Landforms of South America

The Cordillera Oriental of Bolivia is part of the Andes Mountains system. It is the easternmost of Bolivia's two main ranges and separates the lowlands of the Amazon river basin to the east from the Altiplano to the west. The northern section of the range is known as the Cordillera Real.

The Cordillera Vilcanota is a mountain range in southeastern Peru that constitutes one of the southern branches of the Cordillera Occidental. Vinicunca, or "Rainbow Mountain," is a natural landmark. Ausangate, with significance in Incan mythology, is the tallest peak in the range.

Easter Island lies at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. It is most famous for its nearly 1,000 surviving monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapa Nui people. Rapa Nui National Park is a protected Chilean wildlife area located within Easter Island.

The Ecuadorian Andes are divided into parallel volcanic cordilleras that form the central Andean highlands region of Ecuador. This Sierra natural region contains ten major basins that contain roughly half of Ecuador’s population.

El Chaltén is a small mountain village in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina, near the border with Chile. It is a popular base for hiking numerous trails leading to the base of surrounding peaks and glacial lakes, including Cerro Torre, Fitz Roy and Lago del Desierto.

The Essequibo River is the longest and widest river in Guyana. The river flows north through forest and savanna, including one of the largest continuous tracts of relatively pristine lowland tropical rain forest in the world, before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean.

Guanabara Bay is a picturesque bay of the Atlantic Ocean, located in southeast Brazil, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lies the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Duque de Caxias and on its eastern shore the cities of Niterói and São Gonçalo. More than 130 islands dot the bay.

The Guiana Shield is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a 1.7 billion-year-old Precambrian geological formation in northeast South America that forms a portion of the northern coast. The higher elevations are known as the Guiana Highlands.

The Gulf of Darién is the southernmost extension of the Caribbean Sea. The Pan-American Highway is a network of roads, stretching from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to the lower reaches of South America. It is interrupted between Panama and Colombia by the Darién Gap.