BR: D8 Mexico Cuba Haiti Dominican Republic Puerto Rico (U.S.) Belize Try to fill out the following map of Latin America as best as you can! Use a pencil, so that you can correct it if wrong ;) Key: Honduras Guatemala Jamaica Nicaragua French Guiana (Fr.) El Salvador Venezuela Costa Rica Suriname Panama Guyana Colombia Ecuador Peru Brazil Brazil Guyana Guatemala Argentina Suriname Honduras Chile French Guiana (France) Belize Uruguay El Salvador Puerto Rico (US) Paraguay Nicaragua Bolivia Dominican Republic Costa Rica Peru Panama Haiti Ecuador Jamaica Colombia Cuba Venezuela Mexico Bolivia Chile Paraguay Argentina Uruguay

World Geography Next Up: Ch. 7.1, Part I: Physical Features of Latin America Today we start learning a bit more about Latin America! We started your PBL Part III / Country Brochures last time.

Landforms Latin America is usually divided up into three subregions by geographers. These are Middle America / Meso-America, The Caribbean, and South America. 1st: Middle America is made up of Central America; from the isthmus of Panama all the way up to Mexico. The area is where 4 different tectonic plates meet, so there is a lot of volcanoes and earthquakes that occur here. VID Mexico has many mountain ranges, with major ones on the East and Western coasts, and a high plateau in the middle. It also has thick forests, rugged mountains and coastal marshes that make transportation & communication in the area difficult. VID

The Caribbean The islands of the Caribbean, aka the West Indies, are divided into three main groups: the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Bahamas. Both the Bahamas and the Lesser Antilles are what are called archipelagos, which is a group of islands. Besides the largest islands, like Cuba and Hispaniola, the rest of the islands are pretty small, and many have volcanoes, which provide fertile soil, but are also a dangerous friend.

South America South America is dominated by two major landforms: the Andes Mountains, & the Amazon River Basin. The Andes are the world’s longest mountain system, are cordilleras that stretch from Colombia all the way to the southern tip of South America & Chile for +5000 miles, and reach over 20,000 ft in height! VID East of the Andes is the massive Amazon River Basin, covering nearly 3 million square miles, with highlands to the North and South. Lowland plains are found just to the north and south of the Amazon: the Llanos to the North, and the Pampas to the south.

Classwork: Finish your Latin America Physical Map Assignment. Then, continue working on your PBL Part III Brochure Assignment!