Chapter 21: East Africa

A cataract is an area of low elevation that is formed by tectonic plate activity.

• True

• False

The Great Rift Valley is a massive crack in the Earth's surface—a major landform of East Africa that was formed by separating tectonic plates millions of years ago.

• True

• False

Escarpments are volcanic mountains that include Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya.

• True

• False

The Indian Ocean affects life in the East African subregion, especially by providing a point of entry for goods, people, and cultures.

• True

• False

The relative lack of variety of climates and biomes of East Africa is mainly due to its flat landscape of low plateaus and rift valleys.

• True

• False

Which type of biome is characterized by tropical grassland with scattered trees and alternates between rainy and dry seasons?

• semi-tropical

• steppe

• Sahel

• savanna

The Horn of Africa is mostly

• mountainous

• desert

• grassland

• Sahel

Lake ____________________, located along the Great Rift Valley, is the second-largest freshwater lake in the world.

• Victoria

• Tanganyika

• Congo

• Turkana

Which is the major geological feature common to rift valleys, and essential to their formation?

• plateaus

• ambas

• volcanoes

• faults

Which generalization is true of East Africa's natural resources?

• East Africa is rich in a variety of natural resources due to the remarkable diversity of its landforms and climate.

• East Africa is poor in natural resources due to its relative lack of landform and climate diversity.

• East Africa is poor in natural resources due to its predominantly desert-like conditions and fundamental lack of water.

• East Africa has a moderate amount of natural resources, the most important of which is agriculture, due to the region's uniformly fertile soil.