
animal inhabitants is comparatively high due to the heavy rainfall and the
dense and extensive evergreen and coniferous forests. Little sunlight
reaches the ground due to the dense roof canopy by plants. The ground
remains dark and damp and only shade-tolerant vegetation will Numerous
tributaries join in the Amazon river and they together form the Amazon Basin.
 Amazon Basin
The Amazon Basin lies very close to the equator,
between 10°N to 10°S. This region is known as the
equatorial region. This region is known as the
equatorial region. The river Amazon flows through this
region. It flows from the mountains in the west and
reaches the Atlantic Ocean in the east. Numerous
tributaries join in the Amazon river and they together
form the Amazon Basin.
Amazon Basin
Francisco de Orellana
Climate and Weather
The Amazon Basin stretches directly on the equator and is
characterized by hot and wet climate throughout the
year. Both day and night almost equal hot and humid. The
skin feel sticky. It rains almost everyday, that too without
much warming. The day temperature are high with very
high humidity. At night the temperature goes down but the humidity remain high. The
Amazon River basin has a low-water season, and a wet season during which, the rivers flood
the adjacent, low-lying forests. The climate of the basin is generally hot and humid. In some
areas, however, the winter months (June–September) can bring cold snaps, fueled by
Antarctic winds traveling along the adjacent mountain range. The average annual
temperature is around 25-degree and 28 degree Celsius with no distinction between summer
and winter season.
 Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon rainforest, alternatively, the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf
tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This
basin encompasses 7,000,000 km2 (2,700,000 sq mi), of which 5,500,000 km2 (2,100,000 sq mi) are
covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations and 3,344 formally
acknowledged indigenous territories.
The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%,
Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Bolivia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and
Venezuela. Four nations have "Amazonas" as the name of one of their first-level administrative regions,
and France uses the name "Guiana Amazonian Park" for its rainforest protected area. The Amazon
represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most biodiverse
tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000
species.
More than 30 million people of 350 different ethnic groups live in the Amazon, which are subdivided into 9
different national political systems and 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories. Indigenous
peoples make up 9% of the total population with 60 of the groups remaining largely isolated.
 Amazon Rainforest

In Amazon basin, it rains heavily . Thick forests grow here. They are in fact so thick
and dense that
“roof* created by leaves and branches do not allow the sunlight to reach the ground.
The ground remains dark and damp. Only shade tolerant vegetation grows here.
Orchids, bromeliads grow Wet tropical forests are the most species-rich biome,
and tropical forests in the Americas are consistently more species rich than the
wet forests in Africa and Asia. As the largest tract of tropical rainforest in the
Americas, the Amazonian rainforests have unparalleled biodiversity. One in ten
known species in the world lives in the Amazon rainforest . This constitutes the
largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world. as plant
parasites.
Amazon Rainforest
Amazon Rainforest
Amazon Rainforest
Amazon Rainforest
 Amazon River
The Amazon River in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world,
and the disputed longest river in the world in comparison to the Nile. Amazon river of 7062 km
with over 1100 tributaries . It starts from river Mantaro River and has its mouth at Atlantic
ocean. Recent geological studies suggest that for millions of years the Amazon River used to
flow in the opposite direction - from east to west. Eventually the Andes Mountains formed,
blocking its flow to the Pacific Ocean, and causing it to switch directions to its current mouth in
the Atlantic Ocean. Francisco de Orellana, was the first European to travel from the origins of
the upstream river basins, situated in the Andes, to the mouth of the river. In this journey,
Orellana baptized some of the affluents of the Amazonas like Rio Negro, Napo and Jurua. The
name Amazonas is thought to be taken from the native warriors that attacked this expedition,
mostly women, that reminded De Orellana of the mythical female Amazon warriors from the
ancient Hellenic culture in Greece . The Amazonian fish fauna is the center of diversity for
neotropical fishes. 5,600 species are currently known, and approximately fifty new species are
discovered each year . The arapaima, known in Brazil as the pirarucu, is a South American
tropical freshwater fish, one of the largest freshwater fish in the world, with a length of up to 15
feet (4.6 m).
Amazon River
 Quiz
1.
2. What is the length of the Amazon River?

With which river is the Amazon River disputed

over the longest river in the world?
3. Who baptized the name of the river as Amazon?
4. Where does the Amazon River end?
5. Which countries does the Amazon River cross?
6. Where does the Amazon River begin?
 Answers
1.7,062 km or 6,852 km
2.River Nile
3.Francisco de Orellana
4.Atlantic Ocean
5.Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, and
Brazil
6.River Mantaro
Poster/Flowchart