Lake Tanganyika
Topic: World Physical Features and Natural Regions · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Lake Tanganyika is a long, narrow, very deep lake in East Africa's Great Rift Valley. It formed in a rift, a deep crack where the Earth's crust is pulling apart. Four countries share it: Tanzania, DR Congo, Burundi and Zambia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. It is also the second deepest lake, after Baikal.
Example
The lake fills a long trough of the African rift and stretches north to south between Tanzania on the east and DR Congo on the west. Burundi touches its northern tip and Zambia its southern tip.
Don't confuse with
- Lake Victoria: Africa's largest lake by area and the main source of the White Nile. It is broad and fairly shallow, while Tanganyika is long and deep.
- Lake Baikal (Siberia): another rift lake, and the deepest and oldest lake in the world. Tanganyika comes second for depth.