Physical Geography of Africa

Landforms of Africa

Introduction

  • The lesson focuses on the habitat of the gorilla and the physical geography of Africa.
  • Objectives:
    • Describe the major physical characteristics, climate regions, and ecosystems of Africa.
    • Identify natural events and disasters.
    • Give examples of industries, natural resources, and environmental challenges in Africa.
  • Key vocabulary words will be highlighted in purple throughout the lesson.

Landforms

  • Focus on plateaus, escarpments, mountains, plains, deserts, basins, and islands.
  • An escarpment is a steep slope or cliffside caused by uneven erosion or tectonic faulting.
  • Africa is a series of plateaus with escarpments common between different elevation regions.

Plateaus

  • Africa is a giant plateau with two main elevation regions: high and low.
  • The landscape is stair-stepped from the high to the low region, with escarpments.
  • High region: approximately 3,000 feet above sea level.
  • Low region: between 500 and 2,000 feet above sea level.
Specific Plateaus
  • Saharan Plateau: Makes up most of Northern Africa and is home to the Sahara Desert.
  • Sahel: A grassy plain region where the desert and grasslands meet.
  • Western Plateau: Characterized by grassland and forest.
  • Southern Plateau: Contains forests, deserts, and swamps.

Mountains

  • Two main mountainous regions: non-volcanic and volcanic mountains.
Non-Volcanic Mountains
  • Atlas Mountains: The longest mountain chain in Africa running from southwest to Northeast.
  • Ruwenzori Mountains: High peaks capped in snow and covered by clouds, located close to the Equator; historically called the Mountains Of The Moon.
Volcanic Mountains
  • Found in the Great Rift Valley region in East Africa.
  • Mount Kilimanjaro: The highest mountain in Africa at 19,340 feet.
  • Mount Kenya: 17,058 feet high.
  • Both mountains are near the Equator and typically have snow year-round.
  • Drakensberg Range: Part of the Great Escarpment (Great Rift Valley).

Great Rift Valley

  • An escarpment is a location with two definite elevations.
  • The Great Rift Valley runs from Syria to Mozambique and is a series of faults that create valleys with steep rock walls.
  • Caused by divergent plate boundaries where two tectonic plates are pulling apart.
  • Volcanic activity makes the land fertile due to volcanic ash.
  • Two branches in East Africa:
    • Eastern branch: Characterized by volcanic mountains like Mount Kilimanjaro.
    • Western branch: Contains many deep lakes.

River Basins

  • Two main river basins that dominate the geography of their areas and are important for trade and agriculture.
Nile Basin
  • Located in Northern Africa, running from central Africa through Egypt and emptying into the Mediterranean Sea.
  • Includes all the land drained by the Nile River.
  • A fertile area that has been an important source of agriculture for thousands of years.
Congo Basin
  • Located in West Central Africa and includes all the land drained by the Congo River.
  • An important river for trade and navigation, although not navigable along its entire length due to waterfalls and rapids.
  • The region is covered in tropical forest.

Deserts

  • Two-fifths of Africa is covered in desert.
Sahara Desert
  • The world's largest desert; Sahara means "great desert."
  • More than 1,200 miles wide and about the same size as the United States.
  • The majority of the land receives less than one inch of rain per year.
Namib Desert
  • Characterized by very high sand dunes, some reaching 1,300 feet high, caused by winds blowing off the ocean.
Kalahari Desert
  • Some scientists do not consider it a true desert because much of the region gets more than 10 inches of rain per year.

Islands

Madagascar
  • The fourth largest island in the world.
  • Characterized by coastal plains (good for farming), Central Highlands (peaks over 9,000 feet), and a desert region in the southern part of the island.

Lesson Summary

  • The Sahara Desert dominates Africa.
  • The Sahel region is where the desert meets the grassy lands to the south.
  • Madagascar is a large island off the coast.
  • The Atlas Mountains and other mountain ranges are located in Africa, including Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya.
  • The Nile River and Congo River basins are significant features of the continent.