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Brazil
Area: 3,286,469 sq mi (8,511,965 sq km)
Location: Southern, Northern, and Western Hemispheres, in eastern South
America; bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the east; French Guiana,
Suriname, Guyana, and Venezuela in the north; Colombia in the
northwest; Peru in the west; Bolivia, Argentina, and Paraguay in the
southwest; Uruguay in the south
Coordinates: 10°00′S, 55°00′W
Borders: 9,108 mi (14,691 km) total / Argentina, 759 mi (1,224 km);
Bolivia, 2,108 mi (3,400 km); Colombia, 1,019 mi (1,643 km); French
Guiana, 417 mi (673 km); Guyana, 694 mi (1,119 km); Paraguay, 800 mi
(1,290 km); Peru, 967 mi (1,560 km); Suriname, 307 mi (597 km);
Uruguay, 611 mi (985 km); Venezuela, 1,364 mi (2,200 km)
Coastline: 4,644 mi (7,491 km)
Territorial Seas: 12 NM
Highest Point: Neblina Peak, 9,888 ft (3,014 m)
Lowest Point: Sea level
Longest Distances: 2,689 mi (4,328 km) N-S / 2,684 mi (4,320 km) E-W
Longest River: Amazon, 3,900 mi (6,280 km; approximation)
Largest Lake: Lagoa dos Patos, 3,920 sq mi (10,153 sq km)
Natural Hazards: frequent river flooding; recurring droughts in
northeast; floods and occasional frost in south; vulnerability to
severe erosion
Population: 176,274,000 (2002 est.) / World Rank: 5
Capital City: Brasília, south-central Brazil
Largest City: São Paulo, located on southeastern coast along
the Atlantic Ocean, 10,057,700 (est.)
Brazil map
Brazil is a huge country, which constitutes about half the landmass of
South America, is the home of half of its population, and all the ends,
but two of its countries. Its territory is greater than that of the 48
contiguous states of the United States.
The Amazon River, the second longest in the world and the largest in
the world the flow of water, cut laterally through the north side of
the country, and countless tributary waste streams a big flat to
rolling plain basin includes three-fifths of the country. The entire
basin, including fringes in neighboring countries, supports a tropical
forest that provides the natural replacement for 15 percent or more of
oxygen in the world.
Although there are no mountains higher than high-elevations less than
10,000 feet (3,048 m), the majority of the territory outside the Amazon
basin is constituted by a large block plateau, part of the South
American tectonic Plate. The highlands fall precipitously to a close
Atlantic coastal plain. Brazil entire coastline measures 4495 miles
(7491 km), and its continental shelf extends about 200 nm in the
Atlantic. With fewer high altitude than any other country in South
America except Uruguay and Paraguay, no more than a fifth of Brazil
land is beyond the limits of agricultural utility. There are, however,
many systems of low mountains, rolling hills and deep valleys. Drainage
is generally good, but much of the landscape is very vulnerable to
erosion.
The Amazon is located high in the Peruvian Andes and flows for a
considerable distance before entering Brazil north-west of their
border. From here to receives its tributary, the black, the Brazilians
refer to Solimões River. During its 2,000 km (3,218 miles)
over to the east in the north of Brazil, the price drops to about 215
ft (65 m) in height. And 'navigable by seagoing vessels as Iquitos in
Peru. Manaus, in the middle Brazil is a major seaport. Smaller craft
can reach Porto Velho, near the Bolivian border, the tributary Madeira
River. During the greater part of its course the river is slow fluent,
but in Monte Alegre about 400 miles (643 km) out of his mouth is forced
from the hills to a width of about a mile, and the flow reaches the six
miles per hour.
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