Kafue National Park - Physical Environment

Physical Environment

The country is generally flat or gently undulating apart from some small, steep porphyritic granite hills between Chonga and Ngoma and occasional sandstone and granite hills around Ngoma rising to 120 metres (390 ft). The southwestern part of the Hook granite massif underlies the central part of the park, including schist, gneiss, granite gneiss and granite. On the edge of the granite massif there are slates, quartzites and limestones from the Katanga sediments of the inner Lufilian Arc. To the north and south of the massif the soil covers Karroo sediments of shales, siltstones, concreted gravels and various types of laterite.

In the northern end of the park the flood plains have clay soils, but otherwise the soils are strongly leached sandy to loamy soils with low fertility. In most of the drainage of the Nanzila river, and in some of the lands around the Nkala, Musa and Lwansanza rivers, there are dark grey alkaline clays. Otherwise, the park is covered by well-drained and relatively infertile pale or orange Kalahari sands mixed with some silt and clay.

Mean annual rainfall varies from 510 millimetres (20 in) in the south to more than 1,020 millimetres (40 in) in the north. The annual mean temperature is 21 °C (70 °F), with a mean maximum from 26 °C (79 °F) in July to 33 °C (91 °F) in October, the hottest month of the year. Winds are mostly light, blowing from the east. In November-February there are about 5 hours of sunshine daily, and in June-September about 9 hours of sunshine daily.