词条 | Altiplano |
释义 | Altiplano region, South America English High Plateau, also called Puna ![]() The dominant vegetation consists of grass and shrubs. The region's wildlife originally included the alpaca and the llama, both of which are now bred for wool and serve as pack animals. The southern half of the Altiplano falls within a zone of deficient moisture, while the northern half receives rainfall adequate for the cultivation of crops without irrigation. Temperatures around the shores of Lake Titicaca (Titicaca, Lake) are moderate, and corn (maize) and wheat can be grown there to an elevation of 12,800 feet (3,900 metres). The basin, now the location of urban centres such as Puno and Juliaca, Peru, has been the core of a relatively dense population since ancient times. La Paz, the chief political and commercial city of Bolivia in the Altiplano, is located not far southeast of Lake Titicaca, at the bottom of a spectacular chasm 1,400 feet (400 metres) below the surface of the Altiplano but still 11,909 feet (3,631 metres) above sea level. The southern half of the Altiplano is much less hospitable to settlement than the north, although its desolate expanses of desert yield important mineral resources including copper, silver, tungsten, and tin. One of Bolivia's main railway lines runs along the eastern edge of the Altiplano, from the southern edge of the Titicaca Basin southward to Oruro, Bolivia, where the line forms two branches, one extending to the tin mines of Unicia, Bolivia, in the Cordillera Oriental, and one to the basin of Cochabamba, Bolivia, on the lower eastern slopes. |
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