The Andes mountain range is not only the most important in South America but also the longest of the world. It has about 8,850 km of long and runs parallel to the Pacific from the end south to the northern tipof the subcontinent in its western side. The highest peak of the Andes, and the highest outside of Asia, is Aconcagua (6,962 meters) on the border between Argentina and Chile.
Within the plateaus, the Altiplano of Peru and Bolivia stands out with an altitude of around 3,700 meters. Also, the inter-Andean valleys of Ecuador are between 2,500 and 3,500 meters. The Patagonia region of Argentina and Chile consists of steep, lower elevation plateaus and glaciers. Outside the Andes, the two main high altitude zones are in Brazil and Guyana. Located south of the Amazon River, the Brazilian Planalto is made up of low mountains and plateaus that rise to an average altitude of 1,006 m. The Guiana massif extends between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. With its dense arboreal vegetation, this plateau occupies southern Venezuela, French Guiana, Guyana, northern Brazil andpart of southeastern Colombia.

The Amazon River Basin: It is almost 7 million km2 in area, making it the largest river basin in the world. The Amazon is the life force for the impressive Amazon rainforest biome. This tropical biome has:

Orinoco river basin: It has about 948.00 km2, and it flows north of the Amazon from the Guyana plateau of northern Brazil to flowits waters into the Atlantic Ocean in Venezuela. The main biome of this basin is a vast savanna known as the Llanos. This biome is the habitat for many species of birds like the umbrella bird, different species of fish like the piranhaand the electric eel.

Paraguay / Paraná river basin: It covers almost 2.8 million km2, representing most of southeastern Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and northern Argentina. On the Parana River are the Iguazu Falls, a series of immense waterfalls 2.7 km wide.Together with the Uruguay river, the Paraná river flows into the Rio de la Plata estuary between Argentina and Uruguay. The Rio de la Plata is the most populated city between the two countries. This basin provides water to the biome of the plains known as the Pampas. They are the most important grazingand cultivation areas of the subcontinent.

• more than 100 species of trees per square kilometer.
  
  • Incredible animal life such as: insects, primates, frogs, thousands of species of birds and fish.

A coastal plain is an area of low, flat land near the coast. In South America, coastal plains are found on the northeastern coast of Brazil, on the Atlantic Ocean, on the Ecuadorian coast, and on the western Pacific coast of Peru and Chile. The coastal plains of northeastern Brazil are extremely dry. The Brazilian Planalto acts as a wedge that moves moisture from the sea winds away from the coastal plains. In the western coastal plains there are humid plains like those of Ecuador and dry plains like those of Peru and Chile so there is very little vegetation.Theseare trapped between the cold Humboldt Current to the west and the Andes Mountains to the east. This cold surface water causes a thermal inversion: cold air at sea level and warmer and stable air above it. The thermal inversion produces a thick layer of fogat low altitudes; these clouds descend over much of the Pacific coast in Peru and Chile and do not allow precipitation to form.The Atacama Desert, Chile is considered the driest region in the world. The average rainfall is about one millimeter per year and some parts of it have never received a drop of water in recorded history.Although the Atacama Desert lacks flora and fauna, it is a rich deposit of copper, a key resource of the Chilean economy.