Term | Definition |
isthmus | a marrow strip of land having water on each side and joining two larger bodies of land |
guerrilla | a member of an armed force that is not part of a regular army, relating to a form of warfare carried on by such an independent armed force |
archipelago | a group of islands |
coral island | island formed by the skeletal remains of tiny sea animals and the sand and sediment piling on top of them |
windward | facing the wind |
leeward | facing away from the wind |
escarpment | a steep cliff that seperates two level areas of differing elevations |
sertao | an interior platue in brazil with poor soil and uncertain rain |
favela | a slum community in a brazilian city |
plantation | a large estate farmed by many workers |
gasohol | a fuel mixture of gasoline and ethanol |
deforestation | the process of stripping the land of its trees |
ecotourism | tourism that encourages environmental awareness and has little effect on the ecosystem |
mulatto | a person of mixed african and european ancestry |
bauxite | a mineral used in making aluminum |
llano | a grassy plain |
cordillera | a related set of seperate mountain ranges |
campesino | in latin america a tenant farmer farm worker |
altiplano | a plateau region located in the Andes of Bolivia and Peru |
paramo | a plateau in the andes of ecuador |
timber line | the boundary in high elevations above which continuous forest vegetation cannot grow |
selva | a forested region in ecuador, peru,and bolivia |
estuary | the wide mouth of a river where fresh water river currents meet salt water |
piedmont | a region of rolling foothillls |
pampas | a grasslands region in argentina and uruguay |
gaucho | a cowboy who herded cattle in the pampas of argentina and Uruguay |