South America and South Atlantic Islands

Brazil
Last reviewed: 7 January 2009

Country information

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GEOGRAPHY

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world. It is framed by 2 of the world's largest river systems: the Amazon in the North, and the Paraná river in the South. The Amazon basin covers some 60% of Brazil's surface, and holds 20% of the world's fresh water supply. It has the world's largest rain forest but also includes savannah and wetlands. Like the Amazon, the Paraná flows through several neighbouring countries. It drains the world's largest swampland, the Pantanal in West-Central Brazil. The Brazilian Highlands form the rest of the country, except for a coastal strip some 9,000km long. Brazil contains a number of climatic zones from the Amazon region where the temperature averages 27ºC, to the dry Northeast where temperatures can exceed 40ºC, to the south near Uruguay where average temperatures are 17-19ºC.