Question | Answer |
Rift Valley | a large crack in the earth's surface formed by shifting tectonic plates |
The Great Rift Valley | stretches from Syria in Southwest Asia to Mozambique in the southeastern part of Africa |
escarpment | steep, often jagged slopes or cliffs, most escarpments are located less than 20 miles from the coast |
cataracts | towering waterfalls |
estuary | a passage where freshwater from a river meets sea water. |
Ruwenzori Mountains | divide Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Covered with snow and cloaked in clouds, these mountains are also called the Mountains of the Moon |
Drakensberg Range | part of the Cape Mountains, rise to 11,000 feet and form an escarpment |
Lake Victoria | largest lake in Africa lies between the eastern and western branches of the Great Rift Valley. |
Lake Volta | is in West Africa is one of the largest man made lakes in the world. It was created in the 1960s by damming the Volta River south of Ajena, Ghana |
The Niger River | means "Great River" it is the main artery in western Africa. It is 2,600 miles long. |
The Zambezi River | is 2,200 miles long. It starts on the border of Zambia and Angola and heads to the Indian ocean. It is interrupted by Victoria Falls |
Victoria Falls | is on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, it is twice the height of Niagara Falls |
Pula | a Botswana word for rain |
leach | heavy rains in the tropical rainforest dissolve or carry away nutrients from the soil |
savanna | tropical grassland with scaterred trees |
harmattan | hot dry winds from the Sahara |
Serengeti plain | one of the world's largest savanna plains |
Sahel | means shore or edge in arabic. It is a band of dry land just below the Sahara |
desertification | a process by which productive land turns into desert following the destruction of vegetation. |
Namib desert | runs along the coast of the Atlantic in Namibia |
Kalahari desert | occupies eastern Namibia, most of Botswana and part of South Africa |