Download The Amazon Basin

The Amazon
Basin
The River
The Amazon River
 The Amazon river is the biggest (not the
longest that’s the nile) in the world.
 It travels for 7200 km
 Has a catchment area of 5.7 million
square km
 At the mouth is 100m deep and 70 km
wide.
 New Zealand’s biggest river the waikato
is only 425km long.
Features
 The amazon basin has a number of features
these include:
 Volcanoes like Mt. Sangay
 Fold Mountains the Andes
 Ancient Hard rock Plateau’s the Brazilian and
Guyanian plateau
 The amazon river
 The amazon rainforest
 River delta’s
 Etc.
 Over 20 million species of animals live in
the rainforest.
 Some of them extremely big some small
 The Amazon is one of the most diverse
places on earth.
People
 The Amazon is home to many different
indigenous tribes that live completely
independent of modern lifestyles.
Relief of the landscape
 The Amazon Basin is fed from the eroded
material coming from the Andes.
 Draw Image of the Amazon:
 Explain regions and what is created by
these features.
 I.e. which regions have white, black and
clear rivers?
The Amazon
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Insert here:
Relief and the river
The climate
Soil and vegetation
Stratification
The evolution of the landscape
The Amazon processes
 The present Amazon Basin was with land
building (the andes), Volcanism (Mt.
Sangay), Denudation processes (The
Andes), Mass Movement (the Andes),
Transportation (the basin) Depostion
(The basin and the delta).
 Explanation with the different zones.
 Letter writing activity
The Climate in the Basin
 The Amazon basin moisture predominantly
comes from convection rainfall.
 Pg 50 how does this occur? Copy in diagram.
 The Sculpter: Water is the shaper of earth’s
surfaces so sometimes it is called the sculptor.
It wears and redistributes material creating
landforms.
Climate
 Using page 50 find the following words and
give the definition of each.
 Hydrological cycle
 Aquifer
 Dew Point
 Orographic rainfall
 Frontal rainfall
 Convectional rainfall
 What is significant about these words on these
pages?
ITCZ
 The ITCZ or Inter-tropical convergence
zone is the region where the trade-winds
meet due to the formation of a low
pressure zone created by the sun heating
the ocean. It dictates the type of rainfall
in the Amazon Basin as this formation of
a low pressure zone creates vast
amounts of convection rainfall.
ITCZ
Vegetation and Soil
 Competition for Sunlight causes rainforest to be
stratified.
 Pg 53 diag 11.13.
 Rainfall: Rainfall is plentiful in the Amazon. Due to the
movement of the ITCZ there is a wet and dry season
for a large portion of the rainforest. This can put
pressure on the soil as it becomes saturated. Luckily
due to the stratified nature of the foliage the water gets
filtrated.
 Diag 11.15
 Copy in reverse flow
Continued
 Soil: The soil is a very important factor for the Amazon
Basin as it has shaped the landscape. The alluvial
sediment which has been eroded from the Andes has
travelled down and filled in the basin. On top of this
alluvial sediment a rich Humus layer has develop from
dead plant matter. The water that percolates through
the humus layer has leached nutrients out of the
alluvium. To negotiate this tree’s are buttressed out
instead of digging deep for stability.
 54 Copy in bullet points and 11.16
 Activities 1, 2, 4, 5, 6.
Also do Question 11 page 47!!!