Sub-Saharan Africa: Physical Geography Vocabulary

Surrounded by land on all sides, with no direct access to a seacoast

• escarpment

• landlocked

• hydroelectric power

A region drained by a river system

• basin

• savanna

• desertificaion

Grassland, as in the south of Sub-Saharan Africa

• rainforest

• savanna

• highlands

A gradual transition from fertile to less productive land

• deforestation

• desertification

• Sahel

A deep valley formed when Earth’s crust separated, as in East Africa

• Congo River

• Rift Valley

• Kalahari

The practice of cutting down forests for crops or urban use

• deforestation

• landlocked

• rain forest

Areas of high mountainous land

• savanna

• highlands

• basin

A forest with warm temperatures, high humidity, and thick vegetation that receives more than 100 inches of rain per year

• savanna

• Kalahari

• rain forest

A source of energy that uses flowing water to produce electricity

• hydroelectric power

• solar power

• wind power

In Sub-Saharan Africa, a semiarid grassland that separates the Sahara in the north from tropical grasslands in the south

• Kalahari

• Sahel

• Great Rift Valley