Libya vs. Chad
Geography
| Libya | Chad | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria | Central Africa, south of Libya |
| Geographic coordinates | 25 00 N, 17 00 E | 15 00 N, 19 00 E |
| Map references | Africa | Africa |
| Area | total: 1,759,540 sq km land: 1,759,540 sq km water: 0 sq km | total: 1.284 million sq km land: 1,259,200 sq km water: 24,800 sq km |
| Area - comparative | about 2.5 times the size of Texas; slightly larger than Alaska | almost nine times the size of New York state; slightly more than three times the size of California |
| Land boundaries | total: 4,339 km border countries (6): Algeria 989 km, Chad 1050 km, Egypt 1115 km, Niger 342 km, Sudan 382 km, Tunisia 461 km | total: 6,406 km border countries (6): Cameroon 1116 km, Central African Republic 1556 km, Libya 1050 km, Niger 1196 km, Nigeria 85 km, Sudan 1403 km |
| Coastline | 1,770 km | 0 km (landlocked) |
| Maritime claims | territorial sea: 12 nm exclusive fishing zone: 62 nm note: Gulf of Sidra closing line - 32 degrees, 30 minutes north | none (landlocked) |
| Climate | Mediterranean along coast; dry, extreme desert interior | tropical in south, desert in north |
| Terrain | mostly barren, flat to undulating plains, plateaus, depressions | broad, arid plains in center, desert in north, mountains in northwest, lowlands in south |
| Elevation extremes | highest point: Bikku Bitti 2,267 m lowest point: Sabkhat Ghuzayyil -47 m mean elevation: 423 m | highest point: Emi Koussi 3,445 m lowest point: Djourab 160 m mean elevation: 543 m |
| Natural resources | petroleum, natural gas, gypsum | petroleum, uranium, natron, kaolin, fish (Lake Chad), gold, limestone, sand and gravel, salt |
| Land use | agricultural land: 8.8% (2018 est.) arable land: 1% (2018 est.) permanent crops: 0.2% (2018 est.) permanent pasture: 7.6% (2018 est.) forest: 0.1% (2018 est.) other: 91.1% (2018 est.) | agricultural land: 39.6% (2018 est.) arable land: 3.9% (2018 est.) permanent crops: 0% (2018 est.) permanent pasture: 35.7% (2018 est.) forest: 9.1% (2018 est.) other: 51.3% (2018 est.) |
| Irrigated land | 4,700 sq km (2012) | 300 sq km (2012) |
| Natural hazards | hot, dry, dust-laden ghibli is a southern wind lasting one to four days in spring and fall; dust storms, sandstorms | hot, dry, dusty harmattan winds occur in north; periodic droughts; locust plagues |
| Environment - current issues | desertification; limited natural freshwater resources; the Great Manmade River Project, the largest water development scheme in the world, brings water from large aquifers under the Sahara to coastal cities; water pollution is a significant problem; the combined impact of sewage, oil byproducts, and industrial waste threatens Libya's coast and the Mediterranean Sea | inadequate supplies of potable water; improper waste disposal in rural areas and poor farming practices contribute to soil and water pollution; desertification |
| Environment - international agreements | party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Law of the Sea | party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Marine Dumping-London Convention |
| Geography - note | note 1: more than 90% of the country is desert or semidesert note 2: the volcano Waw an Namus lies in south central Libya in the middle of the Sahara; the caldera is an oasis - the name means "oasis of mosquitoes" - containing several small lakes surrounded by vegetation and hosting various insects and a large diversity of birds | note 1: Chad is the largest of Africa's 16 landlocked countries note 2: not long ago - geologically speaking - what is today the Sahara was green savannah teeming with wildlife; during the African Humid Period, roughly 11,000 to 5,000 years ago, a vibrant animal community, including elephants, giraffes, hippos, and antelope lived there; the last remnant of the "Green Sahara" exists in the Lakes of Ounianga (oo-nee-ahn-ga) in northern Chad, a series of 18 interconnected freshwater, saline, and hypersaline lakes now protected as a World Heritage site note 3: Lake Chad, the most significant water body in the Sahel, is a remnant of a former inland sea, paleolake Mega-Chad; at its greatest extent, sometime before 5000 B.C., Lake Mega-Chad was the largest of four Saharan paleolakes that existed during the African Humid Period; it covered an area of about 400,000 sq km (150,000 sq mi), roughly the size of today's Caspian Sea |
| Total renewable water resources | 700 million cubic meters (2017 est.) | 45.7 billion cubic meters (2017 est.) |
| Population distribution | well over 90% of the population lives along the Mediterranean coast in and between Tripoli to the west and Al Bayda to the east; the interior remains vastly underpopulated due to the Sahara and lack of surface water as shown in this population distribution map | the population is unevenly distributed due to contrasts in climate and physical geography; the highest density is found in the southwest, particularly around Lake Chad and points south; the dry Saharan zone to the north is the least densely populated as shown in this population distribution map |
Source: CIA Factbook
