Atlas Mountains
Range
Jbel Toubkal in Toubkal National Park in the High Atlas
Countries	Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia
Highest point	Jbel Toubkal
- elevation	4,167 m (13,671 ft)
- coordinates	31°03′43″N 07°54′58″W / 31.06194, -7.91611
Period	Precambrian
Location of the Atlas Mountains (colored red) across North Africa

The Atlas Mountains (Kabyle: Idurar n leṭles, Arabic: جبال الأطلس ‎) is a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about 2,400 km (1,500 miles) through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Morocco (المغرب "al-Maghrib" officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية is a country located in North Africa Algeria ( ar [[Arabic]] الجزائر, Al Jaza'ir ælʤæˈzæːʔir Amazigh: ⴷⵥⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer) officially the People's Tunisia (تونس Tūnis officially the Tunisian Republic ( is a country located in North Africa. Jbel (Jebel Toubkal / Adrar n Toubkal is a Mountain peak in southwestern Morocco, located in the Toubkal National Park. The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International A foot (plural feet or foot; symbol or abbreviation ft or sometimes &prime – the prime symbol) is a non-SI unit The Precambrian ( Pre-Cambrian) is an informal name for the supereon comprising the eons of the Geologic timescale that came before the current Kabyle is a Berber language (Kabyle Ṯaqbayliṯ,, ˌθæqβæjˈlɪθ spoken by the Kabyle people Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language A mountain range is a chain of Mountains bordered by highlands or separated from other mountains by passes or valleys Morocco (المغرب "al-Maghrib" officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية is a country located in North Africa Algeria ( ar [[Arabic]] الجزائر, Al Jaza'ir ælʤæˈzæːʔir Amazigh: ⴷⵥⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer) officially the People's Tunisia (تونس Tūnis officially the Tunisian Republic ( is a country located in North Africa. The highest peak is Jbel Toubkal, with an elevation of 4,167 metres (13,671 ft) in southwestern Morocco. Jbel (Jebel Toubkal / Adrar n Toubkal is a Mountain peak in southwestern Morocco, located in the Toubkal National Park. The second highest mountain is the M'Goun of 4,071 metres (13,356 ft). M'Goun, also rendered as Ighil Mgoun, Ighil n’Oumsoud, Irhil M’Goun, Ighil M’Goun, Djebel Ighil M’Goun and Djebel The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert. The Sahara (الصحراء الكبرى aṣ-ṣaḥrā´ al-kubra, "The Great Desert" is the world's largest hot Desert and the world's second largest The population of the Atlas Mountains are mainly Berber tribes in Morocco and kabyles in Algeria. Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. The Kabyles ( Iqvaylyen or Iqbayliyen in Kabyle, iqβajlijən are a Berber people whose traditional Homeland is highlands of Algeria ( ar [[Arabic]] الجزائر, Al Jaza'ir ælʤæˈzæːʔir Amazigh: ⴷⵥⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer) officially the People's The terms for 'mountain' in some Berber languages are adrar and adras, believed to be cognate with the toponym.

The mountains are divided into additional and separate ranges, including the Middle Atlas, High Atlas, and Anti-Atlas. The Middle Atlas (الأطلس المتوسط is part of the Atlas mountain range lying in Morocco a mountainous country with more than 100000 Km² or 22% High Atlas, also called the Grand Atlas Mountains (الاطلس الكبير and Haut Atlas is a Mountain range in central Morocco The Anti-Atlas (الأطلس الصغير is one of the mountain ranges lying in Morocco lying as part of the Atlas mountains in the northwest of Africa 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. The Tell Atlas (الاطلس التلي is a mountain chain over 1500 kilometers in length belonging to the Atlas mountain ranges in North Africa, stretching from The Saharan Atlas of Algeria is the eastern portion of the Atlas Mountains. The Aurès ( Amazigh: Awras) refers to an Amazigh language-speaking region in East Algeria as well as an extension of the Atlas mountain range Tunisia (تونس Tūnis officially the Tunisian Republic ( is a country located in North Africa. The Atlas Mountains constitute one of the distinct physiographic provinces of the larger African Alpine System division.

Geology

Map showing the location of the Atlas Mountains across North Africa

The basement rock of most of Africa was formed in the Precambrian (approximately 4. Basement or Basement Rock music was a sub-genre coined in 2006 in an article by music magazine TGR The Precambrian ( Pre-Cambrian) is an informal name for the supereon comprising the eons of the Geologic timescale that came before the current 5 billion to approximately 550 million years ago) and is much older than the Atlas mountains lying in Africa. The Atlas formed during three subsequent phases of Earth's history.

The tectonic boundary.

The first tectonic deformation phase involves only the Anti-Atlas, which was formed in the Paleozoic Era (~300 million years ago) as the result of continental collisions. The Anti-Atlas (الأطلس الصغير is one of the mountain ranges lying in Morocco lying as part of the Atlas mountains in the northwest of Africa The Paleozoic or Palaeozoic Era (from the Greek palaio (παλαιο "old" and zoe (ζωη "life" meaning "ancient life" A collision is an isolated event in which two or more bodies (colliding bodies exert relatively strong forces on each other for a relatively short time 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. The Alleghenian orogeny or Appalachian orogeny is one of the geological Mountain -forming events ( Orogeny) that formed the Appalachian Mountains These mountains were formed when Africa and America collided, and were once a chain rivaling today's Himalayas. Today, the remains of this chain can be seen in the Fall line in the eastern United States. In Geomorphology, a fall line (at times referred to as a fall zone) marks the area where an upland region (continental Bedrock) and a Coastal plain The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Some remnants can also be found in the later formed Appalachians in North America. The Appalachian Mountains ( often called the Appalachians, are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America.

A second phase took place during the Mesozoic Era (before ~65 My) and consisted of a widespread extension of the Earth's crust that rifted and separated the continents mentioned above. The Mesozoic Era is one of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon. In Geology, a crust is the outermost solid shell of a planet or moon In Geology, a rift is a place where the Earth 's crust and Lithosphere are being pulled apart and is an example of Extensional tectonics This extension was responsible for the formation of many thick intracontinental sedimentary basins including the present Atlas. The term sedimentary basin is used to refer to any geographical feature exhibiting Subsidence and consequent infilling by sedimentation Most of the rocks forming the surface of the present High Atlas were deposited under the ocean at that time.

Finally, in the Tertiary Era (~65 million to ~1. The chuprichondira geological time interval covers roughly the time span between the demise of the non- avian Dinosaurs and beginning of the most recent Ice Age, approximately 8 million years ago), the 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. The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe, and includes modern day Spain, Portugal, Andorra Such convergent tectonic boundaries occur where two plates slide towards each other forming a subduction zone (if one plate moves underneath the other) and/or a continental collision (when the two plates contain continental crust). Plate tectonics (from Greek τέκτων tektōn "builder" or "mason" describes the large scale motions of Earth 's Lithosphere In Geology, a subduction zone is an area on Earth where two tectonic plates meet and move towards one another with one sliding underneath the other Orogeny (Greek for "mountain generating" is the process of natural Mountain building and may be studied as a tectonic structural event as a geographical event and The continental crust is the layer of granitic, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic rocks which form the Continents and the areas of shallow seabed In the case of the Africa-Europe collision, it is clear that tectonic convergence is partially responsible for the formation of the High Atlas, as well as for the closure of the Strait of Gibraltar and the formation of the Alps and the Pyrenees. High Atlas, also called the Grand Atlas Mountains (الاطلس الكبير and Haut Atlas is a Mountain range in central Morocco The Strait of Gibraltar ( Arabic: مضيق جبل طارق Spanish: Estrecho de Gibraltar) is the Strait that connects the Atlantic The Pyrenees (Pirineos French: Pyrénées; Catalan: Pirineus; Occitan: Pirenèus; Aragonese: Perinés However, there is a lack of evidence for the nature of the subduction in the Atlas region, or for the thickening of the Earth's crust generally associated with continental collisions. In fact, one of the most striking features of the Atlas to geologists is the relative small amount of crustal thickening and tectonic shortening despite the important altitude of the mountain range. Recent studies suggest that deep processes rooted in the Earth's mantle may have contributed to the uplift of the High and Middle Atlas. ^[1][2]

Natural resources

The Atlas are rich in natural resources. Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified ( natural) form There are deposits of iron ore, lead ore, copper, silver, mercury, rock salt, phosphate, marble, anthracite coal, and natural gas among other resources. Iron ores are rocks and Minerals from which Metallic Iron can be economically extracted Characteristics Lead has a dull luster and is a dense, Ductile, very soft highly Copper (ˈkɒpɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol Cu (cuprum and Atomic number 29 Silver (ˈsɪlvɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol " Ag " (argentum from the Ancient Greek: ἀργήντος - argēntos gen Mercury (ˈmɜrkjʊri also called quicksilver or hydrargyrum, is a Chemical element with the symbol Hg ( Latinized hydrargyrum Halite is the Mineral form of Sodium chloride, Na[[chlorine Cl]] commonly known as rock salt. A phosphate, an Inorganic chemical, is a salt of Phosphoric acid. Marble is a nonfoliated Metamorphic rock resulting from the Metamorphism of Limestone, composed mostly of Calcite (a crystalline form of Anthracite ( Greek Ανθρακίτης literally "a type of coal" from Anthrax, coal is a hard compact variety of mineral Coal that has a high Natural gas is a Gaseous Fossil fuel consisting primarily of Methane but including significant quantities of Ethane, Propane,

Subranges of the Atlas Mountains

High Atlas.

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

• Middle Atlas, High Atlas, and Anti-Atlas (Morocco).
• Saharan Atlas (Algeria). The Saharan Atlas of Algeria is the eastern portion of the Atlas Mountains.
• Tell Atlas (Algeria, Tunisia). The Tell Atlas (الاطلس التلي is a mountain chain over 1500 kilometers in length belonging to the Atlas mountain ranges in North Africa, stretching from

Middle Atlas range

Main article: Middle Atlas

The Middle Atlas is a portion of the Atlas mountain range lying completely in Morocco. The Middle Atlas (الأطلس المتوسط is part of the Atlas mountain range lying in Morocco a mountainous country with more than 100000 Km² or 22% The Middle Atlas is the westernmost of three Atlas Mountains chains that define a large plateaued basin extending eastward into Algeria. Algeria ( ar [[Arabic]] الجزائر, Al Jaza'ir ælʤæˈzæːʔir Amazigh: ⴷⵥⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer) officially the People's South of the Middle Atlas and separated by the Moulouya and Oum Er-Rbia rivers, the High Atlas stretches for 700 kilometres (430 mi) with a succession of peaks among which ten reach above 4,000 metres (13,000 ft). Moulouya River ( Wadi Muluya, وادي ملوية is a 520 km long river in Morocco. Oum Er-Rbia (أم الربيع the mother of spring) is a river in central Morocco. High Atlas, also called the Grand Atlas Mountains (الاطلس الكبير and Haut Atlas is a Mountain range in central Morocco 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. Sebou (سبو is a River in northern Morocco. The river is 458 km long and has an average water flow of 137 m3/s For the Eleventh Century Talmudist see Isaac Alfasi The Rif ( Berber: Arabic:جبال الريف is a mainly mountainous The Baetic Cordillera is a mountain system streching from Morocco, through Gibraltar and along the southern and eastern parts of Spain. The Sierra Nevada, meaning "snowy range" in Spanish, is a Mountain range in the region of Andalusia in Spain.

High Atlas

Main article: 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. High Atlas, also called the Grand Atlas Mountains (الاطلس الكبير and Haut Atlas is a Mountain range in central Morocco 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. Marrakesh or Marrakech ( Amazigh: Murakush, Arabic مراكش Murrakush) known as the "Red City"

On the heights of Ouarzazate the massif is cut through by the Draa valley which opens southward. Ouarzazate ( Arabic, ورزازات Warzāzāt) (called The door of the desert) is a City Dra is also the abbreviation for the constellation Draco. The Draa (درعَا (also spelled Dra or Draâ, in older 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. Ourika River (نهر أوريكا (Oued Ourika is a river in Morocco, at.

Panoramic picture of the artificial lake of Lalla Takerkoust near Barrage Cavagnac, with the hydroelectric dam (extreme right)

Near Barrage Cavagnac, there is a hydroelectric dam that has created the artificial lake Lalla Takerkoust. Hydroelectricity is electricity generated by Hydropower, ie the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling water A dam is a barrier that divides waters. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water while other structures such as Floodgates, Levees Hydroelectricity is electricity generated by Hydropower, ie the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling water A dam is a barrier that divides waters. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water while other structures such as Floodgates, Levees 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. Amizmiz (أمزميز AMZ-meez) is a small town in Morocco approximately 55 kilometers south of Marrakech. Asni (أسني is a small town in the foothills of the High Atlas mountains near Marrakech, Morocco. The Tin Mal Mosque is a mosque located in the High Atlas mountains of North Africa

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 kilometres/310 miles). The Anti-Atlas (الأطلس الصغير is one of the mountain ranges lying in Morocco lying as part of the Atlas mountains in the northwest of Africa Ouarzazate ( Arabic, ورزازات Warzāzāt) (called The door of the desert) is a City Tafilalt or Tafilet (تفيلالة is a region and the most important oasis of the Moroccan Sahara; it is also considered one of the largest Oasis In the south it borders the Sahara. The Sahara (الصحراء الكبرى aṣ-ṣaḥrā´ al-kubra, "The Great Desert" is the world's largest hot Desert and the world's second largest 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. High Atlas, also called the Grand Atlas Mountains (الاطلس الكبير and Haut Atlas is a Mountain range in central Morocco

Saharan Atlas range

Main article: Saharan Atlas

The Saharan Atlas of Algeria is the eastern portion of the Atlas mountain range. The Saharan Atlas of Algeria is the eastern portion of the Atlas Mountains. Algeria ( ar [[Arabic]] الجزائر, Al Jaza'ir ælʤæˈzæːʔir Amazigh: ⴷⵥⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer) officially the People's Not as high as the Grand Atlas they are far more imposing than the Tell Atlas range that runs to the north of them and closer to the coast. The tallest peak in the range is the 2,236 m (7,340 ft) high Djebel Aissa. They mark the northern edge of the Sahara Desert. The Sahara (الصحراء الكبرى aṣ-ṣaḥrā´ al-kubra, "The Great Desert" is the world's largest hot Desert and the world's second largest The mountains see some rainfall and are better suited to agriculture than the plateau region to the north. In Geology and Earth science, a plateau, also called a high plateau or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting Today most of the population of the region are Berbers. Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley.

Tell Atlas range

Main article: Tell Atlas

Panoramic view of typical Berber village (Morocco - High Atlas Mountains). The Tell Atlas (الاطلس التلي is a mountain chain over 1500 kilometers in length belonging to the Atlas mountain ranges in North Africa, stretching from Morocco (المغرب "al-Maghrib" officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية is a country located in North Africa

The Tell Atlas is a mountain chain over 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) 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 ends at the Middle Atlas range in Morocco. The Middle Atlas (الأطلس المتوسط is part of the Atlas mountain range lying in Morocco a mountainous country with more than 100000 Km² or 22% 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. The Aurès ( Amazigh: Awras) refers to an Amazigh language-speaking region in East Algeria as well as an extension of the Atlas mountain range Tunisia (تونس Tūnis officially the Tunisian Republic ( is a country located in North Africa.

See also

• Capsian culture
• North Africa

References and notes

1. ^ http://einstein.uab.es/c_geotectonica/WebAtlas/AtlasLitho.htm Potential field modelling of the Atlas lithosphere
2. ^ http://einstein.uab.es/c_geotectonica/WebAtlas/MaterialAtlas/Ayarzaetal2005.pdf Crustal structure under the central High Atlas Mountains (Morocco) from geological and gravity data, P. The Capsian culture (named after the town of Gafsa in Tunisia) was a Mesolithic culture of the Maghreb, which lasted from about 10000 to 6000 North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Ayarza, et. al. , 2005, Tectonophysics, 400, 67-84