Geography of Mali

thumb|400px|A map of Mali

thumb|Location of Mali

Mali is a landlocked nation in West Africa, located southwest of Algeria, extending south-west from the southern Sahara Desert through the Sahel to the Sudanian savanna zone. Mali's size is 1,240,192 square kilometers.

Desert or semi-desert covers about 65 percent of Mali's total area (1,240,192 square kilometers). The Niger River creates a large and fertile inland delta as it arcs northeast through Mali from Guinea before turning south and eventually emptying into the Gulf of Guinea. and comes close to in the Taoudenni region during July. Sunshine duration is high in Mali, reaching the highest levels in the northern arid zone with about 3,600 – 3,700 h a year.

Examples

Geology

thumb|350px|[[Geological map of Mali]]

thumb|350px|Topographical map of Mali

Geologically, Mali consists mostly of vast flatlands of granite and shale covered by sandstone and alluvial quartz. Mali extends over two main geological structures, the West African craton in the west and the Tuareg shield in the southeast, which came together at the end of the Precambrian era between 600 and 550 million years ago. The suture zone is to the west of the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains.

The underlying rocks of the West African craton are covered in the northwest by sediments of the Taoudeni basin, with two main outcrops of crystalline rocks in the northern Reguibat shield in Mauritania and the southern Leo shield which includes the Bougouni and Kenieba outcrops, both of which contain valuable minerals.

Borders

Mali shares a total of 7,243 kilometers (4,500 miles) of land boundaries with seven bordering states:

North and northeast: Algeria- 1,376 km/855 mi

East: Niger- 821 km/510 mi

Southeast: Burkina Faso- 1,000 km/621 mi

South: Ivory Coast- 532 km/330 mi

Southwest: Guinea- 858 km/533 mi

West: Senegal and Mauritania- 419 km/260 mi and 2,237 km/1,390 mi (respectively)

Natural resources

Mali is endowed with bauxite, copper, diamonds, gold, Granite, gypsum, iron ore, kaolin, limestone, lithium, manganese, phosphates, salt, silver, uranium, and zinc. Not all deposits are being exploited, and some may not be commercially viable. Mali also has ample hydropower.

Land use

65% of Mali's land area is desert or semi-desert. According to estimates in 2011, only 5.63% of Mali's area can be classified as arable land, and 0.1% was planted to permanent crops. Mali was estimated to have 2,358 km2 of irrigated land in 2003. Mali has 100 cubic kilometers of total renewable water resources as off 2011 estimates.

Tropical thunderstorms in the south, which may bring wind and lightning damage as well as flash floods.
Occasional Niger River flooding

Extreme points

This is a list of the extreme points of Mali, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.

Northernmost point – the northern section of the border with Mauritania, Tombouctou Region*
Easternmost point – the eastern section of the border with Niger**
Southernmost point – Fonto Kourou on the border with Côte d'Ivoire, Sikasso Region
Westernmost point – the tripoint with Senegal and Mauritania, Kayes Region
*Note: Mali does not have a northernmost point, the border being formed by a straight east–west line
**Note: Mali does not have an easternmost point, the border being formed by a straight north–south line

References

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