Term | Definition |
isthmus | a narrow strip of land having water on each side and joining two larger bodies of land |
guerrilla | a member of an armed force that is mot 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 | an 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 separates two level areas of differing elevations |
sertao | an interior plateau 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 tress |
ecotourism | tourism that encourages environmental avarenes and has little effect on the ecosystem |
mulatto | A person of mixed African and European ancestry |
bauxite | a mineral used in making aluminum |
llano | |
cordillera | a related set of separate mountain ranges |
campesino | in Latin America a tenant farmer of farm worker |
altiplano | a plateau region located in the Andes of Bolivia and Peru |
paramo | a plateau in the Andes of Ecuador |
timber lime | 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 freshwater river currents meet salt water |
Piedmont | a region of rolling foothills |
pampas | a grasslands region in Argentina and Uruguay |
gaucho | a cowboy who herded cattle in the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay |