South America



As with Antarctica, the geographical differences between our South America and the South America of Great Lakes Earth are minimal. The Andes are still present and Aconcagua is still the highest peak, but it stands even higher than back home, at 29,799 feet above sea level. By comparison, Mount Everest back home stands 29,031.7 feet above sea level. Which makes the Andes of Great Lakes Earth the planet’s highest mountains, with or without the Himalayas. The highest point in the neighboring Guiana Shield is still Pico da Neblina, but instead of 9,826 feet above sea level, it stands 27,795 feet. Pico da Bandeira is still the highest point in the plateau dominating southeastern Brazil, but it too stands taller at 28,411.5 feet above sea level.


But between these two higher highlands, though, the lowlands are less land than back home due to major faulting. 852,000 square miles of the Amazon Basin are missing from the rest, replaced by sea. The story is the same for 470,000 square miles of the Plata Basin and 385,000 of the Parana Basin.


During the Golden Age of Granite, magma had transformed the Rio Grande Rise and raised it to the surface as an archipelago covering an area exceeding 50,000 square miles in area. Its highest point isn’t much, no taller than 66 feet above sea level.


The island chain of Galapagos never existed on Great Lakes Earth.