The Amazon rain forest in Brazil is the largest forest in the world.
It’s about five times the size of Texas.
The Amazon represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests, and has been in existence for at least 55 million years.
It is also the most species rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world, and is home to about 2.5 million insect species.
Human activities in the region, especially logging, farming, ranching, and road building, continue to destroy more acres of this rain forest every day.
Between 1980 and 1990, Brazil lost about 5.4 million acres (2.16 hectares) of rain forest, an area larger than New Jersey.
Because the earth’s crust below Brazil is very ancient and stable, the country has never had an earthquake or a volcanic eruption.
The name Amazon is believed to come from a war Francisco de Orellana fought with a tribe of Tapuyas and other tribes from South America.
