Geography of Peru
This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2008) |
Bayóvar Depression, −34 metres (−112 ft) | |
Largest lake | Lake Titicaca |
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Exclusive economic zone | 906,454 km2 (349,984 sq mi) |
Peru is a country on the central western coast of South America facing the Pacific Ocean. It lies wholly in the Southern Hemisphere, its northernmost extreme reaching to 1.8 minutes of latitude or about 3.3 kilometres (2.1 mi) south of the equator. Peru shares land borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, and Chile, with its longest land border shared with Brazil.
Statistics
Peru has a total land area of 1,285,220 km2 [1] and a total water area of 5,000 km2. In terms of maritime area, the country claims a continental shelf of 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi), a territorial sea of 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) and an Exclusive economic zone of 857,000 km2 (331,000 sq mi).[2]
Only 3% of Peru's land is arable, with 0.5% being suitable for permanent crops. Permanent pastureland accounts for 21% of Peru's land use, and forests and woodland accounting for 66% of the landscape. Approximately 9.5% (1993 est.) of Peruvian land is attributed to population centers, coastal regions, and other space.
Natural hazards that Peru experiences include earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding, landslides, and mild volcanic activity. The geographic positioning of Peru adjacent to the adjoining Nazca and South American tectonic plates - converging in the Atacama trench off the Pacific coast - serves as the catalyst to many of Peru's natural hazards.
Peru's environmental issues include deforestation (some the result of illegal logging); overgrazing of the slopes of the coast and sierra leading to soil erosion; desertification; air pollution in Lima; pollution of rivers and coastal waters from municipal and mining wastes.
Peru is a party to the following international environmental agreements:
Peru shares control of Lake Titicaca, world's highest navigable lake, with Bolivia.[3]
Urbanization
The most populated city in the country is Lima, the capital of Peru. Lima's metropolitan area has a population of over 10 million. The country's second and third largest cities, Callao and Arequipa, have around 1.3 and 1.2 million people, respectively. Peru's developed urban cities are found in coastal regions and to the north. There are 32.1 million people who live in Peru.[4] The percentage of urbanization in Peru is 79.2%, and holds a yearly increase of 1.57%.[5] Lima forms part of the largest cities in the Americas, and holds 31.7% of the country's population.[6] The dense concentration of the population size of Peru is 25 people/km2 or 57/mi2.[7] Lima is a pull factor that draws millions of Peruvians from the suburbs to the capital. This urban inland migration is the result of sprawling around Lima. These sprawling places are known as “Pueblos Jóvenes”. The young towns and Lima make up the metropolitan area that extend 200 km (125 mi).[8]
The urban growth brings issues to the metropolitan area and the environment. Lima is the most polluted city in Latin America.[9] The overcrowding and growth of urbanization has caused Peruvians to use its green spaces for garbage disposal. This leads to the pollution of the river Rimac that supplies water to the metropolitan area.[10][11]
The rise of urbanization forgets the historic sites, ruins or “huacas”, which are being replaced for buildings, roads, etc. Lima is home of 400 sites of 46,000 in the country, the country itself only preserves 1%.[12]
Approximately 1.3 million Venezuelans have emigrated to Peru in search of residency.[13] This international migration is caused by various social, environmental and economic crises in their home country. This push factor migration has brought to Peru sustenance problems like instability and food shortage.[14]
Climate
The combination of tropical latitude, mountain ranges, topography variations and two ocean currents (Humboldt and El Niño) gives Peru a large diversity of climates. Peru has a tropical climate with a wet and dry season.[15]
Amazon Basin or Low Amazon
The eastern portions of Peru include the
Almost 60% of the country's area is located within this region,
Andean mountain ranges
The Andes shelter the very largest variety of climates in the country. The climate is semi-arid in the valleys and moist in higher elevations and towards the eastern flanks. Rainfall varies from 200 to 1,500 mm (7.9 to 59.1 in) per year. The monsoonal period starts in October and ends in April. The rainiest months are January through March where travel can be sometimes affected.
The western slopes are arid to semi-arid and receive rainfall only between January and March. Below the 2,500 m (8,202 ft) mark, the temperatures vary between 5 and 15 °C (41 and 59 °F) in the night versus 18 to 25 °C (64.4 to 77.0 °F) in the day.
Between 2,500 and 3,500 meters (8,202 and 11,483 ft), the temperatures vary from 0 to 12 °C (32.0 to 53.6 °F) in the night and from 15 to 25 °C (59 to 77 °F) during the day. At higher elevations from 3,500 to 4,500 meters (11,483 to 14,764 ft), the Puna ecoregion, the temperature varies from −10 to 8 °C (14.0 to 46.4 °F) during the night versus 15 °C (59 °F) during the day.
The northernmost regions of the Andes around Cajamarca and Piura regions have Páramo climates.
Coast
The Peruvian coast is a microclimatic region. The region is affected by the cold
mountain range.The central and southern coast consists mainly of a subtropical desert climate composed of sandy or rocky shores and inland cutting valleys. Days alternate between overcast skies with occasional fog in the winter and sunny skies with occasional haze in the summer, with the only precipitation being an occasional light-to-moderate drizzle that is known locally as garúa. These regions are usually characterized by mildly cold lows (14 °C or 57.2 °F) and also mild highs (29 °C or 84 °F). Temperatures rarely fall below 12 °C (53.6 °F) and do not go over 29 °C (84 °F). An exception is the southern coast, where it does get a bit warmer and drier for most of the year during daytime, and where it can also get much colder during winter nights (8 to 9 °C or 46.4 to 48.2 °F).
The northern coast, on the contrary, has a curious tropical-dry climate, generally referred to as
Central and southern coast
The central and southern coast have a
Moreover, the Andes mountains are very close to the coast, a geographic factor that prevents
Rainfall averages 5 mm (0.2 in) per year near the Chilean border to 200 mm (7.9 in) per year on the northern coast and nearer the Andes.
The central coast is composed of regions including
Most summers (February–April) have pleasant temperatures ranging from 19 to 21 °C (66 to 70 °F) during the night to about 28 to 29 °C (82 to 84 °F) during the daytime. Winters (August–October) are very humid, and range from 12 to 15 °C (54 to 59 °F) during the nights to around the 17 to 18 °C (63 to 64 °F) during the day. The spring (November–January) and autumn (May–July) months have a pleasant climate that ranges from 23 °C (73 °F) during the day to around 17 °C (63 °F) during the night. Moving inland into the Yunga valleys, the climate tends to be ~3 °C (5.4 °F) drier and warmer during any given month.
The southern coast, composed of the
Northern coast
The northern coast consists of the eastern region of
This climatic change is caused by the presence of the warm
Summer (December through March) is more humid and very hot, with average temperatures that vary from 25 °C (77 °F) during the night to around 34 °C (93.2 °F) during the day, although north of Lambayeque it can reach the 40 °C (104 °F). Winters (June–September) are cooler during the nights; around 16 °C (60.8 °F) during the night, to around 27 °C (80.6 °F) during the daytime.
There are protected areas in Tumbes and Piura such as the Coto de Caza El Angolo and the Cerros de Amotape National Park, with tropical dry forests that extend to the south of Ecuador. The eastern areas of Lambayeque also have tropical dry forests, where the Chaparrí Private Conservation Area is located in Chongoyape. These forests have the particularity of connecting with the Amazon basin through the Marañón pass (an area where there are also tropical dry forests).
Mangrove forests are located in four specific areas from Sechura to Tumbes. In these regions, the mangrove forests are at the ending strips of the Piura River in the Sechura Province (the southernmost mangroves in the Pacific Ocean). To the north, the ending strips of the Chira River, Tumbes River, and Zarumilla River also have mangrove forests that flow into the ocean.
Terrain: western coastal plain (costa), high and rugged Andes in center (sierra), eastern lowland jungle of Amazon Basin (selva).
Natural resources:
.Extreme points
This is a list of the extreme points of Peru, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.
- Northernmost point: Loreto Region
- Southernmost point: Tacna Region
- Westernmost point: either Piura Region
- Easternmost point: Mouth of the Madre de Dios Region
Agriculture
Peru's agricultural lands make up 18.5% of Peru's total surface area, a substantially lower percentage compared to its neighbors who average at around 22% agricultural land.[20][21] Common crops include, but are not limited to root vegetables like potatoes and cassava; peppers including chilies and paprika; vegetables like asparagus, tomatoes; quinoa; kiwicha; and fruits like mangoes, passion fruit, citrus, and bananas.[22] Levels of undernourished citizens and children who suffer from undernourishment has dramatically decreased from just under six million to just over two million between 2000 and 2017, while food availability has increased from an energy percentage of 105 to 117 between 2000 and 2017.[23]
Environmental degradation
As food production in Peru increases, farmers saturate the soil with nutrients with nitrogen and phosphorus bases. Oversaturation of nutrients leads to eutrophication in nearby water bodies, resulting in dead zones. Carbon emissions due to manufacturing and food processing leads to reduced air quality which contributes to the global warming that increases severity of natural disasters and acidifies the ocean, leading to mass bleaching in coral reefs, which in turn tends to destroy oceanic ecosystems.[23][24][25]
References
- ^ "Peru PE: Surface Area | Economic Indicators | CEIC". www.ceicdata.com. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
- ISSN 1198-6727. Retrieved 2023-12-27 – via The University of British Columbia.
- ISBN 978-1-78536-808-0.
- ^ "Population Pyramids of the World from 1950 to 2100". PopulationPyramid.net. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
- ^ "Peru Urbanization - Demographics". www.indexmundi.com. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
- ^ "Major Cities in Peru: The Largest and the Most Popular | New Peruvian". New Peruvian. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 2018-11-02.
- ^ "Peru Population 2018 (Demographics, Maps, Graphs)". worldpopulationreview.com. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
- ^ "Growing Pains: Urbanization and Governance in Peru". www.worldpoliticsreview.com. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
- ^ "World Health Organization Says Lima has Worst Air Pollution in LatAm". Retrieved 2018-11-20.
- ^ "Water Contamination and its Impact on Vegetable Production in the Rimac River, Peru".
- ISBN 9781351882897. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
- ^ "Ruins at risk: Peru's urban growth threatens to erase pre-colonial sites". Durango Herald. Retrieved 2018-11-08.
- ^ Gaier, Rodrigo Viga. "Bolsonaro's economic guru urges quick Brazil pension reform". U.S. Retrieved 2018-11-08.
- ^ "Venezuelans dash to cross Peru border". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-11-08.
- ^ "Perú Travel". www.peru.travel (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2021-02-24.
- ^ "Horizontal en Blanco | Earth & Life Sciences | Earth Sciences". Scribd. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
- ^ Instituto de Estudios Histórico-Marítimos del Perú; Rosa Graciela Ponce de León Bardalez (1994). El Perú y sus recursos: Atlas geográfico y económico. Lima: Auge. p. 16.
- ^ Painter, James (7 December 2008). "Peru aims for zero deforestation". BBC News.
- ISBN 9780500050637.
- ^ "Chile". www.fao.org. Food and Agriculture Organization. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
- ^ "Ecuador". www.fao.org. Food and Agriculture Organization. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
- ^ "About Peru:Agriculture". www.peruinformation.org. CERMAL-EDITIONS. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
- ^ a b "Peru". fao.org. Food and Agriculture Organization. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
- ^ "What is Eutrophication". oceanservice.noaa.gov. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
- ^ "What is Acidification". oceanservice.noaa.gov. National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
External links
- Ancient Inca History from Information about Ancient Inca History
- Instituto Geografico Nacional National Institute of Geography, Peru
- IGN National Geographic Institute of Peru