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About 180 million years ago, a mantle plume under southern Gondwana caused bulging of the continental crust in the area that would later become southern Africa. [2] Within 10–20 million years, rift valleys formed on either side of the central bulge and flooded to become the proto-Atlantic Ocean and proto-Indian Ocean more or less along the present southern African coastline and separating ...
Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea The African plate , also known as the Nubian plate , is a major tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Africa (except for its easternmost part ) and the adjacent oceanic crust to the west and south.
Africa is a continent comprising 63 political territories, representing the largest of the great southward projections from the main mass of Earth's surface. [1] Within its regular outline, it comprises an area of 30,368,609 km 2 (11,725,385 sq mi), excluding adjacent islands. Its highest mountain is Kilimanjaro; its largest lake is Lake Victoria.
The Swartberg Mountain range owes some of its great height to upliftment along this fault line. The subsurface structures are not to scale. Important geographical regions in South Africa. The thick line traces the course of the Great Escarpment which edges the central plateau. The eastern portion of this line, coloured red, is known as the ...
Geologists predict that in about 10 million years the whole 6,000 km (3,700 mi) length of the East African Rift will be submerged, forming a new ocean basin as large as today's Red Sea, and separating the Somali plate and the Horn of Africa from the rest of the continent. [9] The floor of the Afar Depression is composed of lava, mostly basalt.
Southern Ocean" as an alternative name for the Aethiopian Ocean in a 1700 map of Africa. Ancient Greek historians Diodorus and Palaephatus mentioned that the Gorgons lived in the Gorgades, islands in the Aethiopian Sea. The main island was called Cerna and, according to Henry T. Riley, these islands may correspond to Cape Verde. [5]
The low-pressure system helps to control the moisture-bearing easterly wind emanating from the Indian Ocean, [7] thus influencing rainfall across southern Africa. [ 8 ] There are huge subterranean water reserves beneath parts of the Kalahari; the Dragon's Breath Cave , for example, is the largest documented non-subglacial underground lake.
The courses of the warm Agulhas current (red) along the east coast of South Africa, and the cold Benguela current (blue) along the west coast. Note that the Benguela current does not originate from Antarctic waters in the South Atlantic Ocean, but from upwelling of water from the cold depths of the Atlantic Ocean against the west coast of the ...