Sub-Saharan Africa: The Land

1. Sub-Saharan Africa: The Land

2. Landforms: Plateaus, Highlands, and Mountains • SSA (Sub-Saharan Africa) is made up many plateaus. • They rise in elevation from the coast inland, and from west to east. • The edges of these plateaus are marker by escarpments • Steep, often jagged slopes or cliffs. • Rivers crossing plateaus dropped down the escarpments in cataracts. • Large water-falls • SSA has relatively few mountains • Most African mountains dot the Eastern Highlands • Include Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya • Ruwenzori Mountains • Located West of the Eastern Highlands • Divides Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. • Covered in snow and cloaked in clouds, its also called the “Mountains of the Moon”

3. Victoria Falls, Zambia • http://www.smh.com.au/travel/one-metre-from-death-a-dip-in-the-worlds-most-spectacular-pool-20111215-1ovtf.html

4. “Mountains of the Moon” – The Ruwenzori Mountains • http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/?s=films_details&id_page=33&id_film=1472

5. The Land: The Great Rift Valley • Stretches from Syria in Southwest Asia to Mozambique. • Rift Valley – a large crack in the earth’s surface formed by shifting tectonic plates • Formed million of years ago, as plate movements created the system of faults or fractures in the earth’s crust. • The Great Rift Valley lays in these faults • Two Branches: • 1. Volcanic Mountains on its edges • 2. Deep lakes that run parallel to its length

6. Great Rift Valley • http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/when-earth-erupts/videos/african-rift.htm • Video 2 & 3

7. Water Systems: Land of Lakes • Most of the Regions lakes are located near the Great Rift Valley • Lake Victoria – Africa’s largest lake, lies between the eastern and western branches of the Rift • Lake Volta: • One of the largest man-made lakes • Created in the 1960s by damming the Volta River south of Ajena, Ghana • Supplies Ghana with irrigation water, electricity, and fishing.

8. Lake Victoria & Lake Volta

9. Water Systems: River Basins • Niger River • Means “Great River” • Important for agricultural, transportation, and tourism. • At Aboh in southern Nigeria the river splits into a giant delta, measuring 150 miles long and 200 miles wide (at its broadest). • Delta - a triangular tract of sediment deposited at the mouth of a river, typically where it diverges into several outlets.

10. Environmental Concerns: Niger Delta • http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/video/2013/oct/16/illegal-oil-refinery-niger-delta-video

11. Water Systems: The Congo River • Facts: • 2,900 miles long • Largest network of navigable waterways in Africa • Has great and dangerous rapids • Plunges more than 900 feet in numerous cataracts not far from where it reaches the Atlantic Ocean • Meets the Atlantic Ocean through a deep estuary • Estuary - a partially enclosed body of water along the coast where freshwater from rivers and streams meets and mixes with salt water from the ocean.

12. http://www.fastcompany.com/3020118/work-smart/what-surviving-congo-river-rapids-teaches-us-about-being-tenacioushttp://www.fastcompany.com/3020118/work-smart/what-surviving-congo-river-rapids-teaches-us-about-being-tenacious

13. Natural Resources • Oil Reserves • Angola, Nigeria, Gabon, Congo • Gold • South Africa provides half the worlds gold • Precious Metals • Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Ghana • Uranium • Usually found with gold • South Africa, Niger, Gabon, DR Congo, and Namibia • Diamonds • Major: South Africa, Botswana, Congo River basin • Minor: Angola, DR Congo, and Sierra Leone

14. Africa’s Diamond Trade • http://www.history.com/videos/africas-blood-diamond#africas-blood-diamond