Overview
Document Actions
The Federative Republic of Brazil has continental dimensions. It extends over 8 547 400 km2, 40 degrees of longitude, from the extreme east of the state of Paraiba on the Atlantic, to the extreme west of the state of Acre on the border with Peru, and 39 ° of latitude, from the northern tip of the territory of Roraima bordering Guyana and Venezuela, 5°15’N, to the southern tip of the state of Rio Grande do Sul on the Atlantic coast and bordering Uruguay.
The topography is, in most parts, gentle and 93 percent of the country is below 800 meters. The highest peaks -above 2 500 meters- are confined to two regions, the northern border with Venezuela in the territory of Roraima and the state of Amazonas and the states of Espirito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, in the south-east Atlantic coast.
Two geographic features dominate the landscape of Brazil: the vast Amazon Basin, which spans the width of northern Brazil, and an extensive highland plateau, known as the Brazilian Highlands, which covers most of the south and south-east. The Amazon Basin contains the world's largest river and the world's largest tropical rain forest. In the south and south-east, the Brazilian Highlands an eroded plateau dotted with irregular mountains and crossed by river valleys forms the major feature of the landscape. The highlands separate Brazil's inland regions from a narrow coastal plain that stretches from Ceará in the north-east to the Uruguayan border in the south.
The Amazon River and its tributaries is the largest in the world based on its flow, and the second longest in the world after the Nile. The Paraná River drains much of the southern part of the country and empties into the Río de la Plata estuary in Argentina. The principal river of the eastern plateau region is the São Francisco. Many smaller rivers drain the land sloping to the Atlantic seaboard.
The climate of Brazil is largely tropical or subtropical, with temperatures averaging from 26° C with little seasonal variation in the lower Amazon basin to 16° C in the southern region (less on the mountains of the south-eastern Atlantic coast). Annual rainfall varies from 3 000 mm or more in some parts of the northern region (the Colombian border and the delta of the Amazon river) to 1 600 mm in central Brazil to as little as 300 mm in some parts of the "drought polygon" in the north-eastern region (in particular the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas and Sergipe).
The above information has been obtained from FAOForestry whom we acknowledge with gratitude.
Information system/service: original URL.
Please take time to visit the above sites.