CLASS 6TH | SOUTH AMERICA: LOCATION, AREA, POLITICAL AND PHYSICAL FEATURES | REVISION NOTES

POINTS TO REMEMBER

• The Isthmus of Panama joins South America to North America. South America is triangular in shape and a greater part of it lies south of the equator.
• South America can be divided into four physical divisions—the West Coastal Plains, the Andes Mountains, the Central Plains and the Eastern Highlands.
• The West Coastal Plains are narrow plains lying between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains, in the western part of the continent. The Atacama Desert is located here.
• The Andes are a long stretch of high, young fold mountains that run parallel to the Pacific Coast in the western part of the continent. Mt Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America, and Lake Titicaca, the second highest freshwater lake in the world, are located here. There are also several active dormant volcanoes located here such as Mt Chimborazo and Mt Cotopaxi.
• The Central Plains are lowlands that lie between the Andes in the west and the Eastern Highlands in the east. The flat plains are formed by the rivers Amazon, Orinoco, Parana, Paraguay and Uruguay.
• The Guiana Highlands and the Brazilian Highlands form the Eastern Highlands. The two highlands are separated by the river Amazon. These highlands extend in the eastern part of the continent along the Atlantic coast.
• The Orinoco River, the Magdalena River and the Amazon River are some of the important rivers of South America. Rivers Paraguay, Parana and Uruguay form the La Plata river system. Lake Titicaca, Lake Poopo and Lake Maracaibo are the important lakes of die continent.

IMPORTANT TERMS

Llanos : The grasslands of the Orinoco Basin.
Selvas : The dense equatorial forest of the Amazon Basin.
Pampas : The extensive temperate grasslands of Argentina.

VALUES AND LIFE SKILLS

We must learn not to exploit natural resources and to instead, take care of our environment and the natural resources we have, like the indigenous people in the Amazon Basin