This week’s theme for the WP Photo Challenge is Force of Nature.
I am sharing with you a gallery of one of the most beautiful Forces of Nature of our planet: The Amazon Forest.
The Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 square kilometres (2,700,000 sq mi), of which 5,500,000 square kilometres (2,100,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest.
This region includes territory belonging to nine nations. The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
The Amazon represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species.
The landscape contains:
- One in ten known species on Earth
- 1.4 billion acres of dense forests, half of the planet’s remaining tropical forests
- 4,100 miles of winding rivers
- 2.6 million square miles in the Amazon basin, about 40 percent of South America
There is a clear link between the health of the Amazon and the health of the planet. The rain forests, which contain 90-140 billion metric tons of carbon, help stabilize local and global climate. Deforestation may release significant amounts of this carbon, which could have catastrophic consequences around the world.
The Amazon has an insurmountable value in the natural world due to the Oxygen that it provides, the Carbon Dioxide that it consumes and the splendid array of exquisite plant and animal species to which it is home. In fact, it is home to the most diverse and numerous arrays of species in the world.
Let’s make sure to no deplete its resources, if we want to keep breathing…
In the gallery below you will see the Amazon river, the forest, some of its animals, the giant Kapok tree, and the Meeting of Waters, the confluence between the Rio Negro, a river with dark (water, and the sandy-colored Amazon River or Rio Solimões. For 6 km (3.7 mi) the river’s waters run side by side without mixing.
This phenomenon is due to the differences in temperature, speed and water density of the two rivers. The Rio Negro flows at near 2 km per hour at a temperature of 28°C, while the Rio Solimões flows between 4 to 6 km per hour a temperature of 22°C.
Click to enlarge the photos.
Thanks for sharing the Amazon forest thatvis important ecosystem. My Force of Nature can be found at http://idahobluebird50.wordpress.com
LikeLike
You are welcome, Betty Louise.
LikeLike
Amazing!
LikeLike
Thanks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
amazing gallery! If I wouldn’t be so scared and afraid of snakes, it would be on my top 3 travel destinations 🙂
LikeLike
You don’t need to be afraid of snakes as you won’t go to the dense forest at all. You can do what I did in one week without being ever at risk. You can bring it back to your top 3! It’s a place you can’t miss.
LikeLiked by 1 person
sounds great 🙂
LikeLike
Let me know whenever you decide as I can help you planning.
LikeLike
thanks, now I need some more time off 🙂
LikeLike
hahaha that’s always the case!
LikeLiked by 1 person
oh amazing, I so want to visit the Amazon! thank you for sharing
LikeLike
You are welcome, Andy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Lucile!
Your posts always offer plenty of beautiful images, geographic and historical details and unplayable descriptions…
LikeLike
You are welcome.
I am happy to share and glad you like it.
LikeLike
Beleza!
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Do you speak some Portuguese?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wish I would have been too stubborn to learn it! I dated a Swiss-Brazilian once… Spent a lot of time in this beautiful country but never really learned it. Only some phrases…
LikeLike
That’s so interesting to hear!
Where in Brazil have you been?
Do you know that I’m Dutch-Brazilian?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you mentioned it? Spent most of the time in São Paulo, been to Rio, Mato Grosso (Cuiaba, Pantanal), Bahia… Such a beautiful country!
LikeLike
Very intriguing pictures! I am dreaming of visiting a rain forest ever since I read El amor en los tiempos del colera, even if that is not quite the point of the book.
LikeLike
Interesting association! Then you should make your dream come true!
For this trip I can help you with tips. Anytime.
LikeLike
If I do make it come true, I will ask your advice for sure! It might take some time though – I have already decided on our next two big destinations.
LikeLike
Just let me know!
Cheers…
LikeLike
Wow. I am so intrigued by those waters meeting and not mixing. That’s fabulous. Your sunrise is lovely. And OMG I love the tarantula!!!! Fab fab.
LikeLike
The meeting of waters is the most impressive. Temperature, density, speed, are totally different. Fascinating to watch.
The sunrise photos out a smile on my face. We left at 5am rowing through the forest with another couple and a guide. It was foggy and humid. A bit spooky too!! But the beauty is indescribable!
It was my second visit to the Amazon forest but I can go there again as there is still a lot to see.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ll bet. I would love to see it sometime as well. And those fish! Huge! Very cool.
LikeLike
Well, include in the travel list!!
And you know what, those fishes are delicious too!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh wow really?! They will feed a few families.
LikeLike
I guess they do!! The indigenous people eat them a lot.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A beautiful collage Lucile 🙂 , forces of nature both small and big. The sunsets captured my heart so, great shots.
LikeLike
Thank you so much, Ruby!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Always a pleasure Lucile 🙂 after all you always encourage me to do more on my blog. Have a great week ahead. Cheers.
LikeLike
I’m humbled by your kind words, Ruby.
You are a great photographer and I simply acknowledge that.
Thanks for the wishes. May you also have a great one!
Cheers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
lovely shots – they brought back memories of my trip to the Amazon a few years ago 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks for dropping by and commenting!
What did you do whilst there?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I went there as part of an Intrepid Tour of Peru so we were in the Peruvian part of the Jungle. It was amazing- we must have done similar things to you as we did a river cruise, saw some tarantulas (yay!), macaws and lots of monkey and we stayed in the jungle in an awesome ecolodge which was fun. I remember it was very very muddy! How about you?
LikeLike
That sounds very interesting. We had a similar experience. River cruise, forest, ecolodge…
We enjoyed rowing through the inundated forest before sunrise. It was quite magic. The weather was mildly humid and we didn’t suffer much from mosquito bites.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You were lucky- we got eaten alive by mosquitoes, there were millions of them everywhere!
LikeLike
I’m not surprised! That’s what we expected but I can’t complain!!
LikeLike
Stunning photo after stunning photo! Now I have to visit there too! If you keep on posting beautiful pictures of magical places, I may never make it home.
LikeLike
Go there, Lisa, as you won’t regret! You have the whole world at your disposal, so just keep traveling and bringing us along with you. Home is where you are, isn’t it?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed 😃
LikeLiked by 1 person
A great gallery showing the forces of nature, I will definitely put this one on my wish list of places to visit one day. That spider looks a bit scary to me!
LikeLike
As you’re a globetrotter, you really will need to put this one on your list. You won’t see the spider unless in the forest but you will do that with an indigenous guide, so no fear.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ok I believe you about the spider!! It’s now officially on the list 🙂
LikeLike
Brilliant! Let me know.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lucile, what an incredible post. The pictures are stunning, and the narrative is concise, yet detailed with astounding statistics. We so really need to protect this extremely valuable resource. I must get down into the Amazonia and experience it myself.
Thank you so much for sharing!
~Carl~
LikeLike
Absolutely right, Carl. If we don’t protect it, we won’t have air to breath.
You should visit, it is an unforgettable experience.
I am happy you enjoyed the post.
Cheers.
Lucile
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is one of my favorite posts of yours. So informative, such luscious photos. Many people don’t know how endangered the jungle is—we (humans) keep cutting it down. It supplies air. We get rid of the forest, we get rid of our air. For me, it’s a no-brainer. But when money is involved, a no-brainer can easily turn into an “I don’t care about air” maybe? That’s a hairy spider. Is that a banyan tree behind the little girl? Did you change the color of your blog?
NEWS FLASH: I am becoming a Lucile. I am doing things. Because of you, I finally ordered my iPhone online, it should be delivered today or tomorrow. Proud of me?
LikeLiked by 1 person
How lovely, a favorite! The Amazon deserves that, I admit!
I could not agree more with you. This forest is vital for human life on earth and many people in most countries are not aware of it.
The savages who illegally exploit it are short term thinkers, seeking to maximize their profits as soon as possible, and don’t care about the future of this planet.
There is constant surveillance but still it happens because the forest is dense, and there are parts not accessible to regular checks.
This is a Kapok tree.
Yes, I changed three times already…went from salmon to beige and back to grey, just a tad darker. I have been thinking about using a new theme but each time I check new ones, I ended up playing with the colors of the current one.
OMG! These are shocking news! You are becoming me? Just be aware that I am constantly reinventing myself… If that is ok with you!
I was already proud of you. Now I am hyper mega proud! Photos, pleaaaase?
LikeLike
Really lovely photos of the mighty Amazon~ Informative and I agree, we need to be aware of our world and the ecosystems we are destroying. I love the lily pad photo with vibrant green 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you so much! Ditto. We need to protect our ecosystems if we want to have life on earth.
🙂
LikeLike
What an adventure, Lucile! Stunning photos, as usual, and your explanation is very informative. Such beauty in nature.
LikeLike
I am happy you liked it! Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are quite the adventurer!
LikeLike
The Amazon is such a beautiful place and these are such wonderful pictures of it. Thank you for sharing them. 🙂
LikeLike
I am happy to share; The Amazon is ours!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lucky you to have seen all these fantastic things. Those trees with the buttress roots are amazing.
LikeLike
It helps to se it more often when one lives there. I’m Brazilian-Dutch and have lived in Brazil before.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Then I think you would have a special insight into the region?
LikeLike
Let’s say, a local insight though outdated a I don’t live there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautiful! Did you trek through the forest?
After so long, this finally caught my attention. Bridging lacunas. Didn’t understand it until I googled it moments before I commented and.. I love the phrase!!
LikeLike
Thank you Albert. Yes I did. But with a local guide.
How nice that you like the phrase. That’s what I try to do in my head when blogging…lol
Btw, I can never get access to your comments from the reader.
Are you blogging outside WP ?
Better than follow you via email?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cool! would love to see pictures of the insides if there are any!
You’re definitely doing it very well. Both bridging the gaps in our knowledge and bringing people together 😉
Your observation is spot on. Unfortunately, I’ve been a big ignorant on this issue. It started happening after one of WordPress brilliant updates… Easiest would be to view as original or yes you can subscribe via email. Apologies for the inconvenience 😦
LikeLike
There are inside pictures but as it had other people and me, I didn’t use it for the post. I’m no force of nature…lol
Your comment is very considerate and I’m immensely grateful for that.
This WP update has not been short of annoyances and I haven’t read any happy posts about it. I for one don’t like it. They created extra and not user friendly steps. The beep beep thing is useless. I use the classic editor but they will slowly take it from us.
No need to apologize. I’m the one sorry for not having left comments although I loved your stunning pics.
Your blog is wonderful. And I learnt a lot from you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahaha no harm done. I was simply curious as to what it looked like on the inside through your eyes 🙂
Ohh.. I don’t believe i’ve had a chance to see or use this new editor. I think there r some slight differences between ours. As far as I can tell, mine hasn’t changed since September.
My annoyance lies with the simple functionalities not offered to us self hosted ones 😦 then again it’s my fault for being a smart ass and starting off with a self host and not putting in enough effort to make it friendly for the majority!
Thank you as well for your very kind words 🙂 i shall continue to strive harder to please!
LikeLike
You’re very lucky if they don’t offer you the new editor. It is bad…Whoever designed it didn’t think about the users and doesn’t care about our criticism. Another day one Happy Engineer just answered to someone saying: “this is not a democracy”. Wowee what mentality is this?
And if they reduced functionalities to the self hosted one, is to discourage you to self host.
Your site is not unfriendly and it is just a pity that we cannot access it via the reader. We don’t give you up though!
Keep up the great work!
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
yikes.. that is indeed disheartening. I hope they’ll change this attitude of theirs and make it more pleasant for all of us! Calls for a petition! hahaha.
I’m honoured to hear your kind compliments 🙂 have a good day sista!
LikeLike
Let’s hope so…
I’m heading to your posts now brother! Eager to see more beauty.
Cheers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cheers! Hope you enjoyed your stay 😉
LikeLike
I did! Cheers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And thank you. Have a good weekend too, talented bro.
LikeLiked by 1 person
wonderful pictures and information. the tarantula was very cool. it reminded me of the movie, arachnophobia. it’s a favorite creature feature of mine, but it would be cool to see such creatures up close in real life (if also a little unnerving too).
LikeLike
Great that you liked it. I haven’t seen the movie as this is not my fave animal…In real life is quite scary..
LikeLiked by 1 person
thankfully i can only imagine.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right on! 😎
LikeLike
The watery scenes are so atmospheric and appealing. I could have done without ever seeing the tarantula, though! The spiders are one thing that might keep me from spending a lot of time n the Amazon – yikes.
LikeLike
This was the only one we saw, Lexie. And we were walking deep in the forest with a guide who knew the place well. So, no need to fear them.
LikeLiked by 1 person