CHapter 18 Section 1
I) a Vast Plateau  pg.415
-africas shape is a result of Pangea

A) Africa's Plataea
-a huge plateau  
-most of the plateau lies at least 1,000 above sea level
-africa is the worlds second largest continant
-the platue is its most prominant feature

B)Basins and Rivers
-several basins are found throughout this plataeu
-each basin spans more than 625x5000
-WAter collects in the chad basin and flows through the sudan, congo, and djouf basins
-the worlds largest river, the Nile, is located in egypt
-water has provided irrigation for thousands of years
-95+% of egyptions rely geavily on the river
-its pop densisty is roughly 3,320 people per square mile
-africas rivers contain many waterfalls, rivers, and gorges
-congo river is 2,900 miles long
-series of 32 caracts make some places impassible

II)Distinctive African Landforms pg.416
-Africas valleys and lakes add to the continents varied landscape

A)Rift Valleys and Lakes
-Most distinctive landforms are in east africa
-huge cracks appeared in the earth due to continental plates drifting apart
-the land sank to form "Rift Valleys"
-Rift Valleys stretch over 4,000 miles from Jordan to Southwest Asia
-lake Tanganyika is the longest freshwater lake in the world and stretches 420x4,7000
-africas largest lake is lake Victoria, which is the wolrds second longest freshwater lake, but is only 270 feet deep

B)Mountains
-Mainly Volcaninc
-mount Kilimanjaro is africas highest mountain and is also volcanic
-volcanic activity created the Ethiopeon Highlands
-an Escarpment is a steep slope with a nearly flat plataeu on the top

III)Africas Wealth of Resources pg.417
-africas resources are both stories of scarce and plenty
africa has a huge amount of resources, but the people lack the industrial base and money to develope them

a)A wealth of minerals
-one of the worlds richest continents in terms of sourcess
-large amounts of plutonium, gold, chromium, cobalt, copper, phosphates, diamonds, etc
-south africa is th ewolrds largest source of chrommium
-south africa produces nearly 80% of the worlds platonium
-30% of the worlds gold reserves
-produce about 50% of the worlds cobalt, mostly in the congo
-ores and minerals acount for over half of africas exports
-however, this has not granted economic prosparity for africas people

B)OIL Resources
-Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, and Angola are Africas leading pertroleum producers
-they combine to produce about a tenth of the worlds oil
-American oil componys pay Angola a fee for drilling rights and oil

IV)Diversity of Resources pg.418

A)Major Commodities
-coffee is the second most profitable commodotie in africa 
-lumber is another large Commodity
-every year loggers clear twice the size of new joursys worth of lumber


Summery
Africa is very large and has Diverse geogrophy, including the worlds largest fresh water lakes.
Africa has lots of Resources, but lack the means of developing them

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