Geography of Africa

The geography of Africa is the description of the physical characteristics of the continent of Africa, and caused by this interaction between this habitat and its inhabitants.

  • 2.1 Transport Geography
  • 2.2 Population Density
  • 2.3 Spatial distribution of language families

Physical Geography

Topographical Description

Africa, with an area of 30.3 million square kilometers (22% of the total land surface of the Earth) to Asia 's second largest continent and about three times as large as Europe. The following sub-division of Africa into regions, in addition to other uses by the UN statistical office UNSD:

At the height of Central Africa is the Equator, the Tropic of Cancer runs through North Africa and the southern tropic through Southern Africa.

North Africa

As Northern Africa is the area that the Maghreb, the Sahara Desert, comprising the Nile Valley and other parts of the Nile river system.

In the Maghreb, the 2,300 -kilometer-wide Atlas Mountains, whose highest peak is 4165 meters high in southern Morocco Toubkal is located.

The Sahara stretches from the African Atlantic coast in the west to the Red Sea in the east. It consists in the east of the Libyan desert west of the Nile and the Arabian desert and the Nubian desert east of the Nile. The Ténéré Desert is located south of the Sahara. South of the Sahara is the Sahel.

There are in the Sahara large mountain ranges, such as the Ahaggar, the Aïr, the Tibesti, Ennedi Massif and the extinct volcano Marra. The highest peak is the Emi Koussi Tibesti with 3415 meters.

The Nile flows through the Sahara and forms on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the 24,000 km ² Nile Delta. The river delta is composed of unconsolidated sediments that have accumulated over the millennia.

West Africa

West Africa lies south of the Sahara, east and north of the Atlantic. It covers the western part of the United landscapes Sahel and Sudan, as well as the Upper Guinean rainforest.

The region consists of coastal plains and mountain ranges such as the Upper Guinea threshold and the highlands of Adamawa with the Mount Cameroon.

The largest lake is Lake Volta, the largest rivers of the Niger, the Senegal and the Gambia.

Central Africa

Central Africa is located south of the Sahara, east of West Africa and west of the Great African grave breach. The area is determined by the Congo River, the most abundant water power in Africa.

The mountain ranges are the low threshold Guinea on the coast and east of it, the North Equatorial threshold, the Congo Basin and the Lundaschwelle. Further east is the Central African threshold that follows East Africa.

In the Congo Basin is the second largest tropical forest area in the world.

Large lakes are Lake Tanganyika and Lake Mweru, near the Central African threshold. Lake Chad is located on the southern edge of the Sahara, it was ten thousand years ago more than ten times as large as it is today.

The rivers are the Congo and its tributaries such as the Lualaba, the Kasai and the Aruwimi

East Africa

East Africa is located east of the Nile and east of the East African grave breach. There is the desert region of Danakil - Somalia.

Mountains are the highlands of Abyssinia, which reaches to the Red Sea and on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the East African lakes, highlands, where the Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya massif lie.

In East Africa, there are large lakes such as Lake Victoria, Turkana Lake, Lake Tana and Lake Malawi. Large rivers are the Zambezi, the Juba, the Shabelle and the Blue Nile.

The island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean even one of East Africa, but the island because of its isolated location, quite original.

Southern Africa

The Southern Africa is dominated by the from Angola to Mozambique along the coast extending the Great Escarpment and the welt of this inland highlands. Major mountain ranges are the Drakensberg and the Brandberg Massif. There are forests, grasslands, and deserts the Namib and Kalahari.

Large rivers are the Limpopo and the Orange.

Geological Description

The continent is on the African lithospheric plate and moves with this during the last 100 million years at a low rate of only a few centimeters per year to the north.

Through the East Africa, the Great African grave breach, which will lead to the elimination of the Horn of Africa from Africa pulls. The resulting volcanic activity has led to the formation of high mountains in East Africa.

Another area that has been affected by plate tectonic processes, is the Atlas Mountains in North Africa. As 65 million years ago to about 1.8 million years, the land masses of Europe and Africa at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula pressed against each other, this mountain -folded.

Climate

The West African monsoon lasts from June to September and on results from the temperature difference between the cold Atlantic Ocean and the hotter continent. The influence extends well into the area of western and central Sahel, in these months falls nearly the total annual rainfall. The highest precipitation amount to about 2000 mm of rainfall per year.

In Central Africa, one experiences the Zenitalniederschlag, a rain that occurs there depending on the time of year when the sun is at its zenith precisely. In such a place the rainfall occurs there then on a daily basis.

Off the west coast of Southern Africa's Benguela with comparatively cold sea water from the Antarctic flows. Together with the steady southwest wind the region, South Africa is in the range of the west wind zone, this leads to the condensation of the moisture contained in the air at the coast and because the heating of the air, the relative humidity decreases also to the emergence of the Namib desert.

Nature

Rain forest is found in Africa in the regions of Upper Guinea and the Congo Basin. This landscape turns into the wet savannah (1000-1500 mm of rain per year), the dry savannah (500-1000 mm rain per year) and then into the thorn bush savannah ( 250-500 mm of rain per year). The savanna consists of open grasslands, the plant height is dependent on the amount of rain, and standing at some distance from each other trees. Since the precipitation areas migrate depending on the season, the plants of the savanna must be able to survive the dry season and the animals have to pull the rain behind.

The thorn bush savannah is found in the Sahel, which forms the transition to the Sahara Desert, but also in East Africa and Southern Africa.

The African deserts are characterized by rare rainy, so that many plants are concentrated there to oases where underground rivers come to the surface. Other plants can be found where the underground watercourses rich so close to the surface that they can be reached by deep -rooted plants. Another possibility is that plants start to grow only after a rain and it occasionally comes to the " blossoming " of the desert. The underground water of the Sahara is also a large scale pumped, for example, by the Great Man - Made River project, so close to the population centers in otherwise arid regions over a large area agriculture can be operated. However, there threatens the salinization of the soil.

A special area is the Okavango Delta in southern Africa. There exists an inland delta of the Okavango River, which leaves the middle of the semi-arid Kalahari create a that is dependent on the annual flooding about 12,000 square kilometers of wetland. Since the flood arrives exactly at the height of the dry season at the end of the Okavango delta, then there collect large amounts of animals.

Since the Namib Desert is geologically very old, have developed there on the climate specialized animals such as the fog Drinkers beetles and other animals have adapted their lifestyle to the permanently dry region.

Human Geography

Transport geography

Africa is the traffic network developed by the Trans - African Highways, a system of transcontinental road projects. The total length of all nine Trans - African highways is 56,683 km.

Population density

In 2008, in North Africa expected with a population of 197 million people. The most densely inhabited area is the area by the river Nile. A similar pattern is seen in West Africa, where 291 million people live and it alone is 110 million people along the river Niger. In Central Africa, 122 million people live, it is in large parts only sparsely populated area. In East Africa, about 301 million people, with the highest population density is found in the states east of the Central African emerging in the neighboring countries of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. In Uganda, one of the headwaters of the Nile and because large parts of the country lies at a height of 1,000 m above sea level, the climate directly at a pleasant temperature at the equator. Rwanda and Burundi are also situated on a high plateau in average about 1500 m altitude. Another area with a high population is located on Lake Malawi. In Southern Africa is home to 55 million people, though population density is rather low. In total there are in Africa in 2008, probably 967 million people.

Spatial distribution of language families

In Africa, one distinguishes different language families.

  • Afro-Asiatic languages ​​( blue color) with about 350 million speakers in North Africa and northern East Africa.
  • Niger - Congo languages ​​( the two red colors) with about 370 million speakers in West Africa, Central Africa, Southern East Africa and Southern Africa.
  • Nilo-Saharan languages ​​( yellow color) with about 35 million speakers, from Sudan to Mali
  • Khoisan languages ​​( green color) with 355 thousand speakers especially in western South Africa.
  • Austronesian languages ​​( purple color ) with 19 million speakers on the island of Madagascar.
Hoggar Mountains Tibesti Mountains Ennedi Plateau Senegal River Gambia River Lualaba River Aruwimi River Brandberg Mountain Kalahari Desert Limpopo River African Plate Volcanism Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Fossil water Trans-African Highway network Languages of Africa Highest mountain peaks of Africa Geography of Angola Geography of the Gambia Geography of Ghana Geography of Namibia Geography of Sudan
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