Independence Day Recently Celebrated in Brazil

People all across BRAZIL celebrated their country's Independence Day yesterday on Monday, September 7th. Brazil achieved independence from Portugal in 1825, preceded by a declaration of independence in September 1822. Happy belated Independence Day!

Brazil Exports

The following produce and materials are major exports of BRAZIL: appliances, automobiles, bauxite, biofuel (particularly ethanol), citrus fruit, coffee, corn, footwear, gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, petroleum, phosphate, platinum, rare earth elements, soybeans, sugarcane, textiles, timber, tin, transportation equipment, and wheat. According to the International Monetary Fund (data.imf.org), countries and territories buying and importing most of those exports in 2016 include China (top importer), the United States, Argentina, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Chile, Mexico, Italy, Belgium, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Singapore, India, Uruguay, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Canada, France, and Russia.

Rio Olympics Medal Tally

Yesterday was the final day for Rio 2016 Summer Olympics festivities and events, and therefore the medal count is essentially finalized. The Top 20 countries in terms of athletes' number of medals are listed below, followed by the numbers of gold, silver, and bronze medals.

1)  UNITED STATES — 121
46 Gold          37 Silver          38 Bronze

2)  CHINA — 70
26          18          26

3)  UNITED KINGDOM (Great Britain) — 67
27          23          17

4)  RUSSIA — 56
19          18          19

5)  GERMANY — 42
17          10          15

6)  FRANCE — 42
10          18          14

7)  JAPAN — 41
12          8          21

8)  AUSTRALIA — 29
8          11          10

9)  ITALY — 28
8          12          8

10)  CANADA — 22
4          3          15

11)  (REPUBLIC of) SOUTH KOREA — 21
9          3          9

12)  The NETHERLANDS — 19
8          7          4

13)  BRAZIL — 19
7          6          6

14)  NEW ZEALAND — 18
4          9          5

15)  AZERBAIJAN — 18
1          7          10

16) SPAIN — 17
7          4          6

17)  KAZAKHSTAN — 17
3          5          9

18)  HUNGARY — 15
8          3          4

19)  DENMARK — 15
2          6          7

20)  KENYA — 13
6          6          1

Full medal tally and event results can be found on Rio's official Olympics website, Rio2016.com.

New Brazil Map

The GeoFact of the Day Blog now features a new map of BRAZIL, as shown below! This is now featured on the « Brazil blog post », which is chock-full of info. Thanks for visiting my beloved blog — today and always!

Brazil Post is Updated

Hey there! I wanted to tell you that I recently updated the original Brazil post. Check it out, and feel free to write a comment if there are fun and interesting facts you would want to see in my post. Thanks for your readership today and always!

Rivers Near South American Capitals

Capital cities in all varieties of countries are often located next to or close to rivers and streams. Rivers facilitate trade, convenient transportation, beautification of cities, and recreation activities for residents and tourists. Almost every capital in South America straddles a major river. At the very least, every capital in the continent has rivers, streams, and canals flowing near or within them. In the text below, every country's name has a convenient link to their posts; these links open in new tabs or windows.

Buenos Aires, the capital of ARGENTINA
     ― Río de la Plata and Riachuelo (Río de la Matanza)

La Paz, one of the capitals of BOLIVIA
     ― Río Choqueyapu and Río Seco

Sucre, the other capital of Bolivia
     ― Río Cachimayu

Brasília, the capital of BRAZIL
     ― Ribeirão Taguatinga (stream) and Río São Bartolomeu

Santiago, the capital of CHILE
     ― Canal San Carlos (manmade canal), Río Maipo, and Río Mapocho

Bogotá, the capital of COLOMBIA
     ― Río Bogotá and Río Tunjuelo

Quito, the capital of ECUADOR
     ― Río San Pedro

Cayenne, the capital of FRENCH GUIANA (overseas territory)
     ― Canal LeBlond (manmade canal) and Rivière des Cascades

Georgetown, the capital of GUYANA
     ― Demerara River and east of Essequibo River

Asunción, the capital of PARAGUAY
     ― Arroyo Leandro Sosa (stream) and Río Paraguay

Lima, the capital of PERU
     ― Río Lurín, Río Rímac, and south of Río Chillón

Paramaribo, the capital of SURINAME
     ― Suriname River (Surinamerivier in Dutch)

Montevideo, the capital of URUGUAY
     ― Arroyo Miguelete and Arroyo Pantanoso (streams north and northwest of Montevideo)

Carácas, the capital of VENEZUELA
     ― Quebrada Caroata (stream) and Río Guaire

Matching Game - Presidents of Latin America

Below, simply match the past president with the correct country. Argentina and Mexico both have two answer choices. Answers are found multiple spaces down below. Of course, try not to consult the Internet or any other sources to see if you have great knowledge or guessing skills about these questions!

1. Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira was the 21st president (1956-1961) of __________.

2. Bernardino Rivadavia was the 1st president (1826-1827) of __________.

3. José de San Martin was the 1st president (1821-1822) of __________ and encouraged the independence of Argentina from Spain.

4. Jean-Pierre Boyer was the 2nd president (1818-1843) of __________, one of two countries on the island of Hispaniola.

5. Raúl Alfonsín was the 46th president (1983-1989) of __________ and was the country's first democratically elected president after a previous military government.

6. Miguel Alemán was the 46th president (1946-1952) of __________.

7. Fulgencio Batista was the 9th president (1940-1944) and the 12th "president" (basically a dictator from 1952-1959) of __________.

8. Pedro Santana was the 1st (1844-1848), 4th (1853-1856), and 8th (1858-1861) president of the __________, the other country on the island of Hispaniola.

9. Lázaro Cárdenas was the 44th president (1934-1940) of __________.


















Answers
1. Brazil
2. Argentina
3. Peru
4. Haiti
5. Argentina
6. Mexico
7. Cuba
8. Dominican Republic
9. Mexico

Countries with Z in their Names

There are sixteen countries with Z in their names. Two countries start with the letter Z: Zambia and Zimbabwe. Other countries with the letter Z in their names are Azerbaijan, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mozambique, New Zealand, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela. Zaire was a former Z country, but that became the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Brazil Endangered Species

As of November 30th, 2014, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ for BRAZIL lists seven critically endangered mammal species and at least 16 endangered mammal species. As you probably know, Brazil is home to millions of acres of rainforest, many of which are especially threatened by the timber industry and expansion of agriculture and urban areas. As a result, over 300 species in Brazil are endangered including the 16 mammal species. The critically endangered mammal species are the Black-Faced Lion Tamarin, Brazil Arboreal Mouse, Capuchin monkey, Coimbra's Titi monkey, Golden-Rumped Lion Tamarin, Northern Bahian Blond Titi, and Northern Muriqui (Woolly Spider Monkey).

Discover more about Brazil! (link to my blog post)

10 Most Populous Cities in Brazil

With many Brazilian cities rapidly growing in population and with different growth rates, it can be useful to examine current population trends and compare it with population data from previous years. According to UNdata (a service of the United Nations Statistics Division) from the year 2012, the ten most populous cities all had populations greater than 1 million:

#1) São Paulo: over 11,000,000
#2) Rio de Janeiro: over 6 million
#3) Salvador: over 2.67 million
#4) Brasília: over 2.48 million
#5) Fortaleza: over 2.45 million
#6) Belo Horizonte: over 2.37 million
#7) Manaus: over 1.79 million
#8) Curitiba: over 1.75 million
#9) Recife: over 1.53 million
#10) Porto Alegre: over 1.40 million

Meanwhile, population figures from the Hammond World Atlas* of 2010 showed that the population rankings of Belo Horizonte and Brazil's capital, Brasília, were switched. With the ninth highest population in 2010, Manaus now surpassed the populations of Curitiba and Recife. Comparing these statistics suggest that the populations of Brasília and Manaus grew faster than Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, and Recife. Various social, political, economic, environmental, and cultural factors influence why some cities grow faster than others.

* Hammond World Atlas, Sixth Edition. Hammond World Atlas Corporation, 2010.

Brazil - Rio Grande Do Sul

Rio Grande Do Sul is a state found beside the Atlantic Ocean in BRAZIL. This state is in the southernmost part of Brazil, located east of Northern Argentina and north of Uruguay. Also, it is south of Santa Catarina, another Brazilian state. Porto Alegre, the administrative capital of the state, is by far the largest city in Rio Grande Do Sul with a population greater than 1,500,000. Other cities include Canoas, Caxias do Sul, Pelotas, Río Grande, and Uruguaiana. The western borderline is the Uruguay (Uruguai) River, while the northern borderline is a combination of the Uruguay River and one of its tributaries, the Pelotas River. There are many other streams and rivers within Rio Grande Do Sul, including but definitely not limited to Cuareim (forms the southwest border with Uruguay), Ibicuí, Jacuí, Rio das Antas, and Vacacai. Lagoa dos Patos (Duck's Lagoon in English), the largest lagoon in Brazil, is located parallel to the Atlantic Ocean. It is mostly separated from the ocean by a peninsula, except at the city of Río Grande where there is a stream connecting the two water bodies.

Country Crossed by Equator & Tropic of Capricorn

BRAZIL is the only country in the world to be crossed by both the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. The Tropic of Capricorn is the east-west latitude line running over 23 degrees south of the Equator!

10 Largest Countries

Here are the 10 largest countries in area:

1) Russia
2) Canada
3 or 4) * United States of America
3 or 4) * China
5) Brazil
6) Australia
7) India
8) Argentina
9) Kazakhstan
10) Algeria — was formerly Sudan until South Sudan separated from Sudan

*** Visit this wikipedia page for the whole list of countries by area.

* The areas of the USA and China may vary depending on what is included and excluded from the total area; both total areas are similar.

Brazil

  

Officially named the Federative Republic of Brazil, BRAZIL (Brasil) boasts plenty of geographic superlatives. For example, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country. With the world's largest Portuguese-speaking population, Brazil is the largest country of South America and the Southern Hemisphere. Located in northern and northeastern South America, Brazil borders 11 of the 13 South American countries; the exceptions are Chile and Ecuador. Brazil's currency is the Brazilian Real, and its ISO 4217 currency code is BRL. Famous for its towering Christ the Redeemer (O Cristo Redentor) statue, Rio de Janeiro hosted the thirty-first Summer Olympics competition in August 2016, starting with the Opening Ceremony on the 5th (Friday).

● ● ● ● ●  People and Places  ● ● ● ● ●  Most of Brazil's major cities are found along the coast of the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean, including Belém, Fortaleza, João Pessoa, Macapá, Maceió, Natal, Olinda, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, São Luís, São Paulo, and Vitória. Sao Paulo is the most popular city with about 10.7 million residents as of 2016, followed by Rio de Janeiro (5.95 million) and Salvador (2.49 million). The capital with about 2.5 million residents (2016) is Brasília, located in southeast-central Brazil and in the Distrito Federal (Federal District) — surrounded by the states of Goías (north, south, and west) and Minas Gerais (east). Other major inland cities besides Brasília include Belo Horizonte, Campo Grande, Cuiabá, Goiânia, Ji-Paraná, Manaus, and Maraba.

Portuguese is Brazil's official language, and it is universally spoken in the country. Meanwhile, 2,000,000 total Brazilians speak Italian, German, and other European languages. Native indigenous groups and their respective languages include Canela, Guajajára, Guaraní (currently the largest tribe in Brazil), Hixkaryána, Jamamadí, Kaiwá, Maxakalí, Ticuna, Tucano, Xavánte, and Yąnomamö. Meaning "land of the palm trees," Pindorama is the Guaraní name for Brazil. The literacy rate of Brazil — as of the year 2015 — is 91.5%. Over 90% of Brazilians are Christians, followed by Spiritism (5%), Buddhism (0.25%), and Judaism (0.21%).

● ● ● ● ●  Land and Water Features  ● ● ● ● ●  Brazil encompasses a large central and eastern portion of the Amazon Rainforest, subjected to deforestation and conversion to farmland but recovering in some areas. The Amazon River (Rio Amazonas, also Rio Solimões) flows about 2,845 kilometers and 1,768 miles through Brazil and for a total length of about 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles). In Brazil, this mighty river begins its journey near the tri-state border at Brazil, Colombia, and Peru in the state of Amazonas. The Amazon River flows eastward along the border of Amapá and Pará states into the Atlantic Ocean. Near the coastal city of Macapá, the Amazon diverts itself into an estuary connected to the Atlantic Ocean. Amazon River tributaries include Juruá, Madeira, Tapajós, and Xingu.

Located in the Guiana Highlands and specifically in northwestern Brazil near Venezuela, Pico da Neblina is Brazil's highest point and stands about 2,995 meters and 9,825 feet in elevation. Essentially named Ducks Lagoon in English, Brazil's largest lake is Lagoa dos Patos (Patos Lagoon), which is situated northeast of Uruguay and in between the cities of Porto Alegre (northern shore), Pelotas (southern shore), and Rio Grande (southern shore). The name may come from the notion that 16th-century Jesuit missionaries wanted to conduct duck breeding operations in this lagoon. The 14,000-square-mile lagoon's southern outlet to the Atlantic Ocean is more than 1 kilometer in width and is typically cloudy with sediments and pollution.

This post was updated with more information and a new map on August 17th, 2016.

Amazon River

Located in northern South America in the countries of BRAZIL, COLOMBIA, and PERU, the Amazon River is the 2nd longest river in the world after the Nile River. It is at least 4,000 miles long, and the water volume of the river accounts for 1/5 of the world river flow!