Africa has an array of diverse ecosystems, from sandy deserts to lush rain forests. Africa, the second-largest continent, is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is divided in half almost equally by the Equator.
What are the physical features of African continent?
Africa has eight major physical regions: the Sahara, the Sahel, the Ethiopian Highlands, the savanna, the Swahili Coast, the rain forest, the African Great Lakes, and Southern Africa.
Why is Africa so diverse?
It’s so diverse because Africa is really, really big — about as big as the combined landmasses of China, the United States, India, Japan and much of Europe. According to studies that screen DNA markers in different populations, the African continent has the highest level of genetic diversity in the world.
What is the major physical barrier in the continent of Africa?
The Sahara lies along the Tropic of Cancer in the north and the Namib Desert is situated on the Tropic of Capricorn in the south. The Sahara stretches across much of northern Africa creating a formidable barrier and dividing Africa between a Muslim, Arab North and traditional African cultural groups in the south.
Why is Africa the most tropical of all continents?
The continent mainly lies within the intertropical zone between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, hence its interesting density of humidity. … The equator runs through the middle of Africa, as do the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, making Africa the most tropical continent.
What are 3 physical features?
Landforms include hills, mountains, plateaus, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas, including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great ocean basins.
What are five physical features?
These are all examples of physical characteristics.
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Build Characteristics
- Plump.
- Stocky.
- Overweight.
- Fat.
- Pudgy.
- Medium build.
- Athletic.
- Slender.
Which race has the most genetic diversity?
Africans have more genetic variation than anyone else on Earth, according to a new study that helps narrow the location where humans first evolved, probably near the South Africa-Namibia border.
Why is Africa so special?
Africa is the world’s hottest continent with deserts and drylands covering 60% of land surface area (e.g. Kalahari, Sahara and Namib). Africa is the world’s second driest continent (after Australia). Africa has approximately 30% of the earth’s remaining mineral resources.
Which race is most genetically diverse?
Researchers have known since the 1990s that Africans are the most genetically diverse people in the world.
What are the 5 regions of Africa?
The UN Statistics Division has subdivided the African continent into five regions, Northern Africa, Central or Middle Africa , Southern Africa, East Africa, and Western Africa.
What are the main usages of most of the land in Africa?
Perhaps a tenth of Africa’s cultivated land is now in the hands of big business, which uses most of it for biofuels, timber and other non-food crops. As significant is the rise of mid-size farms (those between five and 100 hectares), often owned by civil servants in the cities.
What does the land look like in Africa?
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.
Who Found Africa?
European exploration of Sub-Saharan Africa begins with the Age of Discovery in the 15th century, pioneered by the Kingdom of Portugal under Henry the Navigator.
How old is Africa?
The oldest formed about 3.4 billion years ago, the second some 3 to 2.9 billion years ago, and the third some 2.7 to 2.6 billion years ago. Some of the oldest traces of life are preserved as unicellular algae in Precambrian cherts of the Barberton greenstone belt in the Transvaal region of South Africa.
Is Africa the oldest continent?
Africa is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be the oldest inhabited territory on Earth, with the human species originating from the continent. During the mid-20th century, anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as 7 million years ago (BP=before present).