Africa

Africa - the hottest continent on earth.

Africa - the second largest continent after Eurasia. Its area is 30.3 km2. Much of the continent is in the northern hemisphere. In Africa, as in other fragments of Gondwana, solid shape. In its shores there are no large peninsulas and deep bays.

The relief of this continent, as well as any, depends on the history of the earth's crust, of internal and external processes. At the heart of Africa on an old platform, so the continent is dominated by plains. The lowlands are relatively rare, they are located on the shores of the mainland. The interior of Africa occupied the high plains, occasionally dissect deep gorges - river valleys. The mainland is similar to a high table of the surrounding ocean. Above this "table" number rises even higher peaks and mountain ranges, many of which are of volcanic origin. By internal processes of the individual parts of the platform raised, forming a high plateau (East Africa), others fell, resulting in a large basin (Chad, Congo, Kalahari). Movements were accompanied by fractures in the Earth's crust. In East Africa, is the biggest fault on land. It stretches along the Red Sea, through the Ethiopian highlands to the mouth of the Zambezi River. It is moving apart the African lithospheric plate, so frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Africa is rich in natural resources: it is a variety of ferrous and non-ferrous metals (especially copper reserves by the state of Zaire and Zambia, bauxite occur in Guinea iron ore - in Mauritania, Liberia, Angola), diamonds (Africa provides 98% of the total diamond production in the capitalist world ) gold mining that Africa has the highest in the world, the uranium ore mined in South and Central Africa. In the sediments on the platform north of the mainland lie the oil and gas.

Africa - the hottest continent. It is the greatest in the world of the Sahara desert, in the north which, in Libya, was recorded the highest temperature in the world: +58 � C. In the heart of Africa much rain falls throughout the year. This is due to the fact that its center crosses the equator, where a region of low pressure and precipitation. To the north and south of the center are areas with seasonal moisture savannah and arid deserts. Northern and southern extremities of the continent have a subtropical climate. The southern part of the continent during the year are brought precipitation from the Indian Ocean trade winds. In the northern part of the continent rainfall is low, it is associated with areas of high pressure to form over 30 � latitude, and with the feature of trade winds. They are formed in the Northern Hemisphere over Asia and come to the Sahara dry.

On the territory of mainland rivers of the Congo, Zambezi, Niger, Senegal, Orange, Neil and others. Nile - the longest river in the world. Rivers of Africa are deep only in its equatorial part, because there a lot of precipitation falls. Many rivers of Africa fast, rapids, waterfalls abound, and lakes are concentrated mainly in the east, where the water fills the cracks of fractures.

Rich and diverse flora and fauna of the continent: elephants, rhinos, hippos, lions, monkeys, ostriches, palm, acacia, rubber plants, and others. Many of the "Back to school" are found in the national parks, the dimensions of which in Africa exceed the size of some European gosudarstv.Osnovnuyu of the population of the continent of the indigenous population - Negroids - African branch of the equatorial race. North of the continent inhabited by representatives of the Arab peoples. The population of the continent over 600 million people, and every year it increases.

Africa Climate: subtropical, tropical, sub-equatorial, equatorial.

Geology of Africa: mostly ancient Precambrian platform.

Relief in Africa: mainly flat, the mountains: Atlas, Cape, Drakensberg Mountains, Highlands: Ahaggar, Tibesti, the Ethiopian Highlands, the East African Plateau, a vast plateau of the Sahara, the Congo Basin, the high plains of the Kalahari.

African coast is washed by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the Mediterranean and Red seas, the length of the continent from north to south is about 8000 km from west to east - 7500 km, the population of Africa is 933 million people