Maps and place knowledge, Year 8: Africa and plate boundaries

The Great Rift Valley

HintIts name says that the ground has split.

The whyIt runs through Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. Its floor holds a chain of lakes, and volcanoes stand along its edges.

It is high up, about 1,800 m above sea level

HintLook at where Nairobi sits on a relief map.

The whyAir gets cooler with height, so the highlands of Kenya are much cooler than the coast, even though both are close to the Equator.

Savannah

HintIt has a long dry season and a wet season, and is home to great grazing herds.

The whyThere is too little rain for forest but enough for tall grasses. Wildebeest and zebra follow the rains across it in huge migrations.

To find fresh grass and water as the seasons change

HintThe rain does not fall in every place all year.

The whyIn a climate with wet and dry seasons, grazing runs out in one place as it grows in another, so herders follow it.

Tea

HintBritain drinks a great deal of it.

The whyThe bushes need steady rain and mild temperatures, which the highlands provide. Kenya is one of the world's largest exporters of it.

54

HintA little over fifty.

The whyAfrica has more countries than any other continent, and between them they hold well over a thousand languages.

The Congo

HintIt shares its name with two countries.

The whyThe region lies on the Equator and is hot and wet all year, and it holds the second-largest rainforest in the world after the Amazon.

The Nile

HintAncient Egypt grew up along its banks.

The whyIt crosses the Sahara, and the strip of green along it shows how much of Egypt's farming and settlement depends on its water.

A conservative (transform) boundary

HintCrust is neither made nor destroyed there, so it is 'saved'.

The whyThe plates stick, strain builds up, and then they jerk free in an earthquake. The San Andreas Fault in California is one.

A destructive boundary

HintThink about what happens to the crust of the sinking plate.

The whyWhere an ocean plate meets a continental plate, the denser ocean plate is forced down and melts. This causes earthquakes and explosive volcanoes.