Andes

   Spreading across countries Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. In length wise, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated by intermediate depressions. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about 7,000 km long, about 200 km to 700 km wide and of an average height of about 4,000 m. Its highest peak, Mt. Aconcagua, rises to an elevation of about 6,962 m above sea level. The peak of Mt. Chimborazo in the Ecuadorean Andes is farther from the centre of the Earth than any other location on the Earth's surface. This is because of the equatorial bulge that results from the Earth's rotation. The world's highest volcanoes are in the Andes, including Ojos del Salado on the Chile-Argentina frontier which rises to 6,893 m  and over 50 other volcanoes that rise above 6,000 m.

The Andes can be divided into three sections as the Southern Andes in Argentina and Chile, the Central Andes including the Chilean and Peruvian cordilleras and parts of Bolivia and the Northern Andes in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador that consists of two parallel ranges, the Cordillera Occidental and the Cordillera Oriental. In Colombia, north of its the border with Ecuador, the Andes split in three parallel ranges, the western, central, and eastern ranges. The eastern range of Colombia is the only one that extends to Venezuela. In the northern part of the Andes, the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range is often considered to be part of the Andes.

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Galápagos Islands

    They are an archipelago of volcanic islands scattered around the equator in the Pacific Ocean. Part of continental Ecuador lying 972 km (525 nmi) west of it, Galapagos Islands are geologically young and home for various number of endemic species.  Observations on these species lead to the rise of theories like the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. The exact location is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 973 km (525 nmi; 605 mi) off the west coast of South America. The closest is the mainland of Ecuador to the east, to the north is Cocos Island at 720 km (389 nmi; 447 mi) and to the south is Easter Island and San Felix Island at 3,200 km (1,730 nmi; 1,990 mi).

The Galápagos Archipelago consists of 7,880 km2 (3,040 sq mi) of land spread over 45,000 km2 (17,000 sq mi) of ocean. The largest of the islands, Isabela, measures 4,640 km2 (1,790 sq mi) and makes up half of the total land area of the Galápagos. Volcán Wolf on Isabela is the highest point, with an elevation of 1,707 m (5,600 ft) above sea level. The island chain consists of 15 main islands, 3 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The archipelago is located on the Nazca tectonic plate, which is moving east/southeast, diving under the South American Plate at a rate of about 2.5 inches per year. It is also atop the Galapagos hotspot, a place where the Earth's crust is being melted from below by a mantle plume, creating volcanoes. The oldest island is thought to have formed between 5 million and 10 million years ago. The youngest islands, Isabela and Fernandina, are still being formed, with the most recent volcanic eruption in April 2009, where lava from the volcanic island Fernandina started flowing both towards the island's shoreline and into the centre caldera.

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Amazon Rainforest

Spreading far and wide over the soils of Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana and Suriname, sheltering an area of 5,500,000 km² (2,123,562 sq mi) is the world’s largest tropical rain forest with many species of wildlife and some of them are undiscovered up to date. It was even listed to be voted in the new seven wonder of Nature in 2009. Not only as a rainforest untouched but because of its variation in flora and fauna plus the climate and its vastness, it beholds a very important place among most beautiful places found on Earth. Not to forget though this is a living laboratory, a rich reserve of Carbon and a store house of Oxygen and it’s our top priority to protect it.

It is believed that the name Amazon is said to arise from a war Francisco de Orellana fought with a tribe of Tapuyas and other tribes from South America. The women of the tribe fought alongside the men, as was the custom among the entire tribe. Orellana derived the name Amazonas from the ancient Amazons of Asia and Africa described by Herodotus and Diodorus in Greek legends.

Rainforest must have been formed during the Eocene. It must have formed following a global reduction of tropical temperatures when Atlantic Ocean expanded sufficiently to provide warm and moist climate to the Amazon basin. Since its formation it must have been existed the way it is for about 55 million years mostly free of Savannah type biomes. When the climate became drier the Savannah spread widely.

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