Physical geo of africa

Location•Where is Africa located?•Which hemisphere is Africa located?

•What major bodies of water surround the continent of Africa?

Africa is the only continent in the world that is located in all four hemispheres!

Atlantic Ocean

Mediterranean Sea

IndianOcean

Red Sea

Quiz time ….Which country is the only country to border both the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean?

Which country is the only country to border both the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean?

Morocco

South Africa

Cape of Good HopeCape Agulhas

Cape Agulhas – southernmost point of African continent and dividing line

between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans

Quiz time ….Which countries lie in both the northern and southern hemispheres?

Which countries lie in both the western and eastern hemispheres? (south of the Sahara)

Gabon, Rep. of the Congo, Dem. Rep. of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia

Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana

Place (What makes Africa different from

other places?)

•What types of climate does Africa have?

•What types of physical features are there in Africa?

Mediterranean

Mediterranean

Desert

Desert

Desert

Rainforest

Steppe

Savanna

http://www.courses.psu.edu/aaa_s/aaa_s110_tah/AFIM/Main_HTML/M_CL.html

Go to above web site to learn about the different climates of Africa.

What are the major physical

features of Africa?

Physical features of Africa

Atlas Mountains

Sahara Desert

Kalahari Desert

Namib Desert

Horn of Africa

Great Rift

Valley

Sahel

Namib Desert

Stretching 1,200 miles in length, but averaging a width of only 70 miles, the

Namib Desert is home to the highest sand dunes in the world. Nicknamed the

world’s oldest desert.

Dune 7, the highest sand dune in the world

Nile RiverNiger River

Congo RiverLake Victoria

Lake Tanganyika

Lake Nyasa

Major rivers and lakes

Zambezi River

Lake Victoria

Lake Tanganyika

Lake Nyasa

The Great Lakes of Africa

Longest lake in the world

Lake Tanganyika

Lake Tanganyika –As seen from space

Lake Tanganyika• Second largest lake of Africa• Longest lake of the world• Deepest lake on the African

continent• Second deepest in the world (Lake

Baikal in Russia is the deepest)• Oldest lake in Africa and perhaps in

the world

Victoria Falls

Located in Zimbabwe

on the Zambezi

River

Victoria Falls Victoria Falls is twice as wide and twice as deep as Niagara

Falls

Thus creating the largest curtain of

water in the world!

The Zambezi River flowing into Victoria Falls

Mountains of Africa

Ethiopian Highlands

Drakensberg Mountains

Mt. Kilimanjaro

The snow-capped

mountain is located in Tanzania and is the

highest point in Africa.

However, Kilimanjaro may not always be snow-capped! The glaciers of Kilimanjaro are melting at an alarming rate!

Why? Humans … global warming, deforestation, and honey!

Tribes people collecting honey smoke the bees out of the hives, often starting fires. The loss of foliage reduces moisture in the air, thus reducing much needed cloud cover, thus letting in more sunlight that melts more ice!

If the current rate of melting continues, scientists predict that the glaciers that have covered Kilimanjaro for over 12,000 years will be totally gone by

2020 – less than 8 years from now!

African tectonic plate

Arabian tectonic plate

Great Rift

Valley

•Vast geological feature that runs north to south for 6,000 miles

•From Syria in Southwest Asia to Mozambique in East Africa

As the tectonic plates continue to break apart,

the rift will become bigger and bigger until finally breaking off from the rest of the continent of Africa … in

about 20 billion years! Thus,

creating a whole new island continent!

A few other aspects to look at …

…enclave, exclave,

and landlocked

What is an enclave? A country that is entirely surrounded, or mostly surrounded, by another

country. Lesotho and Swaziland are examples.

Lesotho

Swaziland

So, what is an exclave? Territory of

a country that is

separated from the

main part of the country by foreign territory. Cabinda is an exclave of Angola.

Landlocked

Shut in completely by land … having no direct access to the sea …

Rwanda and Uganda are examples

Words and places to know…