Landscape of Brazil

Fragile Amazon Rain ForestThe Brazilian government has built roads into the Amazon rain forest, opening it to development for mining and agriculture.. The runoff collects into many strea

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Fragile Amazon Rain Forest

The Brazilian government has built roads into the Amazon rain forest, opening it to development for mining and agriculture But most forest topsoil is thin and infertile, and newly planted crops deplete soil nutrients within a few years Mining operations have contaminated soils with the mercury that is used to extract gold

Loren McIntyre/Woodfin Camp and Associates, Inc

Brazil's Wet Guiana Highlands

The northwest-facing slopes of northern Brazil's Guiana Highlands capture clouds that release heavy downpours The runoff collects into many streams that join tributaries of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers The region is sparsely populated and undeveloped

Dan Guravich/Photo Researchers, Inc

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Forests of the Amazon Basin

More than half of Brazil lies in the heavily forested Amazon Basin The tropical rain forest of the Amazon Basin is among the world's most varied ecosystems, containing more than 2 million plant and animal species In the space of 2.6 square kilometers (1 square mile), biologists have identified more than 3,000 tree types, among them Brazil nut, mahogany, purple heart, and rosewood The great commercial value of these trees has drawn loggers to the Amazon Basin, raising concerns about deforestation

Ulrike Welsch/Photo Researchers, Inc

Waterfall in the Brazilian Highlands

The principal rivers of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, drain into the Lagoa dos Patos near Porto Alegre

In the highlands of the northeast corner of the state, the thick mountain forests are punctuated by dramatic cascades such

as this one, near Canela

Francois Gohier/Photo Researchers, Inc

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Rondônia, Brazil

These Landsat images show a portion of the state of Rondônia, Brazil, in which forest cutting has taken place during an 11-year time span-from 19 June 1975 (left) to 1 August 1986 (right) Systematic cutting of the forest vegetation starts along roads and then fans out to create the "feather" pattern shown in the right half of the 1 August 1986 image The cutover land and urban areas appear in light green and blue, whereas healthy vegetation is shown as red

Planaltos of Brazil

Stretched out in the interior of northeast Brazil are eroded mountains that have formed high planaltos, or plains Rising from these planaltos are isolated mountains, which are composed of rock that is more resistant to erosive forces such as wind and precipitation

Tyba/Claus Meyer/Latin Focus

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Fernando de Noronha Islands

Isolated 400 kilometers (250 miles) off Brazil's coast, the federal territory of Fernando de Noronha consists of an island group that was once a penal colony for Portugal and, later, Brazil A volcano created the largest island, also called Ilha Fernando de Noronha The territory's economy is based on guano and salt

Peter Feibert/CONTEXTO

Rio de Janeiro Carnival

Brazil’s annual Carnival festival attracts visitors from all over the world to Rio de Janeiro The famous celebration, held before the start of Lent, includes dance (notably samba competitions), song, and music Spectacular costumes provide a riot of color throughout the days of parties

Stephanie Maze/National Geographic Society

Tiêu đề	Landscape of Brazil
Tác giả	Loren McIntyre, Dan Guravich, Ulrike Welsch, Francois Gohier, U.S. Geological Survey, Tyba/Claus Meyer, Peter Feibert, Stephanie Maze
Trường học	Microsoft Encarta
Chuyên ngành	Geography
Thể loại	Essay
Năm xuất bản	2008
Thành phố	Redmond

Định dạng
Số trang	4
Dung lượng	1,72 MB