Why the continent of africa is known as the continent of science?
Answers
Africa, the second-largest continent, covers an area more than three times that of the United States. From north to south, Africa stretches about 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles). It is connected to Asia by the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt.
The Sahara, which covers much of North Africa, is the world’s largest hot desert. The world’s longest river, the Nile, flows more than 6,560 kilometers (4,100 miles) from its most remote headwaters in Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea in the north. A series of falls and rapids along the southern part of the river makes navigation difficult. The Nile has played an important role in the history of Africa. In ancient Egyptian civilization, it was a source of life for food, water, and transportation.
The top half of Africa is mostly dry, hot desert. The middle area has savannas, or flat, grassy plains. This region is home to wild animals such as lions, giraffes, elephants, hyenas, cheetahs, and wildebeests. The central and southern areas of Africa are dominated by rain forests. Many of these forests thrive around Africa’s other great rivers, the Zambezi, the Congo, and the Niger. However, trees are being cut down in Africa’s rain forests for many of the same reasons deforestation is taking place in the rain forests of South America and Asia: development for businesses, homes, and agriculture.
Much of Africa is a high plateau surrounded by narrow strips of coastal lowlands. Hilly uplands and mountains rise in some areas of the interior. Glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania sit just miles from the tropical jungles below. Even though Kilimanjaro is not far from the Equator, snow covers its summit all year long.
In eastern Africa, a giant depression called the Great Rift Valley runs from the Red Sea to the country of Mozambique. (The rift valley actually starts in southwestern Asia.) The Great Rift Valley is a site of major tectonic activity, where the continent of Africa is splitting into two. Geologists have already named the two parts of the African Plate. The Nubian Plate will carry most of the continent, to the west of the rift; the Somali Plate will carry the far eastern part of the continent, including the so-called “Horn of Africa.” The Horn of Africa is a peninsula that resembles the upturned horn of a rhinoceros. The countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Somalia sit on the Horn of Africa and the Somali Plate.
Africa is home to 56 countries but only 14 percent of the world’s total population. The area of central-eastern Africa is important to scientists who study evolution and the earliest origins of humanity. This area is thought to be the place where hominids began to evolve.
The entire continent of Africa sits on the African Plate.