The Plateau continent

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Chapter 18

• The Plateau continent

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A Vast Plateau

• Africas Plateau
• Huge plateau covers most of Africa
• Much of the continent is 1,000 ft above sea level

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A Vast Plateau

• Basins and Rivers
• Several huge basins, or depressions
• Nile River flows more than 4,000 miles through
  Uganda and Sudan into Egypt
• Worlds longest river

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Nile River
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Distinctive African Landforms

• Rift Valleys and Lakes
• Rift valleys long, thin valleys formed when
  tectonic plates shifted
• Show eastern part of Africa is drifting from the
  rest of Africa

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Rift Valley
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Distinctive African Landforms

• Mountains
• Mount Kilimanjaro
• Africas highest mountain
• Volcano
• Mount Kenya
• Volcano
• Escarpment steep slope with a nearly flat
  plateau on top

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Mt. Kilimanjaro
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Wealth of Resources

• Africas minerals make it one of the worlds
  richest continents
• Libya, Nigeria, Algeria are among the worlds
  leading petroleum producers
• After oil, coffee is most profitable commodity

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A Warm Continent

• Deserts
• Sahara
• Largest desert in the world
• Kalahari
• Namib
• Aquifers Underground water
• Oasis water that came to the surface

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A Warm Continent

• The Tropics
• 90 of the continent lies within the Tropics of
  Cancer and Capricorn

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A Grassy Continent

• Serengeti Plain
• Northern Tanzania
• Contains some of the best grasslands in the world

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Desertification

• An expansion of dry conditions into moist areas
  that are next to deserts
• Sahel narrow band of dry grassland along the
  edge of the Sahara