Chad

tropical in south, desert in north

broad, arid plains in center, desert in north, mountains in northwest, lowlands in south

Central Africa, south of Libya

0 km (landlocked)

300 sq km (2012)

Lake Chad Basin, Nubian Aquifer System

Africa

none (landlocked)

hot, dry, dusty harmattan winds occur in north; periodic droughts; locust plagues

note 1: Chad is the largest of Africa's 16 landlocked countries note 2: a wide variety of animals lived in modern-day Chad during the African Humid Period, including elephants, giraffes, hippos, and antelope; the last remnant of this "Green Sahara" exists in the Lakes of Ounianga in northern Chad, a series of 18 interconnected freshwater, saline, and hypersaline lakes 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

petroleum, uranium, natron, kaolin, fish (Lake Chad), gold, limestone, sand and gravel, salt

almost nine times the size of New York state; slightly more than three times the size of California

15 00 N, 19 00 E

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