Mount Morrumbala, also known as Mount Tembe, is a mountain in

Morrumbala District Morrumbala District is a district of Zambezia Province in Mozambique. The town of Morrumbala is the district headquarters. The Shire River forms the western boundary of the district, separating the district from Tete Province and Malawi. The Ruo Ri ...

Zambezia Province Zambezia ( pt, Zambézia) is the second most-populous province of Mozambique, located in the central coastal region south-west of Nampula Province and north-east of Sofala Province. It has a population of 5.11 million, according to the 2017 cen ...

in central

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. Mount Morrumbala rises as an isolated massif at western edge of the Morrumbala Plateau. The Morrumbala Plateau reaches over 400 meters elevation, descending gently to the north, more sharply to the south and east, and steeply towards the valley of the

Shire River The Shire is the largest river in Malawi. It is the only outlet of Lake Malawi and flows into the Zambezi River in Mozambique. Its length is . The upper Shire River issues from Lake Malawi and runs approximately before it enters shallow Lake Malo ...

to the west."Perfil do Distrito de Morrumbala Província da Zambézia". Ministério da Administração Estatal, República de Moçambique, 2014

/ref> The Morrumbala escarpment separates the plateau from the Shire and Zambezi River, Zambezi lowlands to the west and south. The Shire River valley is a graben, part of the

African Rift Valley The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. In the past it was considered to be part of ...

system. The mountain's climate is cooler and wetter than the adjacent plateau and lowlands. Moist oceanic air masses moving in from the southeast rise up the mountain slopes and cool, and the moisture in the air condenses and falls as rain, or forms low clouds and morning mists. The windward south and east slopes receive more moisture than the north and west slopes, which are in the rain shadow of the mountain. The cooler, wetter climate of the mountain sustains several communities of plants and animals, including moist evergreen forests, distinct from the surrounding lowlands. Mount Morrumbala's montane forests are an inland enclave of the

Southern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

ecoregion, which extends along the more humid coast. The

Eastern miombo woodlands The Eastern miombo woodlands (AT0706) are an ecoregion of grassland and woodland in northern Mozambique, southern Tanzania, and southeastern Malawi. Setting These species-rich savanna ecosystems cover wide areas of gentle hills and low valleys co ...

ecoregion extends to the east on the Morrumbala Plateau. The

Zambezian and mopane woodlands The Zambezian and mopane woodlands is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion of southeastern Africa. The ecoregion is characterized by the mopane tree ''(Colophospermum mopane)'', and extends across portions ...

ecoregion lies to the west in the valley of the Shire and Zambezi rivers.

References

{{reflist Morrumbala Geography of Zambezia Province Morrumbala Southern Zanzibar–Inhambane coastal forest mosaic