Mountains of Africa
Mountains:
- Most of Africa's mountains are volcanic.
- Two of the largest mountains in Africa are Mount Kenya, in Kenya, and Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania.
- The tallest mountain in Africa is Mount Kilimanjaro which is 19,300 feet tall.
- The main mountain range in Africa is the Atlas Mountains. It runs from southwestern Morocco, along the Mediterranean coastline, all the way to the eastern edge of Tunisia.
- Some of the smaller mountain ranges in the Atlas mountains are the High Atlas, Middle Atlas, and Maritime Atlas.
- Another group of mountains are the Hogger Mountains, also known as Ahagger. They are located along the Tropic of Capricorn, and its highest peak is about 3,003 meters tall.
Deserts of Africa
Deserts:
- The biggest desert in Africa is the Sahara Desert.
- Only about 20% of the desert is made up of sand dunes.
- Sahara literally translates to "desert" so its actually called the Desert Desert.
- The Sahara covers up almost 1/3 of the continent, its about 3,000 miles east-west from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea and about 1,200 miles from north-south. In total its about 3,500,000 sq. miles. The temperature can be as hot as 130+ degrees Fahrenheit.
- The Kalahari Desert is another desert in Africa, about 100,000 sq. miles it covers most Botswana, the southwest region of South Africa and all of western Namibia. Covered in wildlife, a few mountains, and crisscrossed by dry riverbeds and dense scrubs.
- Finally, the Namib Desert is on the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and South Africa it covers about 1,200 miles.
- Under the desserts, about 6,000 feet underground there are huge stores of underground water called aquifers. Sometimes this water comes up and create an oasis.
Water Formations in Africa
Water Formations:
- The Nile River is the longest river in the world and is about 1,460 miles long. It runs from Lake Victoria, through Uganda, Sudan, and Egypt before finally ending in the Mediterranean Sea. It is a series of dams, waterfalls, swamps, rapids, streams, and tributaries.
- The Nile has a couple of names for different parts, the Blue Nile, and the White Nile (or Victoria Nile).
- The Congo River is Africa's second longest river, it is about 2,900 miles and includes a large basin. There are 32 cataracts or waterfalls make a large portion of the Congo impassable.
- There are also waterfalls in Africa. One of the largest waterfalls in the world, Victoria Falls, is in Africa. Its located on the Zambezi River and is about 355 feet tall at its highest point.
- Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake with a surface area of about 26,600 sq. miles. It is also the largest tropical lake in the world and only the second largest freshwater lake in the world. It is rather shallow and gets most of its water from precipitation.
Tropical Areas of Africa
Tropical Areas:
- The tropical forests in Africa are about 18% of the world's forests.
- They can be found spread across east, central, and west Africa and cover about 2.2 million square miles.
- About 3/4 of the rain forests in Africa are in the central area.
- Compared to other rain forests around the world, Africa's forests are dry. They accumulate between 63-78 inches of rainfall per year.
- Rain forests can be found in Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Nigeria.
- The trees are about 70% of the vegetation in the rainforest. There are over 8,000 plant species discovered in Africa and about 600 tree species.
- There are four layers to the rainforest, the emergent, upper canopy, understory, and forest floor. The trees are so densely packed that it takes ten minutes for rain to reach the forest floor.
- The Democratic of Republic of Congo has the second largest rainforest in the world, the Congo.