Natural wonders of South America

13 to explore

• Watch Natural wonder Aconcagua Aconcagua, in the Andes of Argentina near the border with Chile, is the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere. Its height has been measured several ways: a 2012 expedition backed by Argentina's National Geographic Institute found 6,960.8 meters. Aconcagua formed from an old volcano, but it is not an active volcano today, and climbers first reached its top in 1897.
• Watch Natural wonder Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest covers about 6 million square kilometers around the Amazon River and its branches in northern South America, and about 60 percent of it is in Brazil. Britannica calls it the world's richest and most varied home for living things, with millions of kinds of insects, plants and animals.
• Watch Natural wonder Amazon River The Amazon River flows from tiny streams in the Andes Mountains of Peru across Colombia and Brazil to the Atlantic Ocean. NASA calls it the largest river in the world: about 219,000 cubic meters of water pour into the ocean every second, nearly a fifth of all the water that rivers carry to the oceans.
• Watch Natural wonder Andes The Andes run down the whole western side of South America, from the Caribbean coast to the continent's southern tip, through seven countries. Britannica measures them at about 8,900 kilometers, and their highest peak, Aconcagua, rises to 6,959 meters. They are still growing as one plate of Earth's crust slides under another, which is why the Andes have so many volcanoes and earthquakes.
• Watch Natural wonder Angel Falls Angel Falls is a waterfall in Canaima National Park in Venezuela. It pours off the cliff of Auyán-tepui, a giant table-shaped mountain, and falls about 979 meters. UNESCO calls it the world's highest waterfall.
• Watch Natural wonder Atacama Desert The Atacama is a cool desert in northern Chile, squeezed between the Pacific coast and the Andes mountains, about 1,000 to 1,100 kilometers long. It is one of the driest places on Earth: the city of Arica, on its coast, averages less than 1 millimeter of rain a year. Its dry, clear air makes it a top place for giant telescopes.
• Watch Natural wonder Easter Island Easter Island, called Rapa Nui by its first people, is a small volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean, about 3,540 kilometers west of Chile. Polynesian settlers who arrived long ago carved more than 600 giant stone statues, called moai, from the rock of a volcano and set many of them on stone platforms. Today the island's national park is a World Heritage Site cared for by the Rapa Nui people.
• Watch Natural wonder Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands are a group of volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 kilometers off the coast of Ecuador. Many of their animals live nowhere else on Earth, and they helped inspire Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.
• Watch Natural wonder Iguaçu Falls Iguaçu Falls, on the Iguaçu River where Brazil and Argentina meet, is a system of many waterfalls and rapids almost three kilometers wide, with drops of up to about 80 meters. Clouds of spray keep the rainforest around it green and wet.
• Watch Natural wonder Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca lies 3,810 meters above sea level in the Andes of South America, on the border between Peru and Bolivia. Britannica calls it the world's highest lake that large ships can sail on. Some people still live on floating islands made of totora reeds, and a big, wrinkly frog lives in its water and nowhere else.
• Watch Natural wonder Mount Roraima Mount Roraima is a huge flat-topped mountain called a tepui, in the Guiana Highlands of South America, where Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana meet. Its summit stands about 2,772 meters high, ringed by sheer sandstone cliffs. Tepuis like it are some of the world's oldest rock formations, and they are home to unusual plants such as marsh pitcher plants.
• Watch Natural wonder Pantanal The Pantanal is one of the world's largest freshwater wetlands, mostly in Brazil and reaching into Bolivia and Paraguay. Each rainy season its rivers overflow and flood the lowlands, making shallow lakes and marshes; in the dry season the water slowly drains away. This rhythm feeds an amazing number of animals, from jaguars and giant otters to about 600 kinds of birds.
• Watch Natural wonder Salar de Uyuni Salar de Uyuni is a giant salt flat high in the Andes of Bolivia. It covers 10,582 square kilometers and was left behind when ancient lakes dried up. NASA calls it the largest salt flat in the world.