Landscapes: Geology, Geomorphology and Hydrology

Abstract

AbstractThe long history of Angola’s physical environment goes back to its Gondwanan origins, 550 million years ago. To give context to the present landscapes of Angola, a brief geological history of the Earth provides a backdrop to the dramatic evolutionary innovations that occurred in terrestrial ecosystems during the Miocene Epoch (23-5.3 million years ago), which shaped Africa’s savanna biomes as we know them today. The geomorphological patterns of Angola developed in response to periods of uplift (the Mayombe and Bié swells, the Angolan Escarpment), subsidence (the Congo and Kalahari Basins), erosion and deposition (the Planalto, Congo and Zambezian Peneplains). Angola has 12 main landscape groups, with which its ecoregions are closely aligned. The country is drained by six major transnational hydrological basins, providing the ‘water towers’ of southern and central Africa. The ecosystem services which these water resources provide to the region are described in terms of their role in pollution regulation, hydro-electric power generation and biodiversity maintenance.