Great Escarpment

Great Escarpment

▪ mountains, Africa
      plateau edge of southern Africa that separates the region's highland interior plateau from the fairly narrow coastal strip. It lies predominantly within the Republic of South Africa and Lesotho but extends northeastward into eastern Zimbabwe (where it separates much of that country from Mozambique) and northwestward into Namibia and Angola (where it separates the central plateaus of those countries from their arid coastal plains). The Great Escarpment has generally been formed by the headwater erosion of rivers of the coastal plain. The escarpment is sharply defined or rather indistinct depending on whether the plateau edge rocks are hard-overlying-soft or are of undifferentiated hardness. The boldest part of the escarpment is in a section of the Drakensberg along the border of Lesotho and KwaZulu/Natal province, South Africa, where basalt lavas distinctly overlie soft sandstones.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Great Escarpment — Great Escarpment, South Africa. The Great Escarpment is a mountainous escarpment in southern Africa. While it lies predominantly within the borders of Lesotho and South Africa, it also extends into Angola, Namibia, Swaziland, Mozambique, and …   Wikipedia

  • Great Escarpment —   [greɪt ɪs kɑːpmənt, englisch], die Große Randstufe im südlichen Afrika …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Escarpment — In geomorphology, an escarpment is a transition zone between different physiogeographic provinces that involves a sharp, steep elevation differential, characterized by a cliff or steep slope. Escarpment is generally used interchangeably with… …   Wikipedia

  • Great Karoo — ▪ plateau, South Africa Karoo also spelled  Karroo , Afrikaans  Groot Karoo , also called  Central Karoo        plateau basin in Western Cape province, South Africa, lying between the Great Escarpment (north) and the Swartberg (south). It… …   Universalium

  • Great Lakes Megalopolis — Great Lakes Megaregion   Megaregion of the U.S. and Canada   Chicago …   Wikipedia

  • Great Lakes — This article is about the Great Lakes of North America. For the region, see Great Lakes region (North America). For other uses of this term, see Great Lakes (disambiguation). A rare cloudless satellite view of the entire Great Lakes region, April …   Wikipedia

  • Great Plains — a semiarid region E of the Rocky Mountains, in the U.S. and Canada. * * * Continental slope of central North America. It stretches from the Rio Grande at the U.S. Mexico border in the south to the Mackenzie River delta along the Arctic Ocean in… …   Universalium

  • Great Western Highway — Infobox Australian Road road name = Great Western Highway route route route photo = caption = .] length = 210 direction = East West start = finish = est = through = Petersham, Ashfield, Parramatta, Eastern Creek, St Marys, Penrith, Emu Plains,… …   Wikipedia

  • Great Appalachian Valley — The Great Valley, also called the Great Appalachian Valley or Great Valley Region, is one of the major landform features of eastern North America. It is a gigantic trough mdash; a chain of valley lowlands mdash; and the central feature of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Great Dividing Range — Coordinates: 25°00′S 147°00′E / 25°S 147°E / 25; 147 …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”