by eduars | Sep 29, 2013 | Amazon Basin, Featured
A new study found unsafe amounts of mercury in fish and people in Puerto Maldonado, the capital of Peru’s southeastern Madre de Dios Region. Average mercury levels in nine of the 15 most commonly consumed fish species were above the limit recommended by the U.S....
by eduars | Sep 29, 2013 | Andes Mountains, Featured
The uplift of the Andes mountains over millions of years has been due to a combination of plate tectonics and volcanism. Tectonic plates are sections of the earth’s crust that are in motion. Where they collide, they cause earthquakes and volcanoes and form...
by eduars | Sep 29, 2013 | Coastal Desert, Featured
Peru’s coast is a long strip of desert cut in more than 50 places by seasonal rivers that flow from the Andes to the Pacific Ocean. But the coast has not always been arid. After South America broke away from Africa and the rest of Gondwana, the west coast was...
by eduars | Sep 29, 2013 | Andes Mountains, Featured
The Andes are topped by the largest concentration of ice anywhere in the Earth’s tropics (the belt around the middle of the planet, between 30 degrees North and 30 degrees South latitude). In 1991, tropical Andean glaciers covered an estimated 1,065 square miles...
by eduars | Sep 29, 2013 | Coastal Desert, Featured
Along the Peruvian coast is a string of rocky islands and peninsulas that are home to guanay cormorants, boobies, and pelicans. The birds leave the islands every morning to feed on the fish, especially anchovies, that are plentiful in theHumboldt Current. They return...
