Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0227/02278.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 38KB | 592 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02278}
$Pretitle{354D}
$Title{Madagascar
Chapter 1A.   Country and its Environment}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Frederica M. Bunge}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{madagascar
coast
island
east
central
highlands
french
south
merina
france}
$Date{19}
$Log{National Emblem*0227801.scf
Figure 2.*0227802.scf
Table 1*0227801.tab
}
Country:     Madagascar
Book:        Indian Ocean Countries, An Area Study: Madagascar
Author:      Frederica M. Bunge
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        19

Chapter 1A.   Country and its Environment

Authors:
 Donald M. Seekins, Rinn Sup Shinn, Stephan B. Wickman

[See National Emblem: Nation Emblem of Madagascar]

[See Table 1: Country Profile for Madagascar]

     The establishment in December 1975 of the Democratic Republic of
Madagascar, under the leadership of former naval Lieutenant Commander and
Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Ratsiraka, ended a crisis of political
transition that had begun in 1972. A nation that at independence in 1960 had
supported moderate socialist leadership and continued close ties to France had
opted, after a three-year interval of government dominated by the military,
for a course of "all-directional socialist revolution." Asserting that
independence in itself provided no built-in assurance of a just society,
Ratsiraka called for major reforms under the guidelines of a revolutionary
ethic as embodied in the Charter of the Malagasy Socialist Revolution.
Autonomous development and the creation of a just social order were to be
national goals. Nearly seven years later the government under Ratsiraka's
leadership continued to uphold these revolutionary goals amid mounting
economic pressures and signs of popular restiveness.

Physical Environment

     Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world after Greenland, New
Guinea, and Borneo, is sometimes described as the "seventh continent" because
of its size, geologic origins, and unique life forms. It has an area of
587,041 square kilometers, making it somewhat larger than France. The island
is elongated, having a length of 1,580 kilometers, a maximum breadth of 580
kilometers, and a coastline of 4,828 kilometers.

     Madagascar is located in the western Indian Ocean off the coast of East
Africa, opposite Mozambique and separated from it by the Mozambique Channel,
which at its narrowest is 392 kilometers wide (see fig. 2). At the northern
end of the channel, between Madagascar and the Mozambique coast, lie the
Comoro Islands (see Physical Environment, ch. 3). Scholars believe they may
have served as stepping-stones for the passage first of animals, then of
people, from the African continent (see Origins of the Malagasy People, this
ch.). To the northeast lies the Seychelles Archipelago (see Physical
Environment, ch. 4), and to the east are found the Mascarene Islands,
consisting of Reunion (an Overseas Department of France) and Mauritius (see
Physical Environment, ch. 2). France controls Ile Tromelin, located to the
east of Madagascar, as well as Iles Glorieuses to the north, and Ile Juan de
Nova and Ile Europa, located in the Mozambique Channel, maintaining on them
troops and weather stations. France also controls the uninhabited Bassas da
India, also in the Mozambique Channel. The government of Madagascar, however,
also claims these tiny islands, with the exception of Ile Tromelin, where it
recognizes Mauritius' claim. Both it and the government of Comoros claim Iles
Glorieuses. Madagascar also claims territorial waters of fifty nautical miles
and fishing rights up to 150 nautical miles.

     Geological and biological evidence suggests that Madagascar was once part
of a landmass that also included the present-day continents of South America,
Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and the Indian subcontinent. The entire
landmass was give the name Gondwanaland by the Austrian geologist Eduard
Seuss. Some 150 to 180 million years ago, the fracturing of the earth's crust
caused the entire landmass to break up into what are now the separate
continental landmasses. The German geologist Alfred Wegener postulated that
the different pieces moved across the surface of the earth to their present
positions as a result of "continental drift" on a bed of viscous, semiliquid
magma. Madagascar is believed to have been originally attached to the African
continent along what is now the Somalia-Kenya coast and separated from it at
least 70 million years ago. It is believed that the separation from Africa
occurred before separation from Australia and India-although the evidence is
conflicting. These latter two landmasses, however, drifted farther afield than
Madagascar, and geologically the island bears strong affinities with East
Africa. Sedimentary deposits very similar to those found in Kenya are found in
western Madagascar, while eastern and central Madagascar are formed from a
granitic shield, which is believed to be over 3 billion years old, perhaps
the oldest of the earth's rocks. Much more recent volcanic formations are
found in the extreme north, at Montagne d'Ambre and at Ankaratra and Itasy
in the Central Highlands.

Topography, Coastlines, and Soils

     Madagascar can be divided into five geographical regions: the East Coast,
the Tsaratanana Massif, the Central Highlands, the West Coast, and the
Southwest. The highest elevations are ranged close to, and parallel to, the
East Coast, where the land slopes more gradually to the West Coast.

     The East Coast consists of a narrow band of lowlands, about fifty
kilometers in width, formed from the sedimentation of alluvial soils, and an
intermediate zone, composed of steep bluffs alternating with ravines bordering
an escarpment of about 500 meters in elevation, which gives access to the
Central Highlands. The coastal region extends roughly from north of the Bay of
Antongil, the most prominent feature on the East Coast of the island formed by
the Masoala Peninsula, to Faradofay (Fort Dauphin) in the south. The coastline
is straight, with the exception of the bay, offering less in the way of
natural harbors than the West Coast. The Canal des Pangalanes, an
800-kilometer-long lagoon formed naturally by the washing of sand up on the
island by the Indian Ocean currents and by the silting of rivers, is a
prominent feature of the coast, and it has been used both as a means of
transportation up and down the coast and as a fishing area. The beach slopes
steeply into deep water, and the East Coast is considered dangerous for
swimmers and sailors, owing to the large number of sharks that frequent the
shoreline.

[See Figure 2.: Madagascar. Topography and Drainage Source: Based on
information from U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Indian Ocean Atlas,
Washington, 1976, p. 40.]

     The Tsaratanana Massif region at the north end of the island contains, at
2,880 meters, the highest point on the island and, north of this, the Montagne
d'Ambre, which is of volcanic origin. The coastline is deeply indented; two
prominent features are the excellent natural harbor at Antsiranana
(Diego-Suarez), just south of the Cap d'Ambre and the large island of Nosy Be
to the west. The potential of the port at Antsiranana, however, is limited by
the mountainous topography to the south, which impedes the flow of traffic
from other parts of the island.

     The Central Highlands, which range from 800 to 1,800 meters in altitude,
contain a wide variety of topographies: rounded and eroded hills, massive
granite outcrops, extinct volcanoes, eroded peneplains, and alluvial plains
and marshes, which have been converted into irrigated rice fields. The Central
Highlands extend from the Tsaratanana Massif in the north to the Ivakoany
Massif in the south. They are defined rather clearly by the escarpments along
the East Coast, and they slope gently to the West Coast. The Central Highlands
include the Anjafy Plateau; the volcanic formations of Itasy (Lake Itasy
itself is found in a volcanic crater) and the Ankaratra Massif, which reaches
a height of 2,