The Guiana Shield occupies a broad area in the NE of South America between the Atlantic Ocean, the Amazon, and the Orinoco rivers. Its ocean frontage, between these two rivers, is over 2000 km long, and its surface is 1,800,000 km2. The shield straddles the equator and has a climate of equatorial type, with two dry and two rainy seasons. The heat is moderated by the trade winds blowing from the E and NE. High precipitation, diminishing from E to W varies from 2500 to 5000 mm (100–200 in) per year. Temperatures average around 26°C. The main part of the country is covered by continuous tropical forest. Narrow belts of savanna occur along the shore and in the center (the Rupununi and Boa Vista savannas).
Politically this wide zone is divided into several territories: the “three Guianas” -the Republic of Guyana–formerly British Guiana, (231,800 km2); Surinam-Dutch Guiana (173,840 km2); and French Guiana-La Guyane francaise (88,240 km2), bordered by the Guayanas provinces of Venezuela to...
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McConnell, R.B., Choubert, B. (1975). Guiana shield-regional review . In: World Regional Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31081-1_59
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