Land Where Continents Collide

1
Chapter 24

• Land Where Continents Collide

2
Landforms and Resources

• Mountains and Plateaus
• South Asia is sometimes called a subcontinent-a
  large landmass that is smaller than a continent
• India dominates this region- referred to as the
  Indian subcontinent
• ½ the size of the US
• 1 billion inhabitants 1/5 of the worlds
  population
• Himalayas form N border Arabian Sea and Bay of
  Bengal separate the rest of the region

3
Landforms and Resources

• Northern Mountains
• 50 million years ago South Asia broke apart from
  East Africa and drifted northward and collided
  with Central Asia
• Collision created enormous mountain ranges

4
Landforms and Resources

• Himalayas contain the worlds highest mountains
• Form a giant barrier between the Indian
  subcontinent and China
• Mt Everest worlds highest peak-sits in the
  heart of the Himalayas
• K2- 2nd highest peak- is on the Karakoram Mts

5
Landforms and Resources

• Rivers, Deltas, and Plains
• Three great rivers of SA
• Indus- flows through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea
• Ganges- flows eastward across northern India
• Brahmaputra- flows through Bangladesh

6
Landforms and Resources

• Gangetic Plain- one of the most fertile farming
  regions in the world
• Contains 3/5th of Indias population
• New Delhi, Kolkata, and Dakha are located here

7
Landforms and Resources

• Offshore Islands
• Sri Lanka- tear-shaped island country
• Maldives- archipelago, or island group or 1,200
  islands
• Actually low-lying tops of submerged volcanoes,
  surrounded by coral reefs and shallow lagoons
  (called an atoll)

8
Landforms and Resources

• Natural Resources
• Soil water resources provide food
• Water provides????
• Rainforests provide hardwoods
• Minerals generate energy
• Coal
• Petroleum oil
• Uranium nuclear power
• Iron-ore steel industry
• Mica key component in electrical equipment

9
Human-Environment Interaction

• Living Along the Ganges Hindus believe the river
  is sacred-
• home of Hindu goddess Ganga. Believe it to have
  healing powers.
• Provides water for drinking, farming and
  transportation
• Temples line its banks
• Pilgrims come to drink and bathe in it waters and
  also to scatter loved ones ashes

10
Human-Environment Interaction

• Controlling the Feni River floods during the wet
  season
• Storm surges high water level brought on by a
  cyclone that swamps low-lying areas
• Have caused great destruction
• Engineers proposed building a dam but the mouth
  of the river is too wide and the cost would be
  enormous

11
Human-Environment Interaction

• Varanasi- one of the most sacred sites on the
  Ganges where at sun-rise Hindu pilgrims enter the
  water for purification and prayer
• One of the most polluted rivers in the world
  because of intense human use
• Sewage and industrial waste dumped
• Dead animals and humans
• Toxic chemicals and deadly bacteria cause life
  threatening illnesses like hepatitis, typhoid, or
  cholera