Africa Video Facts

Last class, we watched the Deserts of the worls Video that focused on African deserts, and specifically the Sahara. Here are a few notes from the movie to keep in mind for the map quiz and the final exam.

>The Sahara Desert
The Sahara Desert is a great desert area, North Africa, the West portion of the broad belt of parched land that extends from the Atlantic Ocean eastward past the Red Sea to Iraq. The entire desert, the largest in the world, is about 1600 km wide and about 5000 km long from East to West.

The total domain of the Sahara Desert is more than 9,000,000 sq. km, more than 3,500,000 square miles. Of which some 200,000 square km. Some 80,000 square miles, consist of partially fertile oases.

>The Nile River
Unlike most rivers, the Nile is North flowing. The valley of the Nile River and the mountainous area of the Nubian Desert to the East of the Nile are geographically, part of the Sahara. However, the irrigation afforded by the Nile transforms the desert into fertile agricultural land throughout much of Egypt.

The Nile still supports much of the population living along its banks, with the Egyptians living in otherwise inhospitable regions of the Sahara. The river flooded every summer, depositing fertile silt on the plains. The flow of the river is disturbed at several points by cataracts, which are sections of faster-flowing water with many small islands, shallow water, and rocks, forming an obstacle to navigation by boats. The Sudd wetlands in Sudan an obstacle for navigation and flow of water.

>Importance of Ports

With Africa being such an expansive continent, one will notice an interesting trend in the shapes of the African countries. Many of them have a narrow band of land to enable them to have a seaport. This enables them to participate in international commerce without paying tariffs/ fees to other countries.

>Mt. Kilimanjaro

Due to Kilimanjaro's equatorial location and high elevation, almost every climate type on earth is represented, including a year-round snow-topped summit.

The summit of Kilimanjaro is covered by a GSM mobile phone network, and was previously the highest point in the world with mobile phone service.

Kilimanjaro with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira, is an inactive stratovolcano in north-eastern Tanzania rising 15,100 ft from its base and approximately 16,700 ft from the plains near Moshi. This is the highest peak in Africa at 19,330 ft, providing a panoramic view of the surrounding area.

>Conflict in Africa

There are two main causes of the conflicts that arise on the African continent. One is due to the political boundaries of countries that we arbitrarily founded by outside parties. This has led to many cultures and tribes being poorly defined.

In addition, while the African continent is very resource rich, those resources are not equally distributed. The conflict in the DRC (formerly known as Zaire) has involved seven nations. There have been a number of complex reasons, including conflicts over basic resources such as water, access and control over rich minerals and other resources and various political agendas. This has been fueled and supported by various national and international corporations and other regimes which have an interest in the outcome of the conflict.

If you have any questions regarding these 5 topics, please email me at tsilwick@yahoo.com

Africa Quiz

Hi Class,

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up. Apparently blogger was updating the site on Monday night so I was unable to post anything.

Here are the countries to know for the map quiz on Monday May 4th.

1) Madagascar
2) Sudan
3) Egypt
4) Democratic Republic of Congo
5) Senegal
6) South Africa
7) Libya
8) Mali
9) Morocco
10) Somalia
11) Uganda
12) Tanzania
13) Kenya
14) Algeria
15) Ethiopia

In addition, there will be 5 2-point questions on the video from class and the powerpoint on the geography of Africa.
The Synopsis will go up tonight in addition, I will email out the presentation. The five questions will focus on:
1) Mt Kilmajaro: Highest Point in Africa
2) The Nile River
3) The Sahara Desert
4) Ports and water access on the African Continent
5) Conflict and its relation to countries/ natural resources.

Please email me with any questions.

TS

Review of Chapters 17 & 18

Here are the key terms from chapters 17 & 18. We will spend the majority of class discussing the geography of Africa and Deserts. If you miss class 4/27, be sure to check back on the blog for a synopsis of the video.

Key Terms:

Chapter 17

Plateau
Mesa
Sedimentary Dome
Monadnock

Chapter 18

Shoreline
Bay
Estuary
Progradation
Retrogradation
Delta
Coral Reef
Blowout
Sand Dune

For those that missed 4/20

Hi Class,

Here's the selected key terms from chapters 15 & 16..

Also, if you missed class last week and would like to make up the assignment, we completed exercise 15.3 on page 539 of the text. This exercise is worth 20pts toward your grade. Pleas turn in the assignment by Thursday April 30th. Thanks!

Ch 15:
infiltration
runoff
ground water
water table
stream
channel
discharge
drainage basin
watershed
flood
lake

Ch 16:
fluvial landforms
fluvial processes
stream erosion
stream transportation
graded stream
natural levee

Just A Reminder

Papers are due by 6:30 pm to me on Monday April 20th. Please bring a hard copy of your papers to class.

Your paper needs to be:
> 2-4 pages, double-spaced
> Written in 12 pt font
> Directly site at least 2 sources in the paper

For example: "The longest river in South America is the Amazon. (Smith, 2009)"

I will be away from my email on Saturday. I will respond to any questions on Sunday morning.

Thanks,


T. Silwick

Key Terms Chapters 11-14

Chapter 11:

Mineral
Rock
Igneous Rocks
Sedimentary Rocks
Metamorphic Rocks
Quartz
Magma
Intrusive Igneous Rocks
Extrusive Igneous Rocks
Basalt
Sandstone
Limestone
Cycle of Rock Change

Chapter 12:

Core
Mantle
Crust
Continental Crust
Oceanic Crust
Lithosphere
Asthenosphere
Lithospheric Plates
Plate Tectonics
Subduction

Chapter 13:

Landforms
Geomorphology
Endogenic Processes
Exogenic Processes
Stratovolcano
Shield Volcano
Folding
Fault
Normal Fault
Transcurrent Fault
Earthquake
Tsunami

Chapter 14:

Weathering
Mass Wasting
Physical Weathering
Chemical Weathering
bedrock
Earthflow
Mudflow
landslide

Europe Map Quiz

Our map quiz on Europe will be this Monday April 13th.

The following countries/ features will be covered on the quiz. This quiz is worth 50 pts toward your grade.

Countries- 3pts each

United Kingdom
France
Germany
Spain
Portugal
Italy
Greece
Poland
Czech Republic
Sweden
Norway
Finland
Estonia
Latvia
Romania

Features- 1 pt each

Alps (Mountian
Mediterranean Sea
Baltic Sea
Black Sea
North Sea

Please check your email for 2 maps to locate these features. See you in class on Monday!

Monday April 6th: Traveling Abroad

Hi Class,

Hope you are enjoying a lil break in the class action. Here's your assignment for this week. It focuses around President Obama's recent trip abroad. During his trip, the president visited the United Kingdom, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Turkey.

This is extremely relevant to our class as we were just discussing the physical geography of Europe. Check out the following links and then respond to the questions.

Turkey

The President in Germany

Economy in Czech Republic

European Union

1) How does Europe's geography impact their importance as US allies?

2) According to the article, what is Turkey's role in the Middle East?

3) Which European country is the largest exporter in the world?

4) How has the economic crisis affect the Czech Republic?

5) By banding together, the EU is stronger than they are individually. What is their latest collective project?


This assignment is worth 30pts. The objective is to give you a better understanding of the European continent. By using President Obama's trip to Europe as a framework for our study, we can delve deeper into the way that the European countries work together.

This assignment is due on Friday April 10th.

Tomorrow I will post the study guide for the Europe Map Quiz.