The Amazon Rainforest 2012

amazonrainforest2012

The Amazon Rainforest (in Portuguese, Floresta Amazônica or Amazônia; Spanish Selva Amazónica,
Amazonía or usually Amazonia), also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist
broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. This basin encompasses
seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), of which five and a half million square kilometers
(1.4 billion acres) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations.

The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with

13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname

and French Guiana. States or departments in four nations contain "Amazonas" in their names. The

Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and it comprises the largest and most

species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world. The rainforest likely formed during the Eocene era.

It appeared following a global reduction of tropical temperatures when the Atlantic Ocean had widened

sufficiently to provide a warm, moist climate to the Amazon basin.

amazonrainforest2012