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Aug 18, 2020 · The Amazon Rainforest, teeming with life and biodiversity, home to millions of species of plants, animals, and insects, was made possible by volcanoes, colliding tectonic plates, the uplift of the Andes, and Ice Ages. The Amazon, then, is hundreds of millions of years in the making.
The Amazon rainforest, [ a ] also called Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 km 2 (2,700,000 sq mi), [ 2 ] of which 6,000,000 km 2 (2,300,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest. [ 3 ]
Sep 14, 2024 · Amazon Rainforest, large tropical rainforest occupying the Amazon basin in northern South America and covering an area of 2,300,000 square miles (6,000,000 square km). It is the world’s richest and most-varied biological reservoir, containing several million species.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
History of the Amazon Rainforest. Many millions of years ago, in the Paleozoic era, all the land was part of a unique continent, the Pangaea. Salt water washed the Amazon region and possibly reached Peru and Bolivia .
It is believed that the formation of the Amazon occurred after the breakup of the massive supercontinent, when South America split from Africa and the tectonic plates on which it rested began moving west toward the Pacific Ocean.
The Amazon Basin supports the world’s largest rainforest, which accounts for more than half the total volume of rainforests in the world. Occupying much of Brazil and Peru, and also parts of Guyana, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Suriname, French Guiana, and Venezuela, the Amazon River Basin is the world’s largest drainage system.
In the 20th century, Brazil’s population grew rapidly. People began settling major areas of the Amazon Rainforest. They used slash-and-burn techniques to create grazing pastures and farmland. The size of the Amazon Rainforest shrank dramatically (see deforestation). The destruction of large sections of the rainforest generated worldwide concern.
