One of the largest natural watercourses of the Earth is located on the hottest continent in the immediate vicinity of the 0 ° parallel. What is this river that crosses the equator twice? What continent is the watercourse on? This article provides detailed answers to fascinating geographical puzzles.
On which continent is the river that crosses the equator twice?
Typically, latitude is counted from a parallel of 0 °. This is the equator, intersected by all meridians. The imaginary line on the globe and map is a conditional border between the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The equator crosses:
- Africa - in the central part of this continent;
- South America - in the north;
- many large and small islands in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans.
Thousands of watercourses in these land areas flow near latitude 0 °. But there is only one largest river that crosses the equator twice - the r. Congo on mainland Africa. The second largest and hottest of the Earth's continents in its northern part is very arid. The center of the continent is located in the equatorial climate zone, where precipitation is more than 2000 mm / year, but evaporation is also significant.
A huge area in this region is occupied by the gilea - moist evergreen forests (jungle). Western Central Africa is washed by the relatively cold waters of the Gulf of Guinea. To the north of the forest belt gradually passes into the vast expanses of the savannah. From the east and west, the Congo river basin is bounded by mountain ranges that serve as a watershed.
Congo - Africa's richest river
The largest natural streams of the Atlantic Ocean basin have similar features and differences. On mainland Africa, the rain type predominates in the nutrition of such rivers. After all, the sources are in the equatorial regions, where there is a lot of rainfall. The Nile, the longest waterway, begins in the mountains of East Africa, flows north and flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Congo River crosses the equator or parallel 0 ° twice. It is easy to see this if you look at a map of the world or Africa. First, a stream from a region in the Southern Hemisphere goes north, taking numerous tributaries along the way. The river turns about 2 ° north of the equator to the southwest. Congo returns to the Southern Hemisphere and rushes to the Gulf of Guinea. It is the deepest river that crosses the equator twice. Congo in terms of runoff in the world ranking is second only to the South American r. Amazon. On the maps of Africa, one more hydronym is often indicated - Zaire. It so happened historically that the river has two names.
The Congo Basin is located in the subequatorial and equatorial climatic zones. The river receives numerous tributaries in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. About 75% of the basin accounts for the area south of the equator, which leaves an imprint on the water regime. Thus, a rise in the level is observed from March to October, when the northern tributaries receive the most precipitation. The second peak occurs in October – March, when the wettest conditions are observed south of the equator. The flow of the Congo River is uniform throughout the year. To this, it is necessary to add the presence of a significant fall in the channel, rapids and waterfalls in the upper reaches.
Congo Depth
The famous American publication National Geographic provides a comparative analysis of the high water levels of the Earth's rivers. The first line is occupied by the Amazon, crossing the continent of South America from west to east. The African river, which crosses the equator twice, is superior in depth to the other water arteries of the planet studied by specialists. According to National Geographic, the depth of the Congo in some sections of the channel is more than 230 m. This is almost twice as much as that of the Amazon.
Geographers explain the considerable depth of the Congo by the structure of the channel and the entire river valley. The largest watercourse of Central Africa on the way to the Gulf of Guinea for thousands of years paved its way through the gorge in the highlands. Now it is the South Guinean plateau, where the Congo channel narrows to 300-500 m. But on the plain, the African river spills 10-15 km. A powerful stream of water rushes into the gorge and fills it. The flow rate of the river in this section reaches a record high of 42 thousand m 3 / s.
Exploration of the Congo Basin
The Portuguese merchant and navigator Diogu Kahn explored the west coast of Africa and the place where the Congo flows into the Gulf of Guinea, and in 1482 discovered the sources in the mountains. The river crosses the equator twice in Central Africa. For a long time, this area was the least studied on the mainland, was replete with "white spots".
Difficult jungle, marshland, lack of roads complicated the work of cartographers and other scientists. One of them compared the gileya with the “green hell”, because in the forest, travelers had to struggle their way with a machete. Around rampage and do not let go creepers, powerful and numerous stilted roots grow. Under the forest canopy it is gloomy and damp, because it rains almost every day, and the crowns of several tiers of trees and shrubs block the light. Animals prefer to live and eat on branches, occasionally going down.
