Transcript Tributaries: (meet in the Mediterranean)

Landforms of Africa
Geography
• Africa is
divided into 5
geographical
regions
(Northern,
Western,
Central,
Eastern and
Southern):
Atlas Mountains
• 1,500 miles through Morocco, Algeria and
Tunisia.
Atlas Mountains
• Highest peak: Toubkal Mountain
• Elevation: 13,671
• Located in Morocco
Atlas Mountians
• Climatic barrier between the Mediterranean
basin and the Sahara Desert
• Slopes facing north: well watered, have
important farmland and forests, headwaters
used for irrigation
• Slopes facing south: drier area covered with
shrub and grasses, sheep grazing.
• Mountains are rich in phosphates, coal, iron
and oil
Mount Kilimanjaro
• Located in northeast Tanzania—in the Middle
of the Great Rift Valley
Mount Kilimanjaro
• Height: 19,341
• Highest mountain of Africa
• 4th most prominent mountain in the world
Mount Kilimanjaro
• Near the equator
• Snowcap
• Snow cover has decreased since early 1990’s
Sahara Desert “Great Desert”
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3.5 million square mile (size of the U.S.)
Largest hot desert in the world
Less than 5 inches of rain
Gone through wet and dry periods
Sahara Desert “Great Desert”
• 2 million inhabitants
• Nomads (herds of sheep & goats, camels for
transportation)
• oasis
Sahel
• Semi-arid region (1,178,800 sq mi)
• 4 to 8 inches of rain per year
Sahel
• Desertification—when desert conditions
spread out and cover more land.
Kalahari Desert
• Arid plateau region
• 5 to 20 inches
Kalahari Desert—350,000 sq mi—
Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa
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Farther inland than the Namib
Many animals (antelope, elephants, etc)
Vegetation—Grasses to palm trees
Summer temps 68 F to
113 F
Kalahari Desert
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20,000 years as hunter-gatherers
Water from plant roots
Ostrich eggs
Click consonants
Huts built from local materials
Sinai Peninsula
• Only land bridge between Africa and Eurasia
• Hot and dry
• Sparsely vegetated
Great Rift Valley
• Rift valley—a place on earth where the crust
has stretched until it breaks.
Great Rift Valley
• 3,000 miles from Syria to central Mozambique
The Great Rift Valley—Question 21
• Continuous geographic
trench—3,000 mi long
 From Syria (SW Asia) to
Mozambique (E. Africa)
 Volcanoes
 Created from divergent
plates—the African
plate into the Nubian
and Somali Plate
Serengeti Plains
• North-western Tanzania and extends to southwestern Kenya.
• 12,000 sq mi
Serengeti Plains
• October—two million herbivores travel from
the northern hills to the southern plains in
pursuit of the rains.
• April—return to the north
• Thirst, hunger, exhaustion, or predation
Serengeti Plain—Circular Migration—
500 miles
• One of the ten
Natural Travel Wonders of the World
• Wildlife migrates
in search of
grazing areas and
essentially rainfall.
video.nationalgeographic.com/.../mammals-animals/deer-andantelope/wildebeest_migration.html
Climates
• Describe the climates of Africa.
Climates
• North Africa-Mediterranean climate areas are
found along the coast—warm dry summers
and mild rainy winters.
• North Africa—arid climate
• West and Central Africa—tropics—warm
throughout the year
• Sahel—semi-arid (transition zone)
Climates
• Along the equator—distinct wet and dry
seasons.
Red Sea
• Seawater inlet located in between Egypt and
the Middle East—part of the Great Rift Valley
• 169,100 sq mi & 1398 mi long & average
depth of 1,608 ft
• Major center for transportation
Suez Canal
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Artificial waterway
120 mi long, 79 ft deep, 673 ft wide
Connects Mediterranean Sea with Red Sea
Controlled by the British from 1859 to
1957, when the Egyptians took over
Nile River—north flowing—longest river in
the world—4,132 mi long—Burundi to
Egypt
• Tributaries: (meet in the Mediterranean)
• White Nile—longer—flows from Lake Victoria
• Blue Nile—source of drinking water and fertile
soil—flows
from Ethiopian
highlands
Congo River (Congo River Basin)
• Flows through equatorial Africa (through the
Congo to the Atlantic Ocean)
• Deepest river in the world (750+ ft)
• 2nd longest river in Africa—2,720 feet long
• Important for hydropower and transportation
Lake Chad
• Currently 550 square
miles
Lake Victoria—26,600 sq miles
• One of the Great African Lakes and Africa’s
largest lake
• World’s second largest freshwater lake
• Shallow
depression—
maximum depth
at 276 ft deep
• Lake Victoria
and the Great Rift
Valley
• 2nd largest
freshwater lake
• 26,600 sq. mi.
• 130 ft. deep