Guiana Shield

The Guiana Shield rises behind the fertile, swampy and narrow coastal lowlands of northern South America on the northern edge of the Amazon basin to the Roraima Tepui ( 2,810 m) and the highest point with the Pico da Neblina ( 2,994 m) in the southwest. The Guayana Highlands, also called Guiana Shield is, with about 1.7 billion years a very old geological structural unit. It is characterized mainly by quartzites, sandstones, Arkosesandsteine ​​, conglomerates and tuffs of Precambrian age, which is penetrated by sills and dykes. The Roraima Supergroup forms the most important lithofacies structural unit.

The area is characterized by powerful mesas, also called tepuis, which plateaus due to their climatic isolation from the rainforest exhibit an endemic animal and plant world. Some mesas overthrow the highest waterfalls in the world in the tropical rain forest down, such as the Angel Falls and the Salto Kukenan. The highlands ends descending on the Rio Negro and the Amazon.

Coated is the mountainous region of savannas and grasslands and lowland foothills of the Amazon forest, which is considered the largest and most species-rich land ecosystem on earth.

In the Guayana region diamonds, gold and phosphates are mined in the forest exotic woods - often without any control and illegal - won. The steppes are ideal for the cultivation of rice, cotton, cocoa, sugar cane, bananas, coconut, coffee, rubber.

The western part Guiana belongs politically to Venezuela. A large part is protected by the Canaima National Park, which was declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. The south Guiana belongs to Brazil, the main part shared by both countries Guyana (formerly British Guiana), and Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana ) and French Guiana, a French overseas department.