Learn Spanish Abroad - Geography of Ecuador
Ecuador is a country in western South America, bordering the Pacific Ocean at the Equator, for which the country is named.Ecuador encompasses a wide range of natural formations and climates, from the desert-like southern coast to the snowcapped peaks of the Andes mountain range to the plains of the Amazon Basin. Cotopaxi in Ecuador is one of the world's highest active volcanos. It also has a large series of cliffs that follow the southern border and spill into the northwest area of Peru.
Area and borders
Ecuador is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, and has 2,337 km of coastline. It has 2010 km of land boundaries, with Colombia in the north (590 km border) and Peru in the east and south (1,420 km border). Ecuador continues to contest the boundary with Peru, which was established by the Rio Protocol of 1942 and ceded to Peru a large portion of territory east of the Andes.
Ecuador has a total area is 283,560 square kilometres (109,480 sq mi), including the Galápagos Islands. Of this, 276,840 km² is land and 6,720 km² water. Ecuador is one of the smaller countries in South America, slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Nevada, or roughly the size of the state of Colorado.
Cities
The capital and second most-populous city is Quito, with a population of 1.4 million. The most-populous city is Guayaquil (2 million). Other important cities include Cuenca (0.41 million), Ambato (0.28 million), Portoviejo (0.23 million), Machala (0.21 million), and Loja (0.14 million).
Geographical regions
Ecuador is divided into three continental regions—the Costa (coast), Sierra (mountains), and Oriente (east)—and one insular region, the Galápagos Islands (officially Archipiélago de Colón). The continental regions extend the length of the country from north to south and are separated by the Andes Mountains.
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos are located 1,000 km west of the Ecuadorian coast. They are noted for their association with Charles Darwin, whose observation of animals here during the voyage of the Beagle led to his formation of the theory of natural selection as a means of evolution.
La Costa (the coast)
Sulfur laguna on the site of AguaBlanca, Machalilla National Park, Ecuador
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; there are many banana, cacao and coffee plantations, as well. Guayaquil, located on the southern part of the coast is the biggest city of the country. On 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 (wild people) traffic control.
La Sierra (the highlands)
Mount Imbabura (Ecuador) from south-east
The central belt of Ecuador that includes the 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 cloud forests.
The northern Ecuadorian Andes are divided into three parallel cordilleras which run in what is similar to an S-shape from north to south: the western, central (Cordillerra Real) and eastern (Cordillera Occidental) cordilleras. The cordilleras were formed earlier in the Cenozoic era (the current geological era), as the Nazca Plate has subducted underneath the South American Plate and has raised the mountain range. In the south, the cordilleras are not well defined.
Quito, the capital city, is located in a high mountain valley on the foothills of the Pichincha. The town of Baños features hot springs swimming pools on the foothills of the Tungurahua in the Central Cordillera. The road from Baños to Puyo has long been known for its 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
The volcano Chimborazo from the Northwest
- Chimborazo (6,267 m) extinct volcano, the furthest point from the Earth's center
- Cotopaxi (5,897 m) the second highest active volcano in the world.
- Illiniza (5,248 m)
- Tungurahua (5,023 m) It is an active volcano in eruption since 1998 near Banios-Tunguragua
- Pichincha (4,784 m) volcano overlooking Quito
El Oriente (the East) Amazon Basin
Much of the Oriente is 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; some of the rainforest has been seriously damaged in this region and environmental degradation is severe, with catastrophic oil pollution in some areas. Some 38% of Ecuador's land is forested, and despite a 1.5% annual deforestation rate remains one of the most biodiverse locations on the planet. The Oriente is also home to a large number of Ecuador's indigenous groups, notably the lowland Quechua, Siona, Secoya, Huaorani, and Cofán.
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.
Drainage
Pastazas river near Baños, Ecuador
Almost all of the rivers in Ecuador rise in the Sierra region and flow east toward the Amazon River or west toward the Pacific Ocean. The rivers rise from snowmelt at the edges of the snowcapped peaks or from the abundant precipitation that falls at higher elevations. In the Sierra region, the streams and rivers are narrow and flow rapidly over precipitous slopes. Rivers may slow and widen as they cross the hoyas yet become rapid again as they flow from the heights of the Andes to the lower elevations of the other regions. The highland rivers broaden as they enter the more level areas of the Costa and the Oriente.
In the Costa region, the Costa Externa has mostly intermittent rivers that are fed by constant rains from December through May and become empty riverbeds during the dry season. The few exceptions are the longer, perennial rivers that flow throughout the Costa Externa from the Costa Internal and the Sierra on their way to the Pacific Ocean. The Costa Internal, by contrast, is crossed by perennial rivers that may flood during the rainy season, sometimes forming swamps.
The Guayas River system, which flows southward to the Gulf of Guayaquil, constitutes the most important of the drainage systems in the Costa Internal. The Guayas River Basin, including land drained by its tributaries, is 40,000 square kilometers in area. The sixty-kilometer-long Guayas River forms just north of Guayaquil out of the confluence of the Babahoyo and Daule rivers. Briefly constricted at Guayaquil by hills, the Guayas widens south of the city and flows through a deltaic network of small islands and channels. At its mouth, the river forms a broad estuary with two channels around Puná Island, the deeper of which is used for navigation.
The second major Costa river system—the Esmeraldas—rises in the Hoya de Quito in the Sierra as the Guayllabamba River and flows westward to empty into the Pacific Ocean near the city of Esmeraldas. The Esmeraldas River is 320 kilometers long and has a 20,000-square-kilometer drainage basin.
Major rivers in the Oriente include the Pastaza, Napo, and Putumayo. The Pastaza is formed by the confluence of the Chambo and the Patate rivers, both of which rise in the Sierra. The Pastaza includes the Agoyan waterfall, which at sixty-one meters is the highest waterfall in Ecuador. The Napo rises near Mount Cotopaxi and is the major river used for transport in the Eastern lowlands. The Napo ranges in width from 500 to 1,800 meters. In its upper reaches, the Napo flows rapidly until the confluence with one of its major tributaries, the Coca River, where it slows and levels off. The Putumayo forms part of the border with Colombia. All of these rivers flow into the Amazon River. The Galápagos Islands have no significant rivers. Several of the larger islands, however, have freshwater springs.
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