Peru

varies from tropical in east to dry desert in west; temperate to frigid in Andes

western coastal plain (costa), high and rugged Andes in center (sierra), eastern lowland jungle of Amazon Basin (selva)

Western South America, bordering the South Pacific Ocean, between Chile and Ecuador

2,414 km

25,800 sq km (2012)

Amazon Basin

South America

earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding, landslides, mild volcanic activity volcanism: volcanic activity in the Andes Mountains; Ubinas (5,672 m) is the country's most active volcano; other historically active volcanoes include El Misti, Huaynaputina, Sabancaya, and Yucamane; see note 2 under "Geography - note"

note 1: shares control of Lago Titicaca, world's highest navigable lake, with Bolivia; a remote slope of Nevado Mismi, a 5,316-m (17,441-ft) peak, is the ultimate source of the Amazon River note 2: Peru is one of the countries along the Ring of Fire, which is a belt bordering the Pacific Ocean that contains about 75% of the world's volcanoes and up to 90% of the world's earthquakes note 3: on 19 February 1600, Mount Huaynaputina in the southern Peruvian Andes erupted in the largest volcanic explosion in South America in historical times; intermittent eruptions lasted until 5 March 1600 and pumped an estimated 16 to 32 million metric tons of particulates into the atmosphere, reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the earth's surface and affecting weather worldwide; over the next two-and-a-half years, millions died around the globe in famines from bitterly cold winters, cool summers, and the loss of crops and animals

copper, silver, gold, petroleum, timber, fish, iron ore, coal, phosphate, potash, hydropower, natural gas

almost twice the size of Texas; slightly smaller than Alaska

10 00 S, 76 00 W

approximately one third of the population resides along the desert coastal belt in the  west, with a strong focus on the capital city of Lima; the Andean highlands, or sierra, contain roughly half of the population; the eastern slopes of the Andes and adjoining rainforest are sparsely populated

Amazon river source (shared with Brazil [m]) - 6,400 km note: [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth