Geography of Ecuador
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Location:
Western South America, bordering the Pacific Ocean at the Equator (for which the country is named), between Colombia and Peru
Geographic coordinates:
Map references:
South America
Area:
- total: 283,560 km²
- land: 276,840 km²
- water: 6,720 km²
- note: includes Galápagos Islands
Land boundaries:
Maritime claims:
- continental shelf: claims continental shelf between mainland and Galapagos Islands
- territorial sea: 200 nm
Cities:
- Capital: Quito (population 1.4 million)
- Other cities: Guayaquil (2.0 million)
- Cuenca (0.41 million 2001)
- Ambato (0.28 million 2001)
- Portoviejo (0.23 million 2001)
- Machala (0.21 million 2001)
- Loja (0.14 million 2001)
Climate:
tropical along coast, becoming cooler inland at higher elevations; tropical in Amazonian jungle lowlands
Terrain:
Ecuador is commonly divided into four regions, which are both geographically and culturally distinctive.
Galápagos Islands
An island archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about 1,000 km west of the mainland; famed for the studies by Charles Darwin that led to his theory of natural selection as a means of evolution.
La Costa (the coast)
The western coastal area of Ecuador, bordering the Pacific Ocean, rising from coastal plain with many mangroves, although many of these have now been destroyed by shrimp farming, to the foothills of the Andes Mountains to the east; many banana, cacao and coffee plantations, as well. Guayaquil, located on the southern part of the coast is the biggest city of the country, with some beautiful beaches and an ocean port. In the north coast of Ecuador the port of Balao in Esmeraldas is used for oil export and the port of Manta is used by the United States Air Force as a control point for narcotics traffic control.
La Sierra (the mountains)
The central belt of Ecuador that includes the high Andes Mountains, inland from the coast; with volcanoes and mountain peaks that sport year-round snow on the equator; many areas long since deforested by agriculture; a number of cut-flower growing operations; at a certain altitude zone may be found the cloud forests, los bosques nublados. Quito, the capital city, is located in a high mountain valley on the west side of the highest mountains. Baños features a hot-springs swimming pool on the east side of the mountains. The road from Baños to Puyo has long been known for its hair-raising narrowness, curves and sheer drops (only one lane in some places, in one area, actually cut into the side of a cliff so that the cliff roofs over it). The most important east-west road across the Andes is the road from Quito to Lago Agrio, which is unpaved for most of its length yet is heavily traveled by tractor-trailers -- and the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline serves as the guardrail for long stretches of this road!
Notable Mountains and Volcanoes
- Chimborazo (6,267 m) extinct volcano, the furthest point from the earth's center
- Cotopaxi (5,897 m) one of the world's highest active volcanoes (Ojos del Salado, in Chile, at 6,887 is the highest active volcano in the world)
- Tungurahua (5,023 m)
- Pichincha (4,784 m) volcano overlooking Quito
El Oriente (the East)
tropical moist broadleaf forest (Spanish: la selva), on the east slopes of the Andes Mountains and descending into the Amazon Basin, with strikingly different upland rainforest with steep, rugged ridges and cascading streams (can be seen around Puyo) and lowland rainforest. The oil fields are located in the Amazon basin, headquartered at Lago Agrio; the rainforest has been all but obliterated in this region and environmental degradation is severe, with catastrophic oil pollution in some areas. In addition, Ecuador still lays claim to a large area of lowland rainforest to the east of this region, although Peru invaded it years ago and has held it ever since.
Elevation extremes:
- lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
- highest point: Chimborazo 6,300 m
Natural resources:
petroleum, fish, timber, hydropower
Land use:
- arable land: 6%
- permanent crops: 5%
- permanent pastures: 18%
- forests and woodland: 56%
- other: 15% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land:
5,560 km² (1994 est.)
Natural hazards:
frequent earthquakes, landslides, volcanic activity; periodic droughts
Environment - current issues:
deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; water pollution; pollution from oil production wastes
Environment - international agreements:
- party to: Antarctic Treaty, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
- signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geography - note:
Cotopaxi in the Andes is the highest active volcano in the world