17,780,000 km^2、を占め、これは地表の約3.5%である。2005年の人口は、371,090,000人と見積もられている。南アメリカはアジア、アフリカ、ヨーロッパに続いて四番目に人口の多い大陸である。
Many of the islands of the
Caribbean (or West Indies) ? e.g., the Leeward and
Lesser Antilles ? sit atop the
Caribbean Plate, a tectonic plate with a diffuse topography. The islands of
Aruba,
Barbados,
Trinidad, and
Tobago sit on the northerly South American
continental shelf. The
Netherlands Antilles and the
federal dependencies of Venezuela lie along the northerly South American. Geopolitically, the island states and overseas territories of the Caribbean are generally grouped as a part or subregion of North America.
[[外部リンク] South America Atlas National Geographic][[外部リンク] North America Atlas National Geographic][[外部リンク] Unstats Americas] The South American nations that border the Caribbean Sea ? including
Colombia,
Venezuela,
Guyana,
Suriname, and
French Guiana ? are also known as
Caribbean South America. Other islands are the
Gal?pagos,
Easter Island (in Oceania but belongs to Chile),
Robinson Crusoe Island,
Chilo? Island, and the
Tierra del Fuego
South America is home to the world's highest
waterfall,
Angel Falls in Venezuela, the largest river (by volume), the
Amazon River, the longest mountain range, the
Andes (whose highest mountain is Aconcagua at 6,962 m (22,841 ft)), the driest desert, the
Atacama Desert, the largest rainforest, the
Amazon Rainforest, the highest railroad, Ticlio
Peru, the highest capital city,
La Paz, Bolivia, the highest commercially navigable lake in the world,
Lake Titicaca, and the world's southernmost town,
Puerto Toro,
Chile.