Brazil: Physical Geography

Brazil is the largest country in South America and the fifth largest in the world, occupying nearly half of the continent's land area at roughly 8.5 million square kilometers. Rather than towering peaks, its relief consists mainly of lowlands and broad, flat-topped highlands, divided chiefly between the Amazon lowland in the north and the Brazilian Highlands, often called the Planalto Central, which stretch across the center and south of the country and make up more than half of its landmass.

The Amazon lowland is drained by the Amazon River, among the longest rivers in the world at nearly 6,900 kilometers, whose basin covers close to half of Brazil's territory. The Brazilian Highlands rise to an average elevation near 1,000 meters, with individual ranges generally remaining under 2,000 meters. Serra do Mar runs along the Atlantic coast, while Serra do Espinhaco covers the largest area of any range in the highlands. Brazil's highest point, Pico da Neblina, rises to about 2,995 meters near the border with Venezuela, far from the main highland belt.

Brazil's Atlantic coastline extends roughly 7,400 kilometers, bordered by a coastal plain that widens to about 200 kilometers in the north, narrows through the northeast and southeast, and broadens again farther south. Beyond the Amazon, major rivers include the Sao Francisco, which flows about 1,600 kilometers to the northeast, and the Parana system, which drains toward the Rio de la Plata in the south. The country's terrain supports a range of distinct biomes, including the Amazon rainforest, the wetlands of the Pantanal, the Cerrado savanna, the dry Caatinga scrubland, the Atlantic Forest, and the Pampa grasslands in the far south.