Geography of Ghana
Where is the country of Ghana located on world map? According to COUNTRYAAH.COM, Ghana is an independent nation located in Western Africa. Ghana celebrates its independence day on March 6, commemorating the country’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. The formal name of Ghana is The Republic of Ghana and its national symbols include a flag with three horizontal stripes of red, gold and green, an escutcheon featuring a shield with two eagles above it, and the national seal which features an image of an eagle perched on a crossed sword and staff. The national anthem is called “God Bless Our Homeland Ghana” which celebrates the country’s struggle for independence. The national flower is the red Hibiscus while the national animal is the African elephant. Ghana also has an official motto: “Freedom and Justice”. See historyaah for Ghana history.
Nature
Terrain shapes and bedrock
Ghana is a low lying area where no part exceeds 900 m above sea level. More than 60% of the land area is drained by the main river Volta, which includes the artificial Lake Volta. The Mouhoun (Black Volta) tributary to the west forms the border with the Ivory Coast, and Nakambe (White Volta) comes from Burkina Faso to the north. The coastline delimitates alternately low sand bays (mainly in the east and west) and mountainous headlands, which consist of Devonian rocks (in the central part). Large areas with younger rocks are found in Volta’s delta, which is surrounded by lagoons and marshlands, as well as in the country’s southwest corner.
Large parts of Ghana consist of Paleozoic rocks, such as clay, sandstone and limestone, which form a basin in the central area. Its elevated stripes appear as narrow plateaus of 300–700 m above sea level, outwardly bounded by marked slopes. Along the eastern border there are folded Precambrian rocks, which include. forms the scenic Akwapim-Togori ridges (885 m above sea level). To the south of these, the Accras plains are spread on a foundation of very old gneiss rocks, which in many places go in the day as inselbergs. In the southwest, northwest and north there are large pen planar surfaces formed in Precambrian bedrock and now cut through deep erosion in cracks so that flat heights, separated by valleys, have been formed.
A great diversity of earth moons is found; lateritic in the south and of the black soil type in the north, usually with a low humus content.
- AbbreviationFinder: Offer a full list of commonly used abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms related to the state of Ghana.
Climate
Ghana has a tropical climate, which is strongly influenced by the interaction between the dry, hot and dusty air masses of the Sahara (harmattan) and the maritime, rain-fed air masses of the South Atlantic (monsoon). The middle parts of the country, with savanna vegetation, have rainy season that culminates in August – September and dry season in November – March. The annual rainfall is about 1,200 mm. In southern Ghana there are two rainy times and two dry times.
The temperature conditions show less variation than the precipitation. The annual average temperature is 26-29 °C. The daytime amplitude is in the coastal range 6–8 °C and in the north 7–17 °C. The warmest month is March, the coldest January, along the coast of August.
Plant Life
With the exception of the eastern coastal region, the southern third of the country was originally covered by forests, while the northern two-thirds naturally carry savanna. On the coast around Accra and east, where the rainfall is clearly below 1,000 mm per year, there is a dry, human-influenced bush water with high grass, and dry- and fire-resistant succulents and small trees. Here, large termite stacks are conspicuous. At the far south-west, where precipitation exceeds 1,600 mm per year, the natural vegetation is evergreen tropical rainforest, while the forest further north, up to the Ashanti Plateau and in a smaller area along the border with Togo is partly deciduous.
Of the originally 80,000–100,000 km 2 of rain and moisture forests, mainly due to intensive burning, there is now practically nothing outside the reserve for forest production, which amounts to about 20,000 km2. The lack of arable land causes people to sweat and grow in the forest reserves, so the area with closed forest is in practice clearly smaller. The savannah in the middle and northern parts of the country is a tree and bush water, which gets drier and sparse towards the north. In the southern parts of the savannah you can see, among other things. monkey bread tree, in the northern parts various acacias. Along the rivers there are often gallery forests. Ghana has a total of about 3,300 species of veneerogamer.
Wildlife
Ghana, by West African dimensions, is rather poor. In addition, many animals have been hunted hard, and others are decreasing in number as biotope destruction occurs. Of mammals, however, the country houses a rich primate fauna. There are chimpanzees, three species of colobus monkeys, four species of marcats of the genus Cercopithecus, house monkey, black-footed mangabab (Cercoceʹbus ateʹrrimus), anubis baby (Paʹpio anuʹbis), red baboon (Papio paʹpio), potto and two species of galagos. Furthermore, African elephant (ivory used to be a major export, so only a few animals remain today), lions, leopards, hyenas, African buffalo, hippopotamus, forest pigs and several species of antelope.
More than 720 species of birds have been observed in Ghana; kingfishers, bee-eaters, turakos, rhino birds and sunbirds are typical groups. All three species of crocodiles in Africa are found here, but they are now all unusual.
Nature conservation
In Ghana there were seven national parks in 2010. Among these, Bia in the southwest is a rainforest area with chimpanzees and many other higher primates. Bui on the border with the Ivory Coast is a swamp area with, among other things. hippopotamus and many antelopes, while Mole in the northwest has tree water with several monkeys, lions, leopards, elephants and antelopes. Just over 5% of the country’s area is covered by some form of nature protection.
