Earth Science 7 Africa 4

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Africa

Earth Science 7- Regions Countries:

   Algeria
   Angola
   Benin
   Botswana
   Burkina Faso
   Burundi
   Cameroon
   Canary Islands
   Cape Verde
   Central African Republic
   Ceuta
   Chad
   Comoros
   Côte d'Ivoire
   Democratic Republic of the Congo
   Djibouti
   Egypt
   Equatorial Guinea
   Eritrea
   Ethiopia
   Gabon
   Gambia
   Ghana
   Guinea
   Guinea-Bissau
   Kenya
   Lesotho
   Liberia
   Libya
   Madagascar
   Madeira
   Malawi
   Mali
   Mauritania
   Mauritius
   Mayotte
   Melilla
   Morocco
   Mozambique
   Namibia
   Niger
   Nigeria
   Republic of the Congo
   Réunion
   Rwanda
   Saint Helena
   São Tomé and Príncipe
   Senegal
   Seychelles
   Sierra Leone
   Somalia
   South Africa
   Sudan
   Swaziland
   Tanzania
   Togo
   Tunisia
   Uganda
   Western Sahara
   Zambia
   Zimbabwe
   [1]



Latitude Range and Longitude:

         Range:38°N-34°S; 17°W-49°E

[2]


Elevation Range:

         Highest Spot: Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (19,334 ft)
         Lowest Spot: Lake Assal, Djibouti (-509 ft)

[3]


Large Bodies of Water:

         Longest River: Nile River 4125 mi.
         Largest Lake: Victoria Lake 26,834 sq. mi

[4]


Major Topographic Features:

         Mountain Ranges: Atlas Mountains, Drakensburg Mountains
         Large Basins:
               The Lake Chad Basin, The Congo Basin, The Niger Basin,The Nile Basin, The Orange Basin,Zambezi Basin

[5]


Bordering Oceans and Seas:

         Red sea, Mediterranean sea,Arabian sea, Atlantic Ocean, Indian ocean

[6]


South Africa

Climate Zone

The climate zone of the southern region of Africa is classified on the Köppen climate classification chart as Cwa, BSh, BWh, Aw, CWb, Csb, Cfb, and BSk.

[7]

There are many cities in South Africa, so the average monthly precipiation, rainfall, and high/low temperatures may differ. Here are a few examples of the averages in a southern town called Cape Town.

Cape Town Monthly Temperatures; Maximum and minimum:

Cape Town Temperature Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual
Avg. Max Temperature in ºF 77 78 76 72 67 64 62 63 65 69 72 75
Avg. Min Temperature in ºF 63 63 60 56 52 48 47 48 51 54 58 61

Average Precipitation in Cape Town

Cape Town Precipitation Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Precipitation (inches) 0.60 0.60 0.80 1.60 2.70 3.70 3.30 3.00 1.60 0.10 0 0.70

[8]

Factors that affect the climate of South Africa:

Latitude: South Africa latitude of 29° 00' S The specific latitude of South Africa suggests its position in Northern Hemisphere and its moderate proximity to the equator. South Africa is located towards the southern point of the African Continent.

The topography of South Africa is filled with almost plain and flat high land while the coastal regions are thin. There are a few areas with high elevation, like the Lesotho Highlands, while places like the Limpopo Plain are low. The climatic condition of South Africa is mainly arid and dry. Regions that make contact with the ocean are usually have temperate conditions and weather. The eastern coastline is dominated by sub tropic weather. The days are usually filled with sunlight and nights are cold. [9]


Prevailing Winds

The prevailing winds are moist winds from the NE and dry winds from the SE causing a varied climate. [10]

Vegetation

There are more than 20,000 different plants located in South Africa.The fynbos vegetation zone mainly consists of evergreen hard-leave plants with usually fine, needle-like leaves. The by far biggest part of South Africa is grassland. the plant cover is dominated by different grasses, low shrubs and acacia trees, mainly camel-thorn and white-thorn.Towards the north-west the vegetation becomes - due to the low precipitation - sparse. [11]


===Proximity of Water===

Africa is bounded by the Atlantic ocean in the West, and the Indian Ocean in the East. [12]

Recent News

        October: high temp, over 112 degrees Fahrenheit
  1. [1] http://www.hmnet.com/africa/1africa.html
  2. [2] http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/testmaps/latslongs.htm
  3. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Africa
  4. [3] http://lasauniversity.tripod.com/water.htm
  5. [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremes_on_Earth
  6. [5] http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_oceans_border_Egypt
  7. http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/100/koppen_web/koppen_map.htm
  8. http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/SFXX0010
  9. http://www.mapsofworld.com/lat_long/south-africa-lat-long.html
  10. http://www.fortunecity.com/oasis/skegness/394/geogra.htm
  11. http://www.southafrica-travel.net/pages/e_plants.htm
  12. http://traveltips.usatoday.com/major-bodies-water-near-south-africa-62845.html

Made by: Matthew, Sophia, and Wade