1.
Argentina
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Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a federal republic in the southern half of South America. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2, Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America, and the largest Spanish-speaking one. The country is subdivided into provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system, Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The earliest recorded presence in the area of modern-day Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The country has its roots in Spanish colonization of the region during the 16th century, Argentina rose as the successor state of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish overseas viceroyalty founded in 1776. The country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with waves of European immigration radically reshaping its cultural. The almost-unparalleled increase in prosperity led to Argentina becoming the seventh wealthiest developed nation in the world by the early 20th century, Argentina retains its historic status as a middle power in international affairs, and is a prominent regional power in the Southern Cone and Latin America. Argentina has the second largest economy in South America, the third-largest in Latin America and is a member of the G-15 and it is the country with the second highest Human Development Index in Latin America with a rating of very high. Because of its stability, market size and growing high-tech sector, the description of the country by the word Argentina has to be found on a Venice map in 1536. In English the name Argentina probably comes from the Spanish language, however the naming itself is not Spanish, Argentina means in Italian of silver, silver coloured, probably borrowed from the Old French adjective argentine of silver > silver coloured already mentioned in the 12th century. The French word argentine is the form of argentin and derives of argent silver with the suffix -in. The Italian naming Argentina for the country implies Argentina Terra land of silver or Argentina costa coast of silver, in Italian, the adjective or the proper noun is often used in an autonomous way as a substantive and replaces it and it is said lArgentina. The name Argentina was probably first given by the Venitian and Genoese navigators, in Spanish and Portuguese, the words for silver are respectively plata and prata and of silver is said plateado and prateado. Argentina was first associated with the silver mountains legend, widespread among the first European explorers of the La Plata Basin. The first written use of the name in Spanish can be traced to La Argentina, a 1602 poem by Martín del Barco Centenera describing the region, the 1826 constitution included the first use of the name Argentine Republic in legal documents. The name Argentine Confederation was also used and was formalized in the Argentine Constitution of 1853. In 1860 a presidential decree settled the name as Argentine Republic
2.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
3.
Paraguay
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Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the country from north to south. Due to its location in South America, it is sometimes referred to as Corazón de Sudamérica. Paraguay is one of the two landlocked countries that lie outside Afro-Eurasia, Paraguay is the smallest landlocked country in the Americas. The indigenous Guaraní had been living in Paraguay for at least a millennium before the Spanish conquered the territory in the 16th century, Spanish settlers and Jesuit missions introduced Christianity and Spanish culture to the region. Paraguay was a colony of the Spanish Empire, with few urban centers and settlers. Following independence from Spain in 1811, Paraguay was ruled by a series of dictators who generally implemented isolationist and protectionist policies and he was toppled in an internal military coup, and free multi-party elections were organized and held for the first time in 1993. A year later, Paraguay joined Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay to found Mercosur, as of 2009, Paraguays population was estimated to be at around 6.5 million, most of whom are concentrated in the southeast region of the country. The capital and largest city is Asunción, of which the area is home to nearly a third of Paraguays population. In contrast to most Latin American nations, Paraguays indigenous language and culture, Guaraní, in each census, residents predominantly identify as mestizo, reflecting years of intermarriage among the different ethnic groups. Guaraní is recognized as an official language alongside Spanish, and both languages are spoken in the country. There is no consensus for the derivation or meaning of the name Paraguay, the most common interpretations include, Born from water Riverine of many varieties River which originates a sea Fray Antonio Ruiz de Montoya said that it meant river crowned. The Spanish officer and scientist Félix de Azara suggests two derivations, the Payaguas, referring to the tribe who lived along the river. The French-Argentine historian and writer Paul Groussac argued that it meant river that flows through the sea, Paraguayan poet and ex-president Juan Natalicio González said it meant river of the inhabitants of the sea. Indigenous peoples have inhabited this area for thousands of years, pre-Columbian society in the region which is now Paraguay consisted of semi-nomadic tribes that were known for their warrior traditions. These indigenous tribes belonged to five language families, which was the basis of their major divisions. Differing language groups were generally competitive over resources and territories and they were further divided into tribes by speaking languages in branches of these families. Today 17 separate ethnolinguistic groups remain, the first Europeans in the area were Spanish explorers in 1516. The Spanish explorer Juan de Salazar de Espinosa founded the settlement of Asunción on 15 August 1537, the city eventually became the center of a Spanish colonial province of Paraguay
4.
South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area
5.
Minas Gerais
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Minas Gerais is a state in the north of Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product, Minas Gerais is the state with the largest number of Brazilian presidents. With an area of 586,528 square kilometres —larger than Metropolitan France—it is the fourth most extensive state in Brazil. In the south, the tourist points are the mineral spas, such as Caxambu, Lambari, São Lourenço, Poços de Caldas, São Thomé das Letras, Monte Verde. The landscape of the State is marked by mountains, valleys, in the Serra do Cipó, Sete Lagoas, Cordisburgo and Lagoa Santa, the caves and waterfalls are the attractions. Some of Brazils most famous caverns are located there, in recent years, the state has emerged as one of the largest economic forces of Brazil, exploring its great economic potential. Two interpretations are given for the origin of the name Minas Gerais and it comes from Minas dos Matos Gerais, the former name of the colonial province. Another explanation is that this ignores the two large geographical spaces which conformed the state in its history, the region of the mines, and these corresponded to the areas of Sertão which were farther and hard to access from the mining spots. The confusion comes from the fact that the term Gerais is taken as an adjective to Minas in the first version, Minas Gerais is in the north of the southeastern subdivision of Brasil, which also contains the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo. It borders on Bahia, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and it also shares a short boundary with the Distrito Federal. Minas Gerais is situated between 14°1358 and 22°5400 S latitude and between 39°5132 and 51°0235 W longitude and it is larger in area than Metropolitan France or Spain. Minas Gerais features some of the longest rivers in Brazil, most notably the São Francisco, the Paraná and to a lesser extent, the state also holds many hydroelectric power plants, including Furnas. The most notable one is the Pico da Bandeira, the third highest mountain in Brazil at 2890 m, the state also has huge reserves of iron and sizeable reserves of gold and gemstones, including emerald, topaz and aquamarine mines. Emeralds found in location are comparable to the best Colombia-origin emeralds. Each region of the state has a character, geographically. The central and eastern area of the state is hilly and rocky, around Lagoa Santa and Sete Lagoas a typical Karst topography with caves and lakes is found. Some of the mountains are almost entirely iron ore, which led to extensive mining, recent advances in environmental policy helped to put limits to mining. Vale do Aços largest cities are Ipatinga, Coronel Fabriciano and Timóteo, now that mining is restricted large areas of forest are being removed for timber, charcoal and to clear land for cattle ranching
6.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
7.
Portuguese language
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Portuguese is a Romance language and the sole official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe. It also has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, and has kept some Celtic phonology. Portuguese is also termed the language of Camões, after Luís Vaz de Camões, one of the greatest literary figures in the Portuguese language and author of the Portuguese epic poem, the museum is the first of its kind in the world. In 2015 the museum was destroyed in a fire, but there are plans to reconstruct it, when the Romans arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in 216 BCE, they brought the Latin language with them, from which all Romance languages descend. Between 409 CE and 711 CE, as the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe, Portuguese evolved from the medieval language, known today by linguists as Galician-Portuguese, Old Portuguese or Old Galician, of the northwestern medieval Kingdom of Galicia. It is in Latin administrative documents of the 9th century that written Galician-Portuguese words and this phase is known as Proto-Portuguese, which lasted from the 9th century until the 12th-century independence of the County of Portugal from the Kingdom of León, by then reigning over Galicia. In the first part of the Galician-Portuguese period, the language was used for documents. For some time, it was the language of preference for poetry in Christian Hispania. Portugal became an independent kingdom in 1139, under King Afonso I of Portugal, in the second period of Old Portuguese, in the 15th and 16th centuries, with the Portuguese discoveries, the language was taken to many regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas. The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century, some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal. The end of the Old Portuguese period was marked by the publication of the Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de Resende, Most literate Portuguese speakers were also literate in Latin, and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing—and eventually speech—in Portuguese. Portuguese is the language of the majority of people in Brazil and Portugal, perhaps 75% of the population of Angola speaks Portuguese natively, and 85% are fluent. Just over 40% of the population of Mozambique are native speakers of Portuguese, Portuguese is also spoken natively by 30% of the population in Guinea-Bissau, and a Portuguese-based creole is understood by all. No data is available for Cape Verde, but almost all the population is bilingual, there are also significant Portuguese speaking immigrant communities in many countries including Andorra, Bermuda, Canada, France, Japan, Jersey, Namibia, Paraguay, Macau, Switzerland, Venezuela. In some parts of former Portuguese India, namely Goa and Daman and Diu, in 2014, an estimated 1,500 students were learning Portuguese in Goa. Equatorial Guinea made an application for full membership to the CPLP in June 2010. In 2011, Portuguese became its official language and, in July 2014. Portuguese is a subject in The school curriculum in Uruguay
8.
Guarani language
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Guarani, specifically the primary variety known as Paraguayan Guarani, is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tupi–Guarani family of the Tupian languages. It is one of the languages of Paraguay, where it is spoken by the majority of the population. Guarani is one of the most-widely spoken indigenous languages of the Americas, the name Guarani is generally used for the official language of Paraguay. However, this is part of a chain, most of whose components are also often called Guarani. The persistence of Guarani is, contrary to belief, not exclusively, or even primarily. While Guarani was the language spoken in the expansive missionary territories. Modern scholarship has shown that Guarani was always the language of colonial Paraguay. By and large, the Guarani of the Jesuits shied away from direct phonological loans from Spanish, instead, the missionaries relied on the agglutinative nature of the language to formulate calque terms from native morphemes. This process often led the Jesuits to employ complicated, highly synthetic terms to convey Western concepts, a good example of this phenomenon is found in the word communion. The Jesuits, using their strategy, rendered this word Tupârahaba. In modern Paraguayan Guarani, the word is rendered komuño. Following the out-migration from the reductions, these two dialects of Guarani came into extensive contact for the first time. The vast majority of speakers abandoned the less-practical, highly regulated Jesuit variant in favor of the more organic, the extreme form of hybridization is known as Jopará. Guarani became a written language relatively recently and its modern alphabet is basically a subset of the Latin script, complemented with two diacritics and six digraphs. Its orthography is phonemic, with letter values mostly similar to those of Spanish. The tilde is used with letters that are considered part of the alphabet. In the case of Ñ/ñ, it differentiates the palatal nasal from the nasal, whereas it marks stressed nasalisation when used over a vowel. The tilde also marks nasality in the case of G̃/g̃, used to represent the velar approximant by combining the velar approximant G with the nasalising tilde
9.
Amazon River
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The Amazon River, usually abbreviated to Amazon, in South America is the largest river by discharge of water in the world and, according to some authors, the longest in length. Brazilians call this section the Solimões River above its confluence with the Rio Negro to form what Brazilians call the Amazon at the Meeting of Waters at Manaus, the rivers largest city. The Amazon basin is the largest drainage basin in the world, the portion of the rivers drainage basin in Brazil alone is larger than any other rivers basin. The Amazon enters Brazil with only one-fifth of the flow it finally discharges into the Atlantic Ocean, during what many archaeologists call the formative stage, Amazonian societies were deeply involved in the emergence of South Americas highland agrarian systems. Early human settlements were based on low-lying hills or mounds. Shell mounds were the earliest evidences of inhabitation, they represent piles of refuse and are mainly dated between 7500 and 4000 years BP. They are associated with ceramic age cultures, no preceramic shell mounds have been documented so far by archaeologists, artificial earth platforms for entire villages are the second type of mounds. They are best represented by the Marajoara culture, figurative mounds are the most recent types of occupation. There is ample evidence that the surrounding the Amazon River were home to complex and large-scale indigenous societies, mainly chiefdoms who developed large towns. Archeologists estimate that by the time the Spanish conquistador De Orellana travelled across the Amazon in 1541 and these pre-Columbian settlements created highly developed civilizations. For instance, pre-Columbian indigenous people on the island of Marajó may have developed social stratification, in order to achieve this level of development, the indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon rainforest altered the forests ecology by selective cultivation and the use of fire. Scientists argue that by burning areas of the forest repetitiously, the people caused the soil to become richer in nutrients. This created dark soil areas known as terra preta de índio, further research has hypothesized that this practice began around 11,000 years ago. Some say that its effects on forest ecology and regional climate explain the otherwise inexplicable band of rainfall through the Amazon basin. Many indigenous tribes engaged in constant warfare, james Stuart Olson wrote, The Munduruku expansion dislocated and displaced the Kawahíb, breaking the tribe down into much smaller groups. First came to the attention of Europeans in 1770 when they began a series of attacks on Brazilian settlements along the Amazon River. In March 1500, Spanish conquistador Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was the first documented European to sail up the Amazon River. Pinzón called the stream Río Santa María del Mar Dulce, later shortened to Mar Dulce, literally, sweet sea, because of its fresh water pushing out into the ocean
10.
Tupi language
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Old Tupi or Classical Tupi is an extinct Tupian language which was spoken by the native Tupi people of Brazil, mostly those who lived close to the sea. It belongs to the Tupi–Guarani language family, and has a history spanning the 16th, 17th. Old Tupi was first spoken by a pre-literate Tupinambá people, living under cultural and social conditions very unlike those found in Europe. It is quite different from Indo-European languages in phonology, morphology and grammar and it belonged to the Tupi–Guarani language family, which stood out among other South American languages for the vast territory it covered. Until the 16th century, these languages were found throughout nearly the entirety of the Brazilian coast, from Pará to Santa Catarina, today Tupi languages are still heard in Brazil as well as in French Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. One of the differences between the two languages was the replacement of Tupi /s/ by the glottal fricative /h/ in Guarani. Another foreigner, Jean de Lery, wrote the first Tupi phrasebook, lerys work is very important because it is the best available record of how Tupi was actually spoken. The Jesuits, however, not only learned to speak tupinambá, as a part of their missionary work they translated some literature into it and also produced some original work written directly in Tupi. José de Anchieta reportedly wrote more than 4,000 lines of poetry in tupinambá, luís Figueira was another important figure of this time, who wrote the second Tupi grammar, published in 1621. In the second half of the 18th century, the works of Anchieta and Figueira were republished and Father Bettendorf wrote a new and more complete catechism. When the Portuguese Prime-Minister Marquis of Pombal expelled the Jesuits from Brazil in 1759, Old Tupi survived as a spoken language only in isolated inland areas, far from the major urban centres. Its use by a few non-Indian speakers in isolated areas would last for over a century still. The Portuguese set out to proselytise the natives, in order to do so most effectively, it was convenient that they should do so in the natives own languages, for that reason, the first Europeans to study Tupi were those priests. The priests modeled their analysis of the new language after the one they had experience with, Latin. And in fact, the first grammar of Tupi – written by the Jesuit priest José de Anchieta in 1595 – is structured much like a contemporary Latin grammar. Considering the breadth of its use both in time and space, this language is poorly documented in writing, particularly the dialect of São Paulo spoken in the South. The phonology of tupinambá has some interesting and unusual features, for instance, it does not have the lateral approximant /l/ or the multiple vibrant rhotic consonant /r/. It also has a small inventory of consonants and a large number of pure vowels
11.
Paraguay River
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The Paraguay River is a major river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. It flows about 2,621 kilometres from its headwaters in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso to its confluence with the Paraná River north of Corrientes, the Paraguays source is south of Diamantino in the Mato Grosso state of Brazil. It follows a generally southwesterly course, passing through the Brazilian city of Cáceres, from the city of Puerto Bahia Negra, Paraguay, the river forms the border between Paraguay and Brazil, flowing almost due south before the confluence with the Apa River. As such the river is considered perhaps the key feature of the country with which it shares its name. The Paraguay River is the major river of the Rio de la Plata Basin. The Paraguays drainage basin, about 365,592 square kilometres, covers a vast area that includes portions of Argentina, southern Brazil, parts of Bolivia. This makes it an important shipping and trade corridor, providing a link to the Atlantic Ocean for the otherwise landlocked nations of Paraguay. It serves such important cities as Asunción and Concepción in Paraguay, the river also a source of commerce in the form of fishing, and provides irrigation for agriculture along its route. This has created issues in large cities such as Asunción, where farmers from the countrys interior have populated the rivers banks in search of an easier lifestyle. Seasonal flooding of the rivers banks sometimes forces many thousands of displaced residents to seek shelter until the waters recede from their homes. The Paraguayan military has been forced to land on one of its reserves in the capital to emergency housing for these displaced citizens. The river is a tourist attraction for its beauty, the Paraguay River is the primary waterway of the 147, 629-square-kilometre Pantanal wetlands of southern Brazil, northern Paraguay and parts of Bolivia. The Pantanal is the worlds largest tropical wetland and is dependent upon waters provided by the Paraguay River. Owing to its importance as a navigable waterway serving Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, studies indicated that the proposed river engineering of the Paraguay would have lowered the river levels by several feet and have a devastating impact on the Pantanal wetlands. An effort by the Rios Vivos coalition to educate people on the effects of the project was successful in delaying the project, and the nations involved agreed to reformulate their plan. The final plan is still uncertain, along with the effect it will have on the Pantanal, the controversy over whether or not the project will have a disastrous effect on the local ecology, as well as the potential economic gains, continues to this day. The project is considered likely to have positive economic effects for Paraguay, Bolivia, western Brazil and the north of Argentina. Paraguays capital city, Asunción, would become an inland port benefiting exporters of cattle, cotton
12.
Uruguay River
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The Uruguay River is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and forms parts of the boundaries of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of La Mesopotamia from the other two countries. The river measures about 1,838 kilometres in length and starts in the Serra do Mar in Brazil, where the Canoas River, in this stage the river goes through uneven, broken terrain, forming rapids and falls. Its course through Rio Grande do Sul is not navigable, an unusual feature of the Uruguay River is a submerged canyon. This canyon formed during the Ice Age, when the climate was drier and its depth is up to 100 metres below the bottom of the river channel and it is 1/8 to 1/3 as wide as the river. The canyon is only visible in two places, one of which is the Moconá Falls, however, the falls are not visible for 150 days per year and become more like rapids when they are not visible. Unlike most waterfalls, the Moconá Falls are parallel to the river, the falls are 10 metres to 12 metres high and between 1,800 metres and 3,000 metres wide. They are 1,215 kilometres from the mouth of the river, the 17,491 hectares Turvo State Park, created in 1947, protects the Brazilian side of the falls. Together with the Paraná River, the Uruguay forms the Río de la Plata estuary and it is navigable from around Salto Chico. The drainage basin of the Uruguay River has an area of 365,000 square kilometres and its main economic use is the generation of hydroelectricity and it is dammed in its lower portion by the Salto Grande Dam and by the Itá Dam upstream in Brazil. The name of the river comes from the Spanish settlers interpretation of the Guaraní language word the inhabitants of the used to designate it. There are several interpretations, including the river of the uru, Argentina and Uruguay experienced a conflict over the construction of pulp mills on the Uruguay River. Two European companies, ENCE and Botnia, proposed building cellulose processing plants at Fray Bentos, Uruguay, opposite Gualeguaychú, according to a 1975 treaty, Argentina and Uruguay were supposed to jointly agree on matters relating to the Uruguay River. Argentina alleged that Uruguay broke the treaty, starting in April 2005, residents of Gualeguaychú, as well as many others, protested, claiming that the plants would pollute the river shared by the two countries. Early in 2006, the conflict escalated into a diplomatic crisis, in 2006, Argentina brought the dispute before the International Court of Justice. The ICJ completed hearings between Argentina and Uruguay regarding the dispute on October 2,2009, later in 2010, Argentina and Uruguay created a joint commission to coordinate activities on the river
13.
Sebastian Cabot (explorer)
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Sebastian Cabot was an Italian explorer, likely born in the Venetian Republic. He was the son of Italian explorer John Cabot and his Venetian wife Mattea, after his fathers death, Cabot conducted his own voyages of discovery, seeking the Northwest Passage through North America for England. He later sailed for Spain, traveling to South America, where he explored the Rio de la Plata, accounts differ as to Sebastian Cabots place and date of birth. At another time, he told the Venetian ambassador at the court of Charles V, Gasparo Contarini, in 1515 Sebastians friend Peter Martyr dAnghiera wrote that Cabot was a Venetian by birth, but that his father had taken him to England as a child. His father had lived in Venice from 1461, as he received citizenship in 1476, the Caboto family moved to England in 1495 if not before. They are believed by historians, including Rodney Skelton, to have still been minors since they were not mentioned in the 1498 patent their father also received. John Cabot sailed from Bristol on the small ship Matthew and reached the coast of a New Found Land on June 24,1497, historians have differed as to where Cabot landed, but two likely locations often suggested are Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Sancho Gutierrez repeated this text in Castilian on his 1551 map and they put to it the name prima terra vista and This big island was named Saint John, as it was discovered on Saint John holiday. People there wander wearing animal furs and they use bow and arrow to fight, javelins and darts and wooden batons and slings. This is a very sterile land, there are a lot of white bears and very big deers, big as horses, as well there are infinite fish, plaices, salmons, very long soles,1 yard long and many other varieties of fish. Most of them are called cod, and there are also black hawks, black as ravens, eagles, partridges and many other birds. The year is stated as MCCCCXCIV in both hand-written versions, there cannot be confusion with the commonly accepted date for the Cabots voyage, in 1497. Sebastian Cabot and Sancho Gutiérrez may have changed the date in the middle of the sixteenth century, intentional changes and inaccuracies were very common among geographers at the time, depending on the political interests of their sponsors. By the time Cabot was sponsored by Germany and Spain, both England and France had started claiming shares of the New World in competition with Spain and Portugal. If Cabot and Gutiérrez stated the year, it would mean the Cabots sailed to North America on their own account. No documentation has survived for this, in 1504 Sebastian Cabot led an expedition from Bristol to the New World, using two ships, the Jesus of Bristol and the Gabriel of Bristol. These were mastered by Richard Savery and Philip Ketyner, respectively and they brought back a certain amount of salted fish, which suggests the voyage was at least partly commercial and that other expeditions may also have included fishing. Cabot was granted an annuity of ₤10 on 3 April 1505 by Henry VII for services in, in 1508–09 Cabot led one of the first expeditions to find a North-West passage through North America
14.
Iguazu Falls
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The Iguazu Falls, Iguazú Falls, Iguassu Falls, or Iguaçu Falls are waterfalls of the Iguazu River on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná. They are the largest waterfalls system in the world, the falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. The Iguazu River rises near the city of Curitiba, for most of its course, the river flows through Brazil, however, most of the falls are on the Argentine side. Below its confluence with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu River forms the boundary between Argentina and Brazil, the name Iguazu comes from the Guarani or Tupi words y, meaning water, and ûasú, meaning big. Legend has it that a deity planned to marry a woman named Naipí. In a rage, the deity sliced the river, creating the waterfalls, the first European to record the existence of the falls was the Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541. The Iguazu Falls are located where the Iguazu River tumbles over the edge of the Paraná Plateau,23 kilometres upriver from the Iguazus confluence with the Paraná River. Numerous islands along the 2. 7-kilometre-long edge divide the falls into many separate waterfalls and cataracts, the number of these smaller waterfalls fluctuates from 150 to 300, depending on the water level. Approximately half of the rivers falls into a long and narrow chasm called the Devils Throat. The Devils Throat is U-shaped,82 by 150 by 700 metres, placenames have been given also to many other smaller falls, such as San Martín Falls, Bossetti Falls, and many others. About 900 metres of the 2. 7-kilometre length does not have water flowing over it, the edge of the basalt cap recedes by 3 mm per year. The water of the lower Iguazu collects in a canyon that drains into the Paraná River, the junction of the water flows marks the border between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. The Iguazu Falls are arranged in a way that resembles a reversed letter J, the border between Brazil and Argentina runs through the Devils Throat. On the right bank is the Brazilian territory, which has just over 20% of the jumps of these falls, and the left side jumps are Argentine, which make up almost 80% of the falls. There are two international airports close to Iguazú Falls, the Argentine Cataratas del Iguazú International Airport and the Brazilian Foz do Iguaçu International Airport, Argentinas airport is 25 kilometres from the city of Iguazu, but is closer to the falls hotels than its Brazilian counterpart. There are bus and taxi services from and to the Airport-Falls, brazils airport is between Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, and the falls. Aerolíneas Argentinas and LATAM Argentina have direct flights from Buenos Aires to Iguazu International Airport Krause, azul, GOL, and LATAM Brasil offer services from main Brazilian cities to Foz do Iguaçu. The falls are shared by the Iguazú National Park and Iguaçu National Park, the two parks were designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1984 and 1987, respectively
15.
Itaipu Dam
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The Itaipu Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Paraná River located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. The construction of the dam was first contested by Argentina, but the negotiations, the name Itaipu was taken from an isle that existed near the construction site. In the Guarani language, Itaipu means the sounding stone, completed in 1984, it is a binational undertaking run by Brazil and Paraguay at the border between the two countries,15 km north of the Friendship Bridge. The project ranges from Foz do Iguaçu, in Brazil, and Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, in the south to Guaíra, the installed generation capacity of the plant is 14 GW, with 20 generating units providing 700 MW each with a hydraulic design head of 118 metres. In 2016 the plant generated a new world record, in 2016, the plant employed 3038 workers. Of the twenty generator units currently installed, ten generate at 50 Hz for Paraguay, the concept behind the Itaipu Power Plant was the result of serious negotiations between the two countries during the 1960s. The Ata do Iguaçu was signed on July 22,1966, by the Brazilian and Paraguayan Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Juracy Magalhães and Raúl Sapena Pastor, the Treaty that gave origin to the power plant was signed in 1973. The terms of the treaty, which expires in 2023, have been the subject of widespread discontent in Paraguay, the government of President Lugo vowed to renegotiate the terms of the treaty with Brazil, which long remained hostile to any renegotiation. Design studies began in February 1971, on April 26,1973, Brazil and Paraguay signed the Itaipu Treaty, the legal instrument for the hydroelectric exploitation of the Paraná River by the two countries. On May 17,1974, the Itaipu Binacional entity was created to administer the plants construction, the construction began in January of the following year. Brazils first electric car was introduced in late 1974, it received the name Itaipu in honor of the project, on October 14,1978, the Paraná River had its route changed, which allowed a section of the riverbed to dry so the dam could be built there. An important diplomatic settlement was reached with the signing of the Acordo Tripartite by Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and this agreement established the allowed river levels and how much they could change as a result of the various hydroelectrical undertakings in the watershed that was shared by the three countries. At that time, the three countries were ruled by military dictatorships, Argentina was concerned that, in the event of a conflict, Brazil could open the floodgates, raising the water level in the Río de la Plata and consequently flood the capital city of Buenos Aires. The reservoir began its formation on October 13,1982, when the dam works were completed and the side canals gates were closed. Throughout this period, heavy rains and flooding accelerated the filling of the reservoir as the water rose 100 meters, on May 5,1984, the first generation unit started running in Itaipu. The first 18 units were installed at the rate of two to three a year, the last two of these started running in the year 1991. The last two of the 20 electric generation units started operations in September 2006 and in March 2007, thus raising the capacity to 14 GW. This increase in capacity allows 18 generation units to run permanently while two are shut down for maintenance, due to a clause in the treaty signed between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, the maximum number of generating units allowed to operate simultaneously cannot exceed 18
16.
Iguazu River
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The Iguazu River is a river in Brazil and Argentina. It is an important tributary of the Paraná River, the Iguazu River is 1,320 kilometres long, with a drainage basin of 62,000 square kilometres. The Iguazu originates in the Serra da Baitaca State Park, created in 2002, for 1,205 kilometres, to its confluence with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu flows west through Paraná State, Brazil. Downriver from the confluence the Iguazu River forms the boundary between Brazil and Argentinas Misiones Province, continuing west, the river drops off a plateau, forming Iguazu Falls. The falls are within national parks in both Brazil, Iguaçu National Park, and Argentina, Iguazú National Park and it empties into the Paraná River at the point where the borders of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay join, an area known as the Triple Frontier. Unlike tropical South American rivers where the variations in temperature are relatively limited. At two sites, one located just above and another just below the falls, the water at both varied from about 15.5 to 29 °C, and average was just below 22 °C. The pH is typically near-neutral, ranging from 5.9 to 8.7, about 100 fish species are native to the Iguazu River and several undescribed species are known. Most fish species in the river are catfish, characiforms and cichlids, about 70% are endemic, which to a large extent is linked to the falls, serving both as a home for rheophilic species and isolating species above and below. Almost 30 introduced species are found in the river where about one-third originate from other continents, the unusual Aegla crustacean are locally common in the Iguazu River Basin. In July 2000 more than 4,000,000 litres of oil spilled into the river from a state-run oil refinery in the municipality of Araucária near Curitiba. List of rivers of Argentina List of rivers of Brazil
17.
Hydroelectricity
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Hydroelectricity is electricity produced from hydropower. In 2015 hydropower generated 16. 6% of the total electricity and 70% of all renewable electricity. Hydropower is produced in 150 countries, with the Asia-Pacific region generating 33 percent of global hydropower in 2013, China is the largest hydroelectricity producer, with 920 TWh of production in 2013, representing 16.9 percent of domestic electricity use. The cost of hydroelectricity is relatively low, making it a source of renewable electricity. The hydro station consumes no water, unlike coal or gas plants, the average cost of electricity from a hydro station larger than 10 megawatts is 3 to 5 U. S. cents per kilowatt-hour. With a dam and reservoir it is also a source of electricity since the amount produced by the station can be changed up or down very quickly to adapt to changing energy demands. Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, the project produces no direct waste, Hydropower has been used since ancient times to grind flour and perform other tasks. In the mid-1770s, French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor published Architecture Hydraulique which described vertical-, by the late 19th century, the electrical generator was developed and could now be coupled with hydraulics. The growing demand for the Industrial Revolution would drive development as well, in 1878 the worlds first hydroelectric power scheme was developed at Cragside in Northumberland, England by William George Armstrong. It was used to power an arc lamp in his art gallery. The old Schoelkopf Power Station No.1 near Niagara Falls in the U. S. side began to produce electricity in 1881. The first Edison hydroelectric power station, the Vulcan Street Plant, began operating September 30,1882, in Appleton, Wisconsin, by 1886 there were 45 hydroelectric power stations in the U. S. and Canada. By 1889 there were 200 in the U. S. alone, at the beginning of the 20th century, many small hydroelectric power stations were being constructed by commercial companies in mountains near metropolitan areas. Grenoble, France held the International Exhibition of Hydropower and Tourism with over one million visitors, by 1920 as 40% of the power produced in the United States was hydroelectric, the Federal Power Act was enacted into law. The Act created the Federal Power Commission to regulate hydroelectric power stations on federal land, as the power stations became larger, their associated dams developed additional purposes to include flood control, irrigation and navigation. Federal funding became necessary for development and federally owned corporations, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority. Hydroelectric power stations continued to become larger throughout the 20th century, Hydropower was referred to as white coal for its power and plenty. Hoover Dams initial 1,345 MW power station was the worlds largest hydroelectric station in 1936
18.
Three Gorges Dam
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The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, China. The Three Gorges Dam is the worlds largest power station in terms of installed capacity, in 2014 the dam generated 98.8 terawatt-hours and had the world record, but was surpassed by Itaipú Dam that set the new world record in 2016 producing 103.1 TWh. Except for the locks, the dam project was completed and fully functional as of July 4,2012, the ship lift was complete in December 2015. Each main water turbine has a capacity of 700 MW, the dam body was completed in 2006. Coupling the dams 32 main turbines with two generators to power the plant itself, the total electric generating capacity of the dam is 22,500 MW. As well as producing electricity, the dam is intended to increase the Yangtze Rivers shipping capacity, China regards the project as monumental as well as a success socially and economically, with the design of state-of-the-art large turbines, and a move toward limiting greenhouse gas emissions. However, the dam flooded archaeological and cultural sites and displaced some 1.3 million people, the dam has been controversial both domestically and abroad. A large dam across the Yangtze River was originally envisioned by Sun Yat-sen in The International Development of China and he stated that a dam capable of generating 30 million horsepower was possible downstream of the Three Gorges. In 1932, the Nationalist government, led by Chiang Kai-shek, in 1939, Japanese military forces occupied Yichang and surveyed the area. A design, the Otani plan, was completed for the dam in anticipation of a Japanese victory over China. In 1944, the United States Bureau of Reclamation chief design engineer, John L. Savage, surveyed the area, Some 54 Chinese engineers went to the U. S. for training. In the case of water craft, groups of craft would be lifted together for efficiency. Some exploration, survey, economic study, and design work was done, after the 1954 Yangtze River Floods, in 1956, Mao Zedong authored Swimming, a poem about his fascination with a dam on the Yangtze River. In 1958, after the Hundred Flowers Campaign, some engineers who spoke out against the project were imprisoned, during the 1980s, the idea of a dam reemerged. The National Peoples Congress approved the dam in 1992, out of 2,633 delegates,1,767 voted in favour,177 voted against,664 abstained, Construction started on December 14,1994. The dam was expected to be operational in 2009, but additional projects, such as the underground power plant with six additional generators. The ship lift was completed in 2015, the dam had raised the water level in the reservoir to 172.5 m above sea level by the end of 2008 and the designed maximum level of 175 m by October 2010. Made of concrete and steel, the dam is 2,335 m long, the project used 27. 2×10^6 m3 of concrete, used 463,000 T of steel, and moved about 102. 6×10^6 m3 of earth
19.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
20.
Rosario, Santa Fe
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Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, in central Argentina. It is located 300 km northwest of Buenos Aires, on the shore of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third most populous city in the country, and is also the most populous city in Argentina that is not a provincial capital, with a growing and important metropolitan area, Greater Rosario has an estimated population of 1,276,000 as of 2012. One of its main attractions includes the architecture that has been retained over the centuries in hundreds of residences, houses. Rosario is the city of the Rosario Department and is located at the heart of the major industrial corridor in Argentina. The city is a railroad terminal and the shipping center for north-eastern Argentina. Ships reach the city via the Paraná River, which allows the existence of a 10-metre-deep port, the Port of Rosario is subject to silting and must be dredged periodically. Exports include wheat, flour, hay, linseed and other oils, corn, sugar, lumber, meat, hides. Manufactured goods include flour, sugar, meat products, and other foodstuffs, the Rosario-Victoria Bridge, opened in 2004, spans the Paraná River, connecting Rosario with the city of Victoria, across the Paraná Delta. Because it plays a role in agricultural commerce, the city finds itself at the center of a continuing debate over taxes levied on big-ticket agricultural goods such as soy. Along with Paraná, Rosario is one of the few Argentine cities that cannot point to an individual as its founder. The citys patron is the Virgin of the Rosary, whose feast day is October 7, the asteroid 14812 Rosario was named in its honor. In 1689, captain Luis Romero de Pineda received part of the lands of the Pago de los Arroyos by royal decree, before that, the area was originally inhabited by Calchaquí tribes in reducciones, a kind of missions founded by Franciscans. These missions were attacked and destroyed by hostile tribes of the Chaco region. Romero de Pineda established the first permanent settlement, an estancia — intended as farmland, in 1719 the Jesuits bought another part and established Estancia San Miguel. The area was still so scarcely populated that it had no authority, it was ruled from the provincial capital. In 1724, another settlement was initiated by Santiago de Montenegro, who set up a mill, drew plans for the future town, built a chapel. The area of control of local government extended northward from todays Rosario
21.
Drainage basin
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A drainage basin or catchment area is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. Drainage basins connect into other drainage basins at elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins. Other terms used to describe drainage basins are catchment, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin and water basin. In closed drainage basins the water converges to a point inside the basin, known as a sink, which may be a permanent lake. The drainage basin acts as a funnel by collecting all the water within the covered by the basin. Each drainage basin is separated topographically from adjacent basins by a perimeter, drainage basins are similar but not identical to hydrologic units, which are drainage areas delineated so as to nest into a multi-level hierarchical drainage system. Hydrologic units are defined to allow multiple inlets, outlets, or sinks, in a strict sense, all drainage basins are hydrologic units but not all hydrologic units are drainage basins. Drainage basins of the oceans and seas of the world. Grey areas are endorheic basins that do not drain to the oceans, the following is a list of the major ocean basins, About 48. 7% of the worlds land drains to the Atlantic Ocean. The two major mediterranean seas of the world also flow to the Atlantic, The Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico basin includes most of the U. S. The Mediterranean Sea basin includes much of North Africa, east-central Africa, Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the areas of Israel, Lebanon. Just over 13% of the land in the world drains to the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Oceans drainage basin also comprises about 13% of Earths land. It drains the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Burma, antarctica comprises approximately eight percent of the Earths land. The five largest river basins, from largest to smallest, are the basins of the Amazon, the Río de la Plata, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. The three rivers that drain the most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganga, endorheic drainage basins are inland basins that do not drain to an ocean. Around 18% of all land drains to endorheic lakes or seas or sinks, the largest of these consists of much of the interior of Asia, which drains into the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and numerous smaller lakes. Some of these, such as the Great Basin, are not single drainage basins but collections of separate, in endorheic bodies of standing water where evaporation is the primary means of water loss, the water is typically more saline than the oceans. An extreme example of this is the Dead Sea, drainage basins have been historically important for determining territorial boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important
22.
Bolivia
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Bolivia, officially known as the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in western-central South America. It is bordered to the north and east by Brazil, to the southeast by Paraguay, to the south by Argentina, to the southwest by Chile, and to the northwest by Peru. One-third of the country is the Andean mountain range, with one of its largest cities and principal economic centers, El Alto, Bolivia is one of two landlocked countries that lie outside Afro-Eurasia. Bolivia is geographically the largest landlocked country in the Americas, but remains a small country in economic. Before Spanish colonization, the Andean region of Bolivia was part of the Inca Empire, Spanish conquistadors arriving from Cuzco and Asunción took control of the region in the 16th century. During the Spanish colonial period Bolivia was administered by the Royal Audiencia of Charcas, spain built its empire in great part upon the silver that was extracted from Bolivias mines. After the first call for independence in 1809,16 years of war followed before the establishment of the Republic, named for Simón Bolívar, on 6 August 1825. Since independence, Bolivia has endured periods of political and economic instability, including the loss of peripheral territories to its neighbors, such as Acre. The countrys population, estimated at 11 million, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Mestizos, the racial and social segregation that arose from Spanish colonialism has continued to the modern era. Spanish is the official and predominant language, although 36 indigenous languages also have official status, of which the most commonly spoken are Guarani, Aymara, modern Bolivia is constitutionally a unitary state, divided into nine departments. Its geography varies from the peaks of the Andes in the West, to the Eastern Lowlands and it is a developing country, with a medium ranking in the Human Development Index and a poverty level of 53 percent. Its main economic activities include agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, and manufacturing such as textiles, clothing, refined metals. Bolivia is very wealthy in minerals, especially tin, Bolivia is named after Simón Bolívar, a leader in the Spanish American wars of independence. Sucre opted to create a new nation and, with local support. The original name was Republic of Bolívar, some days later, congressman Manuel Martín Cruz proposed, If from Romulus comes Rome, then from Bolívar comes Bolivia. The name was approved by the Republic on 3 October 1825, the region now known as Bolivia had been occupied for over 2,500 years when the Aymara arrived. However, present-day Aymara associate themselves with the ancient civilization of the Tiwanaku culture which had its capital at Tiwanaku, the capital city of Tiwanaku dates from as early as 1500 BC when it was a small, agriculturally based village. The community grew to urban proportions between AD600 and AD800, becoming an important regional power in the southern Andes
23.
Uruguay
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Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in the southeastern region of South America. It borders Argentina to its west and Brazil to its north and east, with the Río de la Plata to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast. Uruguay is home to an estimated 3.42 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the area of its capital and largest city. With an area of approximately 176,000 square kilometres, Uruguay is geographically the second-smallest nation in South America, only larger in size than Suriname. Uruguay was inhabited by the Charrúa people for approximately 4000 years before the Portuguese established Colonia del Sacramento, one of the oldest European settlements in the region, in 1680. Montevideo was founded as a stronghold by the Spanish in the early 18th century. Uruguay won its independence between 1811 and 1828, following a struggle between Spain, Portugal, Argentina and Brazil. It remained subject to influence and intervention throughout the 19th century. Modern Uruguay is a constitutional republic, with a president who serves as both head of state and head of government. Uruguay is ranked first in Latin America in democracy, peace, lack of corruption, e-government, on a per-capita basis, Uruguay contributes more troops to United Nations peace-keeping missions than any other country. It ranks second in the region on economic freedom, income equality, per-capita income, Uruguay is the third-best country on the continent in terms of HDI, GDP growth, innovation and infrastructure. It is regarded as a country by the UN. Uruguay is also the third-best ranked in the world in e-Participation, Uruguay is an important global exporter of combed wool, rice, soybeans, frozen beef, malt and milk. Nearly 95% of Uruguays electricity comes from energy, mostly hydroelectric facilities. The Economist named Uruguay country of the year in 2013, acknowledging the innovative policy of legalizing the production, sale, the name of the namesake river comes from the Spanish pronunciation of the regional Guarani word for it. There are several interpretations, including bird-river, the name could also refer to a river snail called uruguá that was plentiful in the water. The only documented inhabitants of Uruguay before European colonization of the area were the Charrúa, the Portuguese discovered the region of present-day Uruguay in 1512. The Spanish arrived in present-day Uruguay in 1516, the indigenous peoples fierce resistance to conquest, combined with the absence of gold and silver, limited their settlement in the region during the 16th and 17th centuries
24.
Mississippi River
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The Mississippi River is the chief river of the largest drainage system on the North American continent. Flowing entirely in the United States, it rises in northern Minnesota, with its many tributaries, the Mississippis watershed drains all or parts of 31 U. S. states and 2 Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth longest and fifteenth largest river in the world by discharge, the river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Native Americans long lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the Mound Builders, formed prolific agricultural societies. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the way of life as first explorers, then settlers. The river served first as a barrier, forming borders for New Spain, New France, and the early United States, and then as a vital transportation artery and communications link. Formed from thick layers of the silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of the country. In recent years, the river has shown a shift towards the Atchafalaya River channel in the Delta. The word itself comes from Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe name for the river, see below in the History section for additional information. In addition to historical traditions shown by names, there are at least two measures of a rivers identity, one being the largest branch, and the other being the longest branch. Using the largest-branch criterion, the Ohio would be the branch of the Lower Mississippi. Using the longest-branch criterion, the Middle Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson-Beaverhead-Red Rock-Hellroaring Creek River would be the main branch and its length of at least 3,745 mi is exceeded only by the Nile, the Amazon, and perhaps the Yangtze River among the longest rivers in the world. The source of this waterway is at Browers Spring,8,800 feet above sea level in southwestern Montana and this is exemplified by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the phrase Trans-Mississippi as used in the name of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. It is common to qualify a regionally superlative landmark in relation to it, the New Madrid Seismic Zone along the river is also noteworthy. These various basic geographical aspects of the river in turn underlie its human history and present uses of the waterway, the Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri. The source of the Upper Mississippi branch is traditionally accepted as Lake Itasca,1,475 feet above sea level in Itasca State Park in Clearwater County, however, the lake is in turn fed by a number of smaller streams. From its origin at Lake Itasca to St. Louis, Missouri, fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes, including power generation and recreation. The remaining 29 dams, beginning in downtown Minneapolis, all locks and were constructed to improve commercial navigation of the upper river
25.
River delta
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A river delta is a landform that forms from deposition of sediment carried by a river as the flow leaves its mouth and enters slower-moving or standing water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, River deltas are ecologically important as they provide coastline defense, are home to many species, and can impact drinking water supply. The tidal currents also cannot be too strong, as sediment would wash out into the body faster than the river deposits it. Of course, the river must carry enough sediment to layer into deltas over time, the rivers velocity decreases rapidly, causing it to deposit the majority, if not all, of its load. This alluvium builds up to form the river delta, when the flow enters the standing water, it is no longer confined to its channel and expands in width. This flow expansion results in a decrease in the flow velocity, as a result, sediment drops out of the flow and deposits. Over time, this single channel builds a deltaic lobe, pushing its mouth into the standing water, as the deltaic lobe advances, the gradient of the river channel becomes lower because the river channel is longer but has the same change in elevation. As the slope of the channel decreases, it becomes unstable for two reasons. First, gravity makes the flow in the most direct course down slope. If the river breaches its natural levees, it out onto a new course with a shorter route to the ocean. Second, as its slope gets lower, the amount of stress on the bed decreases, which results in deposition of sediment within the channel. This makes it easier for the river to breach its levees, often when the channel does this, some of its flow remains in the abandoned channel. When these channel-switching events occur, a mature delta develops a distributary network, another way these distributary networks form is from deposition of mouth bars. When this mid-channel bar is deposited at the mouth of a river and this results in additional deposition on the upstream end of the mouth-bar, which splits the river into two distributary channels. A good example of the result of this process is the Wax Lake Delta, in both of these cases, depositional processes force redistribution of deposition from areas of high deposition to areas of low deposition. This results in the smoothing of the shape of the delta as the channels move across its surface. Because the sediment is laid down in fashion, the shape of these deltas approximates a fan. The more often the flow changes course, the shape develops as closer to an ideal fan, the Mississippi and Ural River deltas, with their birds-feet, are examples of rivers that do not avulse often enough to form a symmetrical fan shape
26.
Buenos Aires
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Buenos Aires is the capital and most populous city of Argentina. The city is located on the shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata. The city of Buenos Aires is neither part of Buenos Aires Province nor the Provinces capital, rather, in 1880, after decades of political infighting, Buenos Aires was federalized and removed from Buenos Aires Province. The city limits were enlarged to include the towns of Belgrano and Flores, the 1994 constitutional amendment granted the city autonomy, hence its formal name, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Its citizens first elected a chief of government in 1996, previously, Buenos Aires is considered an alpha city by the study GaWC5. Buenos Aires quality of life was ranked 81st in the world and one of the best in Latin America in 2012 and it is the most visited city in South America, and the second-most visited city of Latin America. Buenos Aires is a top tourist destination, and is known for its preserved Spanish/European-style architecture, Buenos Aires held the 1st Pan American Games in 1951 as well as hosting two venues in the 1978 FIFA World Cup. Buenos Aires will host the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics and the 2018 G20 summit, Buenos Aires is a multicultural city, being home to multiple ethnic and religious groups. Several languages are spoken in the city in addition to Spanish, contributing to its culture, the hill was known to them as Buen Ayre, as it was free of the foul smell prevalent in the old city, which is adjacent to swampland. During the siege of Cagliari, the Aragonese built a sanctuary to the Virgin Mary on top of the hill, in 1335, King Alfonso the Gentle donated the church to the Mercedarians, who built an abbey that stands to this day. In the years after that, a story circulated, claiming that a statue of the Virgin Mary was retrieved from the sea after it miraculously helped to calm a storm in the Mediterranean Sea, the statue was placed in the abbey. Spanish sailors, especially Andalusians, venerated this image and frequently invoked the Fair Winds to aid them in their navigation, a sanctuary to the Virgin of Buen Ayre would be later erected in Seville. Pedro de Mendoza called the city Holy Mary of the Fair Winds, mendoza’s settlement soon came under attack by indigenous people, and was abandoned in 1541. For many years, the name was attributed to a Sancho del Campo, a second settlement was established in 1580 by Juan de Garay, who sailed down the Paraná River from Asunción. Garay preserved the name chosen by Mendoza, calling the city Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María del Buen Aire. The short form Buenos Aires became the common usage during the 17th century, the usual abbreviation for Buenos Aires in Spanish is Bs. As. It is common as well to refer to it as B. A. or BA /ˌbiːˈeɪ/ bee-AY), while BA is used more by expats residing in the city, the locals more often use the abbreviation Baires, in one word. Seaman Juan Díaz de Solís, navigating in the name of Spain, was the first European to reach the Río de la Plata in 1516 and his expedition was cut short when he was killed during an attack by the native Charrúa tribe in what is now Uruguay
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Pseudoplatystoma
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Pseudoplatystoma is a genus of several South American catfish species of family Pimelodidae. The species are known by a number of different common names and they typically inhabit major rivers where they prefer the main channels and tend to stay at maximum depth, but some species can also be seen in lakes, flooded forests, and other freshwater habitats. They have robust bodies, and are important food fish, in their native waters, these fish may be called surubí in Guaraní. This name is used in some Spanish-speaking countries and in Brazil. In Peruvian Spanish, they are called doncella or zúngaro, P. corruscans may be called moleque or pintado. They often are referred to in the vernacular as bagre rayado/rajado or pintadillo/pintado, P. corruscans, P. fasciatum, and P. tigrinum are also known as spotted sorubim, barred sorubim, and tiger sorubim, respectively. This genus contains the fish known as the tiger shovelnose catfish in the aquarium hobby. Pseudoplatystoma is an assemblage of catfishes. P. fasciatum was the first species to be described, under the name Siluris fasciatus, in 1829, P. corruscans was described under the name Platystoma corruscans, and over a decade later, P. tigrinum was described as Platystoma tigrinum. In 1862, Pseudoplatystoma was described and these species transferred to it, unrecognized species of Pseudoplatystoma have been included under the names P. fasciatum and P. tigrinum for decades. This genus traditionally contained only three species until 2007, currently, eight species are in this genus, P. orinocoense, P. magdaleniatum, and P. reticulatum were formerly recognized as P. fasciatum, but are now recognized as distinct species. P. metaense is also now recognized as a species from P. tigrinum. Two clades are recognized within the genus, one is the P. fasciatum clade which includes P. fasciatum, P. orinocoense, P. magdaleniatum, P. reticulatum, and P. corruscans. Within this clade, P. fasciatum and P. punctifer are sister species, the other, the P. tigrinum clade, includes only P. tigrinum and P. metaense. They are differentiated by anatomical characters, the intergeneric relationships of this genus are well established. It forms a group with Sorubim, Sorubimichthys, Hemisorubim. Of these genera, Hemisorubim is most closely related to Pseudoplatystoma and they can also be found in the Cuiabá river, located in the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso. They have not been reported from river basins draining into the Pacific. P. fasciatum inhabits the Guyana region, including the Essequibo and Suriname Rivers and their tributaries, in Guyana, Suriname, P. tigrinum is found in the Amazon River in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela
28.
Prochilodus lineatus
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Prochilodus lineatus, the streaked prochilod, is a species of ray-finned fish in the Prochilodontidae family. It is native to the Paraná—Paraguay and Paraíba do Sul river basins in South America and it performs long breeding migrations and supports very important fisheries. In Spanish its common name is sábalo, in Brazil it receives the names curimbatá, curimba, in the United States it is also known by the technical synonym Tarpon prochilodus. There are many species of fish with the common name sábalo. P. lineatus reaches up to 80 cm in length and 9 kg in weight, a common length is about 45 cm. Its body is tall and compressed, greenish-gray, with yellowish green fins and its mouth is circular and projects towards the front, it has two series of small teeth. This fish prefers deep waters and it is illiophagous, i. e. it sucks and eats organic mud and this incidentally makes it difficult to fish with a bait. It migrates in large banks, looking for warm waters during the spring in order to lay its eggs. P. lineatus is considered the key species of the Paraná River, since it forms the base of the chain that ends with larger fish like the surubí catfish. Regulations in place in Santa Fe and Entre Ríos, Argentina, have proven ineffective to preserve the species, experts estimate that capturing 20,000 tonnes of sábalo per year is the upper limit of sustainability. Exports, however, of about 13,000 tonnes in 1998, grew to 34,000 tonnes in 2004, after the depreciation of the Argentine peso caused by the economic crisis tripled its local value. As the fish population dwindles, fishermen who depend on their captures for their livelihood are keeping smaller specimens, often not mature and which therefore have had no time to reproduce. Widespread disregard of prescribed net sizes and the presence of illegal processing plants, the issue turned into a jurisdiction conflict when Santa Fe tightened the regulations in 2005, forbidding the capture of sábalos under 42 cm long, while Entre Ríos kept the limit looser at 40 cm. On July 13, about 400 fishermen blocked the Rosario access to the Rosario-Victoria Bridge that joins the two provinces, on August 1, after Entre Ríos matched its regulations with those of Santa Fe,300 fishermen and freezing plant workers from Victoria did the same. They were pressured, according to claims, by the threat of unemployment if their plants cannot fill their export quotas. In October 2006, largely to facilitate the reproduction of sábalo and this ban was vetoed by the executive, as it had no counterpart in the neighbouring Entre Ríos. On 21 December 2006, the government banned exports of fish of the Paraná River for eight months starting on 1 January 2007. See also, Foreign trade of Argentina, los Peces Que Tenemos Pesca & náutica, Nuestros peces Pesca en Argentina Fundación PROTEGER, Amigos de la Tierra, Argentina Prochilodus lineatus
29.
Navigability
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A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and slow enough for a vessel to pass or walk. Preferably there are few such as rocks or trees to avoid. High water speed may make a channel unnavigable, waters may be unnavigable because of ice, particularly in winter. Navigability depends on context, A small river may be navigable by craft, such as a motor boat or a kayak. Shallow rivers may be navigable by the installation of locks that increase and regulate water depth. Inland Water Transport Systems have been used for centuries in countries including India, China, Egypt, the Netherlands, the United States, Germany, China, and Bangladesh. In the Netherlands, IWT handles 46% of the nations inland freight, 32% in Bangladesh, 14% in the United States, what constitutes navigable waters can not be separated from the context in which the question is asked. Numerous federal agencies define jurisdiction based on navigable waters, including admiralty jurisdiction, pollution control, to the licensing of dams, the numerous definitions and jurisdictional statutes have created an array of case law specific to which context the question of navigability arises. Some of the most commonly discussed definitions are listed here, section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, approved 3 March 1899, prohibits the unauthorized obstruction of a navigable water of the U. S. For the purpose of establishing which river is public and therefore state-owned, if a river was considered navigable at the time of statehood, the land below the navigable water was conveyed to the state as part of the transportation network in order to facilitate commerce. Most states retained title to these rivers in trust for the public. Some states divested themselves of title to the land below navigable rivers, title to the lands submerged by smaller streams are considered part of the property through which the water flows and there is no public right to use private property. The scope of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority was granted under the Federal Power Act,1941, such authority is based on congressional authority to regulate commerce, it is not based exclusively on title to the riverbed or even navigability. Therefore, FERCs permitting authority extends to the flow from non-navigable tributaries in order to protect commerce downstream, also, the Clean Water Act has introduced the terms traditional navigable waters, and waters of the United States to define the scope of Federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act expands a more limited jurisdiction beyond navigable waters sometimes extending limited federal jurisdiction under the Act over private property. S, Supreme Court decisions, Carabell v. United States and Rapanos v. United States. Finally, a water-body is presumed non-navigable with the burden of proof on the party claiming it is navigable, the U. S. Forest Service considers a waterbody not navigable until is adjudicated otherwise. See Whitewater v. Tidwell 770 F. 3d 1108, therefore, and public rights associated with navigability cannot be presumed to exist without a finding of navigability. Navigability is a term of art, which can lead to considerable confusion
30.
Solar cycle
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The solar cycle or solar magnetic activity cycle is the nearly periodic 11-year change in the Suns activity and appearance. They have been observed for centuries, the changes on the sun cause effects in space, in the atmosphere, and on Earths surface. While it is the dominant variable in solar activity, aperiodic fluctuations also occur, Solar cycles have an average duration of about 11 years. Solar maximum and solar minimum refer respectively to periods of maximum and minimum sunspot counts, cycles span from one minimum to the next. The solar cycle was discovered in 1843 by Samuel Heinrich Schwabe, following Wolfs numbering scheme, the 1755–1766 cycle is traditionally numbered 1. Wolf created a standard sunspot number index, the Wolf index, the period between 1645 and 1715, a time of few sunspots, is known as the Maunder minimum, after Edward Walter Maunder, who extensively researched this peculiar event, first noted by Gustav Spörer. In the second half of the nineteenth century Richard Carrington and by Spörer independently noted the phenomena of sunspots appearing at different latitudes at different parts of the cycle, the cycles physical basis was elucidated by Hale and collaborators, who in 1908 showed that sunspots were strongly magnetized. In 1919 they showed that the polarity of sunspot pairs, Is constant throughout a cycle, Is opposite across the equator throughout a cycle. Hales observations revealed that the complete magnetic cycle spans two solar cycles, or 22 years, before returning to its original state, however, because nearly all manifestations are insensitive to polarity, the 11-year solar cycle remains the focus of research. In 1961 the father-and-son team of Harold and Horace Babcock established that the cycle is a spatiotemporal magnetic process unfolding over the Sun as a whole. Horaces Babcock model described the Suns oscillatory magnetic field, with a periodicity of 22 years. It covered the exchange of energy between poloidal and toroidal solar magnetic field ingredients. The level of activity beginning in the 1940s is exceptional – the last period of similar magnitude occurred around 9,000 years ago. The Sun was at a high level of magnetic activity for only ~10% of the past 11,400 years. Almost all earlier high-activity periods were shorter than the present episode, fossil records suggest that the Solar cycle has been stable for at least the last 290 million years. For example, the cycle length during the early Permian is estimated to be 10.62 years, since observations began, cycles have ranged from 9–14 years. The current solar cycle began on January 4,2008, with minimal activity until early 2010 and it is on track to have the lowest recorded sunspot activity since accurate records began in 1750. The cycle featured a double-peaked solar maximum, the first peak reached 99 in 2011 and the second in early 2014 at 101
31.
Mato Grosso do Sul
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Mato Grosso do Sul is one of the Central-Western states of Brazil. Its total area of 357,125 square kilometers, or 137,891 square miles, is roughly the size as Germany. Neighboring Brazilian states are Mato Grosso, Goiás, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and it also borders the countries of Paraguay, to the southwest, and Bolivia, to the west. The economy of the state is based on agriculture and cattle-raising. Crossed in the south by the Tropic of Capricorn, Mato Grosso do Sul generally has a warm, sometimes hot, and humid climate, the state is also famous for its natural beauty, and is a major destination for domestic and international tourism. The Pantanal lowlands cover 12 municipalities and presents a variety of flora and fauna, with forests, natural sand banks, savannahs, open pasture, fields. The city Bonito, in the mountain of Bodoquena, has prehistoric caves, natural rivers, waterfalls, swimming pools and the Blue Lake cave. The name Mato Grosso do Sul literally means Thick Bushes of the South in Portuguese and it is not uncommon for people to mistakenly refer to Mato Grosso do Sul as simply Mato Grosso. Other names that were proposed, at the time of the split and afterwards, include Pantanal, Mato Grosso do Sul has humid subtropical and tropical climates. The average annual rainfall is 1471.1 mm. January is the warmest month, with maximum of 34 °C and minimum of 24 °C and more rain, July experiences the coldest temperatures, with mean maximum of 25 °C and minimum of -2,0 °C. The cerrado landscape is characterized by extensive savanna formations crossed by gallery forests, Cerrado includes various types of vegetation. Humid fields and buriti palm paths are found where the table is near the surface. Alpine pastures occur at higher altitudes and mesophytic forests on more fertile soils, the cerrado trees have characteristic twisted trunks covered by a thick bark, and leaves which are usually broad and rigid. Many herbaceous plants have extensive roots to store water and nutrients, the plants thick bark and roots serve as adaptations for the periodic fires which sweep the cerrado landscape. The adaptations protect the plants from destruction and make them capable of sprouting again after the fire, the state is located in western Brazil, in a region mostly occupied by the inland marshes of the Pantanal. The highest elevation is the 1,065 m high Morro Grande, in October 11,1977, the state was created by dividing the state of Mato Grosso. Its status as a state went into effect two years later on January 1,1979
32.
Container ship
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Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. They are a means of commercial intermodal freight transport and now carry most seagoing non-bulk cargo. Container ship capacity is measured in equivalent units. Typical loads are a mix of 20-foot and 40-foot ISO-standard containers, today, about 90% of non-bulk cargo worldwide is transported by container, and modern container ships can carry over 19,000 TEU. Container ships now rival crude oil tankers and bulk carriers as the largest commercial vessels on the ocean, there are two main types of dry cargo, bulk cargo and break bulk cargo. Bulk cargoes, like grain or coal, are transported unpackaged in the hull of the ship, break-bulk cargoes, on the other hand, are transported in packages, and are generally manufactured goods. Before the advent of containerization in the 1950s, break-bulk items were loaded, lashed, unlashed and unloaded from the one piece at a time. However, by grouping cargo into containers,1,000 to 3,000 cubic feet of cargo, or up to about 64,000 pounds, is moved at once and each container is secured to the ship once in a standardized way. Containerization has increased the efficiency of moving traditional break-bulk cargoes significantly, reducing shipping time by 84%, in 2001, more than 90% of world trade in non-bulk goods was transported in ISO containers. In 2009, almost one quarter of the dry cargo was shipped by container. The first ships designed to carrying standardized load units were use in the late 18th century in England, in 1766 James Brindley designed the box boat Starvationer with 10 wooden containers, to transport coal from Worsley Delph to Manchester by Bridgewater Canal. Before the Second World War first container ships were used to carrying baggages of the passenger train from London to Paris, Golden Arrow/Fleche dOr. These containers were loaded in London or Paris and carried to ports, Dover or Calais, on cars in the UK. The earliest container ships after the Second World War were converted to tankers, in 1951, the first purpose-built container vessels began operating in Denmark, and between Seattle and Alaska. The first commercially successful container ship was Ideal X, a T2 tanker, owned by Malcom McLean, in 1955, McLean built his company, McLean Trucking into one of United States biggest freighter fleets. In 1955, he purchased the small Pan Atlantic Steamship Company from Waterman Steamship, on April 26,1956, the first of these rebuilt container vessels, Ideal X, left the Port Newark in New Jersey and a new revolution in modern shipping resulted. Container vessels eliminate the individual hatches, holds and dividers of the general cargo vessels. The hull of a container ship is a huge warehouse divided into cells by vertical guide rails
33.
Rosario-Victoria Bridge
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Rosario-Victoria Bridge is the informal name of the physical connection between the Argentine cities of Rosario and Victoria. This roadlink is composed of several bridges, viaducts and earth-filled sections and it crosses the main course of the Paraná River and touches down on several islands of the Paraná Delta in the way. Public transit access to the bridge was opened on May 20,2003, the link between the two cities spans a total of 59.4 kilometers. The total length of the bridges and their viaducts is 12.2 km. The main bridge is 4,098 meters long, with central cable-stayed span of 350 meters, among the materials used were about 250,000 cubic meters of concrete,63,000 tons of ADN-420 type steel, and 17,618 tons of asphalt. The access to the bridge on the western side is in the northern border of Rosario. The official name of the bridge is Nuestra Señora del Rosario. The project was executed by a company, which was granted subsidies from the national state. The company received the operation and maintenance concession of the bridge for 25 years, the southern Paraná is crossed by another cable-stayed bridge, the Zárate-Brazo Largo Bridge, joining Entre Ríos and Buenos Aires province. List of bridges Rosarios tourism agency page on the bridge RosarioTuristica. com. ar Puente-Rosario Victoria A monograph on the bridge Pictures of the bridge
34.
Goya, Argentina
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Goya is a city in the south-west of the province of Corrientes in the Argentine Mesopotamia. It has about 77,349 inhabitants as of the 2010 census, the city lies on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, opposite Reconquista, Santa Fe,218 kilometres south from the provincial capital and 715 kilometres north-northwest from Buenos Aires. Goya hosts the annual National Festival of the Surubí, which includes a fishing contest, the surubí is a popular large catfish of the Paraná. The city of Goya originated from the purchase of land at the site by Gregoria Morales and her husband, Bernardo Olivera, in 1771. The city does not have foundation act and, in agreement with the tradition, its name is owed to the enterprising Gregoria Morales nickname. The settlement was established as such in 1807, and the local cathedral. Among Goyas historical anecdotes is having been where Camila OGorman and her love, Father Ladislao Gutiérrez, sought refuge. In November migratory swallows arrive in Argentina from North America, according to local custom the swallows that come to Goya are from San Juan Capistrano, California. Local custom says the swallows arrive in Goya on November 24, having left San Juan Capistrano on October 23, following the Pacific coast on an 11,000 kilometer journey. When arriving in Goya, the swallows are received with a series of festivals at the Monument to the swallows located in San Martín Square, one of the birds preferred nesting places. The return to Capistrano of the first swallows begins around February 18, fiesta Nacional del Surubí - Official website of the National Festival of the Surubí. GoyaTeQuiereConocer - Official Tourism Calendar - Goya you want to know, Facebook Page de Goya - Goya Facebook Page - GoyaCorrientes. Facebook Page del Surubí - Surubí Facebook Page - SurubiGoya, un poco de la historia de Goya San Juan Capistrano
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