The Amazon River Basin is home to the largest rainforest in south America and the earth. The basin is about 5.5 million km² in size which shows it’s massive. The forest spreads over all these South American countries Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname. The amazon is made of up lots of ecosystems and vegetation types including many forests like seasonal and flooded forests and even savannas. The amazon river is the world’s largest river of discharge but it is the second longest river losing to of course the Nile river.
The History of The Forest
The forest was likely formed during the Eocene era which lasted from about 55.8 to 33.9 million years ago. It appeared after
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Many years ago the Andes were formed by the south American plate and the Nazca plate colliding. Rainforests, like all forms of vegetation, affect the surface by absorbing more heat than bare soil, This the main geomorphic process that all rainforests do or go through.
Human Processes
Science shows that even ancient people have adventured to places that we hadn’t know before. More than 20% of the Amazon Rainforest has been cut down in the last 40 years. 65% of this deforestation has been because of cattle ranching. Nearly 40 million acres of rainforest are cut down per minute, this is showing to us that deforestation is taking away lots of animals and insects habitats and homes which is devastating.
FUN FACTS
- The Amazon rainforest is home to 10% of the known species in the world.
- There are over 40,000 different plant species and approximately 2.5 million insect species in the Amazon rainforest.
- There are approximately 3000 fruits that grow in the rainforest that are edible.
- The toucan is the loudest creature in the Amazon. You can hear it as far as a half mile away.
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