Eastern Africa is divided into five relief regions.
These are:
i) The coastal plains and lowlands: These border the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
They lie about 200 meters above sea level.
ii) The plateaus: These lie between 400 meters and 200 meters above sea level. There are two types; the low-lying and the high-lying plateaus.
iii) The highlands and mountains: The highlands lie about 2000 meters above sea level. Mountains within the Eastern Africa region include Mt. Kenya, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Elgon, Mt. Meru e.t.c.
iv) The Rift valley: In Eastern Africa, the Rift Valley has three main branches:
v) The lake Victoria basin:
- This lies between the Eastern and Western sections of the Rift Valley. Many rivers such as Nzoia, Nyando, and Kiya drain into this Basin. Lake Victoria is a source of River Nile.
The relief regions of Africa can be divided into the following:
It lies between 0 – 250 m above sea level. Most parts of the coastal plain are narrower except in West Africa and coasts of Mozambique and East Africa. Coastlines are regular since they have few bays and capes. Africa’s coastline is characterized by beaches, sandpitS, sand bars, and lagoons.
Beaches are sands covering the coastline. Sand bars are sands deposited into oceans by rivers. Sandpits are formed when sand bars join the coastline. Lagoon is a small lake left between a sand bar and a coastline. Africa’s coast has few natural harbors because they are shallow.
It covers most of the land surface in Africa. It varies between 400 m – 1000 m above sea level. Plateaus are interrupted by basins and depressions. Examples of basins are Congo, Nile, Niger, Chad, Kalahari, and Victoria basin.
Inselbergs are also found in plateaus. These are hills that resisted erosion. Deserts and semi-deserts form part of plateaus. Features like barchans and sand dunes are found in deserts. These features are formed due to the deposition of sand by wind.
It is about 7 200 km long and its width is about 110 km wide. It runs from the horn of Africa all the way to Southern Mozambique. As it approaches Kenya, it divides into Western and Eastern branches. The two branches meet in Southern Tanzania. The floor of the Rift Valley has the following lakes:
a) Lakes Baringo, Bogoria, Elementaita, Magadi, Naivasha, Nakuru and Turkana in Kenya.
b) Lakes Eyasi, Manyara, Malawi, Natron, Rukwa and Tanganyika in Tanzania.
c) Lakes Albert, Edward, and Bunyonyi in Uganda.
d) Lakes Abuya, Shala and Ol Donyo Lengai are also found in the Rift Valley.
They lie above 1500 m above sea level. Examples of highlands in Africa are;
a) Ethiopian Highlands
b) East African Highlands
c) West African Highlands
