What are the major landforms in West Africa?
Most of West Africa’s mountain massifs and highlands, such as the Aïr Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the Adrar des Ifoghas, and the Fouta Djallon, originated as Precambrian folds (Church, 1966). Much later, volcanic activity in many of these highlands deposited additional layers of igneous rock.
What is the main waterway in western Africa?
Niger River
Niger River, principal river of western Africa. With a length of 2,600 miles (4,200 km), it is the third longest river in Africa, after the Nile and the Congo. The Niger is believed to have been named by the Greeks. Along its course it is known by several names.
What are 3 geographical features in West Africa?
West Africa includes varied vegetation zones of desert, semidesert, savanna, and forest. The Sahara spreads across approximately 3.5 million square miles in North Africa and the northern part of West Africa. Sand dunes cover one-quarter of the Sahara, but this desert also has bare, rocky plains, and even mountains.
What are all the landforms in Africa?
Africa has eight major physical regions: the Sahara, the Sahel, the Ethiopian Highlands, the savanna, the Swahili Coast, the rain forest, the African Great Lakes, and Southern Africa.
What are the 4 main geographic regions of West Africa?
The West African region can be divided into four climatic sub-regions namely the Guinea Coast, Soudano-Sahel, Sahel (extending eastward to the Ethiopian border) and the Sahara, each with different climatic conditions.
What are the 4 major rivers in West Africa?
Geographically, West Africa is predominantly plains. It also features numerous rivers. Major rivers include the Niger, Senegal, Gambia, and the Kolenté (Great Scarcies).
How many major rivers are there in West Africa?
The Niger River flows northeast and then turns southwest towards the Atlantic. The Senegal and Gambie rivers flow northwest into the Atlantic Ocean.
What are the geographical zones of West Africa?
From north to south — from the Sahara to the humid southern coast — West Africa can be subdivided into five broad east-west belts that characterize the climate and the vegetation. These are the bioclimatic zones known as the Saharan, Sahelian, Sudanian, Guinean, and Guineo-Congolian Regions, shown in the map above.
What are the physical features of West Africa?
The region of West Africa includes the southern portion of the bulge of the continent, which extends westward to the Atlantic Ocean. This region is bisected by the African Transition Zone, which borders the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The main physical features include the Sahara Desert and the Niger River.
What is the main landform of Africa?
Africa contains mainly volcanic mountains. Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro are both volcanoes. Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest peak in Africa. Volcanic activity also produced the Ethiopian Highlands, the Tibesti Mountains in the Sahara, and Mount Cameroon in West Africa.
What are the major plateaus of West Africa?
Adamawa Plateau, also spelled Adamaoua Plateau, volcanic upland in west-central Africa. Though the plateau is chiefly in north-central Cameroon, the part of it known as the Gotel Mountains is in southeastern Nigeria. The plateau is the source of the Benue River.
What is geology of West Africa?
West Africa consists essentially of a Precambrian granitized craton (radiometric ages of 2700 to 1600 m.y.) covered by a thin sedimentary blanket, the oldest sedimentary rocks being as much as 1000 m.y. old. The Precambrian basement has been warped into three major uplifts trending approximately east-northeast (Fig.
What are five major rivers in West Africa?
West Africa
- Aba – Nigeria.
- Bandama River.
- Benue – Nigeria.
- Cavalla River – Liberia.
- Gambia – The Gambia, Senegal, Guinea.
- Kolenté (Great Scarcies) – Guinea, Sierra Leone.
- Little Scarcies (Kaba) – Guinea, Sierra Leone.
- Moa – Guinea, Sierra Leone.
What are the four rivers in West Africa?
Major rivers include the Niger, Senegal, Gambia, and the Kolenté (Great Scarcies).
What are the 4 vegetation zones in West Africa?
Which river is the main river in western Africa?
The Niger River
The Niger River, with a total length of about 4100 km, is the third-longest river in Africa, after the Nile and the Congo/Zaire Rivers, and the longest and largest river in West Africa.
What are the two main types of landforms that make up Southern Africa?
South Africa’s surface area falls into two major physiographic categories: the interior plateau, and the land between the plateau and the coast. Forming the boundary between these two areas is the Great Escarpment, the most prominent and continuous relief feature of the country.
Which four kinds of waterways are shown on the map?
Which four kinds of waterways are shown on the map? oceans, rivers, lakes, and a gulf are the waterways shown on the map.
What type of map shows water and land formations in a specific area?
Explain that a landform map shows the locations of landforms in a place. These maps often use color to show mountains, hills, plateaus, plains, and more. They also show major bodies of water.
How many major landforms are there?
four major types
Mountains, hills, plateaus, and plains are the four major types of landforms. Minor landforms include buttes, canyons, valleys, and basins. Tectonic plate movement under the Earth can create landforms by pushing up mountains and hills.
What are the geographical features of West Africa?
1 Geology. West Africa is remarkable for its geological variety. 2 Relief. Relief on its own is not the source of great regional diversity in West Africa. 3 Hydrography. Several major rivers, including the Niger — West Africa’s longest river — originate in the Guinea Highlands, where rainfall is heavy. 4 Climate.
Where is West Africa located?
By convention, West Africa is the western part of Africa, bounded in the west by the Atlantic Ocean, in the south by the Gulf of Guinea, and in the north by the Sahara and the Sahel, a beltlike semiarid transition zone between the Sahara desert and the Sudanian Savanna.
What are the major rivers in West Africa?
Several major rivers, including the Niger — West Africa’s longest river — originate in the Guinea Highlands, where rainfall is heavy. Other major rivers rise from Guinea’s Fouta Djallon, including the Gambia and Senegal.
What is the geologic history of West Africa?
It is composed of sediments deposited when the ocean covered this part of the African plate (Michel, 1973; Stancioff and others, 1986). For most of West Africa, continental conditions have existed since the Eocene or Oligocene, that is, since the last 23 to 34 million years.