11.
The knowledges acquired during this relatively short pe-
riod of time have provided the country with an invaluable reposito-
ry of data and information concerning the Amazon Region.
The so-Known Amazohic plain is realy a complex of diffe-
rent relief forms with plateaus at various levels; areas in process
of deposition are now identified and located; those in process Of
erosion are delineated; ranges of mountains are being pointed out in
their actual positions and classified. A very precise idea of the
relief evolution is being formed. More arid climates are regarded
to have preceded the presently prevailing humid one. A careful stu
dy of the rivers, their behaviour and regime is furnishing invalua
ble subsidies to the understanding of the above mentioned evolution.
It is being possible to discriminate areas for different uses and
activities: road construction, dam-sites, transmission lines, lives
tock farming, etc.
The famous "hylea amazonica" in fact is composed of a
considerable variety of botanical species. Even the subdivision in
"forest of flood plain" and "forest of firm ground" in not valid -
after the investigations accomplished by the RADAM team. Large -
spots of brush are being encountered and the forest could actually
be classified in "open forest" and "dense forest". The "open fo-
rests" are being subdivided in open forest with lianas, with palm
trees, with bamboo grove, etc., and the "dense forests" in dense
uniform and dense with emergents.
Together with such a systematization of knowledges, a
forest inventory is being performed which allows the specialists
not only to classify the species and to compute the volume of ex-
tractable timber, but also to estimate the economic value of each
spot of forest. Now we know for sure that some hundred billions
of dollars could be obtained only by logging trees of more than Im
diameter.
New perspectives of significant mineral deposits are of
fered by the knowledge of the location and potenciality of the indi
vidual geologic units.
