Africa

Land

Relief

The physiography of Africa is essentially a reflection of the geologic history and geology that is described in the previous section. The continent, composed largely of a vast rigid block of ancient rocks, has geologically young mountains at its extremities in the highlands of the Atlas Mountains in the northwest and the Cape ranges in the south. Between these mountainous areas is a series of plateau surfaces, with huge areas that are level or slightly undulating, above which stand occasional harder and more resistant rock masses. Surrounding these surfaces is a zone of plateau slopes below which are narrow coastal belts widening along the Mediterranean coast, the coastlands of Tanzania and Mozambique, a narrow belt between the Niger and Cunene (Kunene) rivers, and an area northward of the Gambia and Sénégal rivers.

Kilimanjaro (19,340 feet [5,895 metres]) is the highest point on the continent; the lowest is Lake Assal (515 feet [157 metres] below sea level) in Djibouti. In proportion to its size, Africa has fewer high mountains and fewer lowland plains than any other continent. The limited areas above 8,000 feet are either volcanic peaks or resistant massifs. All the land below 500 feet occurs within 500 miles of the coast, except for two small basins in the Sahara.

The higher areas of the south and east are in marked contrast to the considerably lower elevation of the western and northern parts of the continent. South of a line drawn from near the mouth of the Congo River to the Gulf of Aden, most of the land lies 1,000 feet or more above sea level, and much of it exceeds 3,000 and even 4,000 feet. North of the line there is relatively little land above 3,000 feet, most of the area being between 500 and 1,000 feet above sea level; there are also broad coastal lowlands, except in the region of the Atlas Mountains and, in the east, beyond the Nile.

The highest extensive areas are to be found in Ethiopia, parts of which exceed 15,000 feet. Southward the East African Plateau is highest in Kenya, where it is often 8,000 feet or more above sea level; there are occasional volcanic peaks that are much higher, such as Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya (17,058 feet), Meru (14,978 feet), and Elgon (14,178 feet). The Ruwenzori (Rwenzori) Range—sometimes called the Mountains of the Moon—which reaches its highest elevation at Margherita Peak (16,795 feet) on the borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, is not volcanic in origin. From East Africa the plateau extends southward, often with a well-defined though not continuous escarpment particularly noticeable in the Drakensberg of Southern Africa, where Ntlenyana, or Ntshonyana, is 11,424 feet and Mont-aux-Sources 10,823 feet high. There the plateau edges are especially marked, because the rock formations are hard and horizontal, whereas in Ethiopia they are conspicuous because of faulting. Where the rocks are softer and less resistant, the escarpment is not so pronounced and so forms less of a barrier to climatic influences and to human movement.

To the north and west of the plateau area of the southern parts of the continent there is a general descent to the lower areas of the basins of the Congo, Niger, and Nile rivers. The only large areas that extend above 3,000 feet are in the folded ranges of the Atlas Mountains and in the central Sahara, where resistant granites form the massifs of Ahaggar and Tibesti. The interior uplands of western Africa and of Cameroon consist of ancient crystalline rocks, reaching considerable heights only in the Fouta Djallon plateau in Guinea, in the Guinea Highlands, which also extend over the borders of Sierra Leone and Liberia, in the Jos Plateau in Nigeria, in the Adamawa region of Nigeria and Cameroon, and in the Cameroon Highlands. There are extensive low-lying areas near the coast and in the basins of the Sénégal, Gambia, Volta, and Niger–Benue rivers. The high areas of Darfur in Sudan (more than 10,000 feet) and of Mount Cameroon (13,435 feet) are volcanic in origin and are evidence of the same tensions that have resulted in rifting and volcanism in East Africa.

The East African Rift System constitutes the most striking and distinctive relief feature of the continent. Associated with its formation was the volcanic activity responsible for most of the higher peaks of East Africa, including Kilimanjaro. Seismic and volcanic disturbances are still recorded in the western portions of the rift valley system. In the Virunga Mountains, northeast of Lake Kivu, there are periodic outbursts (about every 10 or 12 years) that have created a series of lava flows. One of these volcanoes dammed the rift valley and converted a large area, formerly drained by a tributary of the Nile, into Lake Kivu.

The rift valley extends for about 4,000 miles, its course being clearly marked by many of the lakes of East Africa as well as by the adjacent volcanic peaks. From the Gulf of Aqaba it can be traced southward along the Red Sea and into the Ethiopian Plateau to Lakes Rudolf, Naivasha, and Magadi in Kenya. Farther south, through Tanzania, the line of the rift is not quite so obvious. The walls that constitute the eastern rim have been more easily eroded, while the lakes of this area are generally smaller and not in line, and some of them are only waterless salt beds. The largest of these lakes are Natron and Manyara, with Eyasi in a side branch of the main rift. The edges are obvious enough to the south in Malawi, where a huge crusted block collapsed along the parallel faults that constitute the steeply rising slopes of Lake Nyasa (Malawi). The lake is 360 miles long but never more than 50 miles wide; it has a maximum depth of 2,310 feet. The rift then follows the line of the Shire Valley to reach the Indian Ocean near Beira, Mozambique.

The western branch, or Western Rift Valley, extends from the northern end of Lake Nyasa in a great arc, taking in Lakes Rukwa, Tanganyika (after Lake Baikal in Siberia the deepest lake in the world), Kivu, Edward, and Albert. Subsidiary branches of this valley include the basins in which lie Lakes Mweru and Upemba.

Most of the lakes that occur along the course of the rift valley lie well below the general level of the plateau, ranging from about 1,300 to 3,000 feet above sea level. They are generally very deep and bear a striking resemblance to fjords; some have floors that are below sea level, even though their surfaces are hundreds of feet above sea level.

In complete contrast is Lake Victoria, the largest of all African lakes, which occupies a shallow depression on a plateau 3,720 feet above sea level between the major branches of the rift valley. Its greatest depth is only 270 feet, but, with an area of 26,828 square miles, it is the third largest of the world’s lakes, after the Caspian Sea and Lake Superior.

See individual articles for a detailed discussion of the Atlas Mountains, East African mountains, Ituri Forest, Kalahari, Namib, Sahara, and veld.