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Evolution of the Amazon landscape from the Precambrian

Abstract:

This rehearsal is a study about the evolution of the Amazonian landscape from the Precambrian until the present. It is the result of an intense bibliographical research in books and national and international scientific rehearsals. It presents the geological and climatic evidences of the changes in the Amazonian, and their main implications concerning the current biodiversity; it detaches the several authors’ point of view on the hypothesis of the Paleo-Amazon and the formation of his current basin. The work exposes that the geological and climatic processes went decisive for the different and multiple changes of the landscape through the time that they affected the topography, the soil, the vegetation, and the fauna of South America and of the Amazonian. There was a great impact of these events in the formation of the forest and no-forest strongholds that they contributed with the speciation and divergence of present species now in the different habitats of the Amazonian. Today, the waters of the river Amazon contribute intense sedimentation that it is transported by the tide, forming the extensive swamps of the north of Brazil. However, the effects of all these events are not still totally measured and understood for the natural sciences.

Keywords:
Amazon River; Marginal Basin; Portal of Guayaquil; Gulf of Maracaibo

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