Africa

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Africa

• Physical Geography

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2nd Largest Continent

• Africa is a huge continent from east to west ,
  its widest point is the same distance between
  Moscow and NYC (4,000 miles).
• North and south distance is the same as the
  distance between northern Alaska and the Panama
  Canal 5,000 miles.

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Factors of Isolation

1. Almost all unbroken and irregular coastlinesfew
   natural harbors for ships to anchor for trade and
   exploration.
2. Most rivers have falls and rapids because of the
   elevation people could not sail up the rivers
   to explore.
3. The Sahara is the largest desert in the world
   (bigger than the US). More rocky than sandy.
   Prevented movement between northern Africa and
   southern Africa

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The Plateau Continent

• A huge plateau covers much of Africa
• Most of the continent is 1000 feet above sea
  level

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Rift Valleys and Lakes

• East Africa continental shift created huge
  cracks in East Africa
• land sank, formed long, thin rift valleys
• stretch 4,000 miles from Jordan to Mozambique
• eastern part is still slowly pulling away from
  Africa

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Rift Valleys and Lakes

• Long, deep lakes form at bottoms of rift valleys
• Lake Tanganyika is longest freshwater lake in
  world
• Lake Victoria is Africas largest sits in basin
  between rift valleys

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Rivers and Waterfalls

• Most African rivers contain many waterfalls,
  rapids and gorges making them useless for
  transportation
• Congo River largest network of waterways but has
  32 waterfalls
• Victoria Falls 2 times the height of Niagara
  Falls
• On the Zambezi River

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Mountains

• Africa mainly has volcanic mountains Mount Kenya
  and Mount Kilimanjaro

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Resources

• Africas resources makes it the worlds richest
  continent
• Gold (30) Cobalt (42)
• Platinum (80) Copper
• Chromium Diamonds (50)
• Africas countries have not benefited from these
  resources because colonial powers exported much
  of it to Europe.
• Libya, Nigeria and Algeria are among the worlds
  leading petroleum producers

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