Geography of Angola

Area

Area

• Total: 1,246,700 km² (481,354 sq mi)^[1]
  • country rank in the world: 22nd
• Land: 1,246,700 km² (481,354 sq mi)
• Water: negligible

Area comparative

• Australia comparative: slightly smaller than the Northern Territory
• Canada comparative: slightly less than twice the size of Manitoba
• United States comparative: slightly less than three times the size of California
• EU comparative: slightly less than twice the size of France

Geology

There are three regions of

The geology and outline of the west coast of Angola is related to the opening of South Atlantic that started in the Early Cretaceous and continued until the Eocene, which is reflected in the invertebrate and vertebrate fossil fauna.[3] The diamond mine of Catoca preserved unexpected ancient dinosaur, mammal and crocodylomorph tracks with 128 Million years.^[4]

Capital

• Luanda (São Paulo de Loanda) – port – railhead

Major cities

Land boundaries

• total: 5,369 km^[1]
• border countries:
  Cabinda Province), Republic of the Congo 231 km, Namibia 1,427 km, Zambia 1,065 km^[1]

Coastline: 1,600 km[1]

Maritime claims:

• territorial sea: 22 km (12 nmi)^[1]
• contiguous zone: 44 km (24 nmi)^[1]
• exclusive economic zone: 370 km (200 nmi)^[1]

Climate

Like the rest of tropical Africa, Angola experiences distinct, alternating rainy and dry seasons. In the north, the rainy season may last for as long as seven months—usually from September to April, with perhaps a brief slackening in January or February. In the south, the rainy season begins later, in November, and lasts until about February. The dry season (cacimbo) is often characterized by a heavy morning mist. In general, precipitation is higher in the north, but at any latitude it is greater in the interior than along the coast and increases with altitude. Temperatures fall with distance from the equator and with altitude and tend to rise closer to the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, at Soyo, at the mouth of the Congo River, the average annual temperature is about 26 °C or 79 °F, but it is under 16 °C or 61 °F at Huambo on the temperate central plateau. The coolest months are July and August (in the middle of the dry season), when frost may sometimes form at higher altitudes.^[5]

Examples

Terrain

Angola has four principal natural regions: the arid coastal lowland, stretching from Namibia to

Coastal lowland

The coast is for the most part flat, with occasional low cliffs and bluffs of red

North of the Lunda Divide the Kwango and many other streams flow north from the tableland to join the Kasai River (one of the largest affluents of the Congo), which in its upper course forms for fully 300 mi (480 km) the boundary between Angola and the Congo.^[2] South of the divide some rivers flow into the Zambezi River system and thence to the Indian Ocean, others to the Okavango River (as the Cubango River is called along the border with Namibia and in Botswana) and thence to the Okavango Swamp in Botswana. The tributaries of the Cubango River and several of the southern rivers flowing to the Atlantic are seasonal, completely dry much of the year.^[5]

Land use and hazards

Natural resources:

Natural hazards: locally heavy rainfall causes periodic flooding on the plateau[1]

Environment—current issues

Current environmental issues include overuse of

Both

The following

• Angolan Scarp savanna and woodlands, the steep coastal escarpment.
• Angolan montane forest-grassland mosaic
  , the inland slopes of the central highlands which are covered in grassland and contain the remaining patches of mountain woodland;
• Angolan miombo woodlands, much of the large inland plain, indeed most of central Angola.
• Angolan mopane woodlands, an area in the south, mostly comprising Cunene Province and extending across the border into neighbouring Namibia.

Geography – note: the province of

This is a list of the extreme points of Angola, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.

Angola

• Northernmost point – unnamed point on the border with
  exclave
  ))
• Easternmost point – unnamed location on a river section of the border with
  Moxico Province
• Southernmost point – on the point where the
  Cuando Cubango Province
• Westernmost point –
  Baía dos Tigres island, Namibe Province

• Northernmost point – a point on the border with the
  Democratic Republic of Congo immediately to the north-west of the town of Luvo, Zaire Province
• Easternmost point – unnamed point on a river section of the border with
  Moxico Province
• Southernmost point – on the point where the
  Cuando Cubango Province
  )
• Westernmost point – unnamed headland west of
  Tombua (Porto Alexandre), Namibe Province

External links

• Wikimedia Atlas of Angola