Atlas Mountains

The Atlas Mountains () are a mountain range in northwest Africa extending about 2,400 km (1,500 miles) through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, and including The Rock of Gibraltar. The highest peak is Jbel Toubkal, with an elevation of 4,167 m (13,665 feet) located at in southwestern Morocco. The second highest mountain is the M'Goun of 4071 meters. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert. The population of the Atlas mountains are mainly Berber in Morocco and Arab in Algeria.

The mountains are divided into additional and separate ranges, including the Middle Atlas, High Atlas and Anti-Atlas. The lower Tell Atlas running near the coast and the larger Saharan Atlas running further south terminate in the Aurès Mountains located in Algeria and Tunisia. To the north in Morocco lies the Rif Mountains range.

Geology

African geology

The basement rock of Africa was formed in the Precambrian period (approximately 4.5 billion to approximately 550 million years ago) and is much older than the Atlas mountains lying in Africa. The Atlas range developed later.

Creation of the Atlas Range

To understand the Atlas range, as it appears today, one must understand the parts, since its emergence took place to two different phases of earth’s history. The first part consists only of the Anti-Atlas, which was formed in the Paleozoic (~300 million years ago) as the result of continental collisions. North America, Europe and Africa were connected millions of years ago. The Anti-Atlas mountains are believed to have originally been formed as part of Alleghenian orogeny. These mountains were formed when Africa and America collided, and were once a chain far higher than today's Himalaya. Today, the remains of this chain can be seen in the Fall line in the eastern United States. Some remnants can also be found in the later formed Appalachians in North America. The Sierra Nevada mountains in Spain were similarly formed in this continental collision.

More recently in the Tertiary period (~65 millions to ~1.8 million years ago) the remaining mountain chains that today comprise the Atlas were uplifted as the land masses of Europe and Africa collided at the southern end of the Iberian peninsula. Convergent tectonic boundaries occur where two plates slide towards each other commonly forming a subduction zone (if one plate moves underneath the other) and a continental collision (when the two plates contain continental crust). Deep marine trenches are typically associated with subduction zones. Due to friction and heating of the subducting slab volcanism is almost always closely linked as is observed in southern Italy. In this case the movement not only formed the High Atlas, but closed the Straits of Gibraltar, and formed the Alps and Pyrenees.

Seismic activity

Because the Atlas mountains lie on the fault zone, the area is seismically active. The city of Blida in Algeria which lies today it the middle of the Tell Atlas with a population of about 265,000 (2005) inhabitants was completely destroyed by strong quakes in the 19th century. Likewise the city of Cheliff lying in Algeria with a population of ~235,000 (2005) inhabitants suffered 5,000 fatalities in a 1980 earthquake of magnitude 7.3 on Richter Scale.

Natural resources

The Atlas is rich in natural resources. There is iron ore, lead ore, copper, rock salt, phosphate, mercury, marble, silver, hard coal and natural gas among other resources.

Subranges of the Atlas Mountains

The range can be divided into three general regions from west to east:

Moroccan Atlas in Morocco, which further divides from north to south into:
Saharan Atlas (Algeria).
Tell Atlas (Algeria, Tunisia)

Moroccan Atlas ranges

From north to south the Moroccan ranges divide into the Rif rangeThe Rif is not strictly of the Atlas range, but is included here for completeness., the Middle Atlas range, the High Atlas range, and the Anti-Atlas range.

Rif range

The Rif is a mountainous region of northern Morocco, from Cape Spartel and Tangier in the west to Cape Tres Forcas (Ras Tleta Madari) and Melilla in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the river of Ouargha in the south. The people of the Rif are Berbers (Amazigh people) of north Morocco who call themselves Imazighen.

Middle Atlas range

Main article:Middle Atlas

The Middle Atlas is a portion of the Atlas mountain range lying in completely in Morocco. The Middle Atlas is the westernmost of three Atlas Mountains chains that define a large plateaued basin extending eastward into Algeria. South of the Middle Atlas and separated by the Moulouya and Oum Er-Rbia rivers, the High Atlas stretches for 700 km with a succession of peaks among which ten reach above 4,000 meters. North of the Middle Atlas and separated by the Sebou River, the Rif mountains are an extension of the Baetic Cordillera (Baetic mountains, which include the Sierra Nevada) in the south of Spain.

High Atlas

Main articles:High Atlas

The High Atlas in central Morocco rises in the west at the Atlantic coast and stretches in an eastern direction to the Moroccan-Algerian border. At the Atlantic and to the southwest the range drops abruptly and makes an impressive transition to the coast and the Anti-Atlas range. To the north, in the direction of Marrakech, the range descends less abruptly.

On the heights of Ouarzazate the massif is cut through by the Dráa valley which opens southward. In this chaos of rocks the contrasts are astonishing: water runs in some places, forming clear basins. It is mainly inhabited by Berber people, who live in small villages and cultivate the high plains of Ourika Valley.

Near Barrage Cavagnac, there is a hydroelectric dam that has created the artificial lake Lala Takerkoust. The lake serves also as a source for fish for the local fishermen.

The largest villages and towns of the area are Tahanaoute, Amizmiz, Asni, Tin Mal, Ijoukak, and Oukaïmden.

Anti-Atlas ranges

Main article:Anti-Atlas

The Anti-Atlas extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest of Morocco toward the northeast to the heights of Ouarzazate and further east to the city of Tafilalt (altogether a distance of approximately 500 km). In the south it borders the Sahara. The easternmost point of the anti-Atlas is the Djebel Sarhro mountains and its eastern boundary is set by sections of the High Atlas range.

Saharan Atlas range

Main article: Saharan Atlas

The Saharan Atlas of Algeria is the eastern portion of the Atlas mountain range. Not as high as the Grand Atlas they are far more imposing than the Tell Atlas range that run to the north of them and closer to the coast. The tallest peak in the range is the 2236 m high Djebel Aissa. They mark the northern edge of the Sahara Desert. The mountains see some rainfall and are better suited to agriculture than the plateau region to the north. Today most of the population of the region are Berbers.

Tell Atlas range

Main article: Tell Atlas

The Tell Atlas is a mountain chain over 1,500 kilometers in length, belonging to the Atlas mountain ranges and stretching from Morocco, through Algeria to Tunisia. It parallels the Mediterranean coast. Together with the Saharan Atlas to the south it forms the northernmost of two more or less parallel ranges which gradually approach one another towards the east, merging in Eastern Algeria. At the western end, it ends at the Rif and Middle Atlas ranges in Morocco. The area immediately to the south of this range is high plateau, with lakes in the wet season and salt flats in the dry.

Aurès mountain range

Main article: Aurès Mountains

The Aurès Mountains of Algeria and Tunisia are the furthest eastern portion of the Atlas mountain range.

References and notes

External links

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