Do Now: How many countries are there in the Caribbean? What is a territory?

Capoeira-is a Japanese martial art developed in Brazil with its roots originating in Angola that combines elements of dance, acrobatics and music.Pardo People- In Brazil, a person of mixed African, European, and Indian ancestry. In the colonial period, pardos, like all nonwhites, were kept in a state of servitude, with no hope of gaining wealth or political power

Content Objective: Describe the main activities that are involved in the development and exploitation of the Amazon Basin.

Language Objective: Analyze the physical geography of Brazil and discuss deforestation in the Amazon.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017Physical Geography of Brazil

Physical Geography: Brazil

Overview• Brazil is the largest country in South America. With almost 3.3 million

square miles of land, it occupies about half the continent and accounts for most of the continent’s eastern coast.

• It has borders with every South American country except Chile and Ecuador. Catholicism is the dominant religion and Portuguese is the primary language.

• Once a Portuguese colony, the country’s culture was built on Europeanimmigration and African slave labor, making for a rich mixture of ethnic backgrounds.

Interactive #1

Physical Geography: Brazil

The Amazon River• The Amazon River is one of Brazil’s amazing natural features as well

as a great natural resource. The river is the Western Hemisphere’s longest river.

• The Amazon is the largest river in terms of the amount of freshwater it carries.

• Of all the water that Earth’s rivers empty into the oceans, about 25percent comes from the Amazon.

• The river’s depth allows oceangoing ships to travel more than 2,000miles upstream to unload or pick up cargo.

Physical Geography: Brazil

The Amazon Basin • One reason the Amazon carries so much water is that it has more than

1,000 tributaries. These smaller rivers feed into the Amazon as it flows from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean.

• The area that a river and its tributaries drain is called a basin. The Amazon Basin covers more than 2 million square miles.

• Much of the Amazon Basin is covered by the world’s largest rain forest. Tall evergreen trees form a canopy, or an umbrella-like covering.

• The “Selva” is home to several million kinds of plants, insects, birds, and other animals.

Interactive #2

Physical Geography: Brazil

Regional Differences

• Northern Brazil is dominated by the Amazon River and the jungles that

surround it. The Amazon is not one river but a network of many hundreds

of waterways called tributaries. Thousands of species live in the river,

including the infamous piranha and the boto, or pink river dolphin.

• The eastern highlands are low mountain ranges with some high peaks.

Farther south are the pampas, grassy treeless plains. The Atlantic

lowlands are a narrow coastal plain.

Physical Geography: Brazil

Regional Differences cont. • In the central-western part of Brazil sits a flat, swampy area called the

Pantanal. This patchwork of flooded lagoons and small islands is the world's largest wetland. Here live giant anacondas, huge guinea pig relatives called capybaras, and fierce South American alligators called caimans.

• Southeastern Brazil was once completely covered with dense forest. Now it is the country's industrial capital, home to Brazil's biggest cities: São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. It covers only 11 percent of the country but houses 43 percent of its population.

Physical Geography: Brazil

Climate and Resources• Most of the northern and central highlands have a tropical wet/dry

climate – rainy summers and dry winters. The northeastern part of the Brazilian Highlands has a semiarid climate. Southeastern Brazil is in the temperate zone.

• Forest covers about 60 percent of Brazil. It is a source of wood, rubber, and medicinal plants. Logging, mining, and development are the cause of some major environmental issues.

• Brazil is the world’s largest producer of coffee, sugarcane, and tropical fruits.

• Brazilian sugarcane is used to make ethanol which fuels most cars in Brazil. For many years, the government has required cars to use ethanol.

Deforestation in Brazil

Deforestation in Brazil