Abstract
The Jos Plateau is situated in the north-central part of Nigeria, with the highest peak at 1829 m. It is surrounded by plains on all sides. The landforms and landscapes of the plateau can be grouped into three physiographic units, namely hills and mountains, dissected terrains and undulating terrain. The Jos Plateau is drained by a radial river network, with numerous waterfalls at topographic escarpments. Regional geology includes two major structural units: an Older Basement Complex and the Younger Granites. The Basement Complex comprises intrusive igneous rocks and structures long exposed by denudation. For the Younger Granites, ring complexes are characteristic, with escarpments and massive outcrops of Jurassic granites. There are over 22 dormant to extinct volcanoes in the Jos Plateau, which occur as four series of volcanic lines named as Ganawuri, Hoss, Panyam (Sura) and Gu (Jiblik). There are two major waterfalls and three minor ones and springs on the Plateau. One of the waterfalls has hydroelectric power stations for electricity generation. Terracing-based farming, animal husbandry, tin mining, lumbering and tourism are common human activities in the plateau area.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to acknowledge the contributions of scholars whose materials were consulted for this chapter writing. We would also like to thank the leaders of the Nigerian Geomorphological Working Group (NGWG) whose contributions cannot be mentioned in a very short paragraph of this nature. We would also like to show our appreciation for the free services rendered to us by our research assistants namely Bara’u Yakubu Usman and Olorunnipa Paul Kayode, who assisted with pieces of information and most of the camera pictures used in the chapter and also to Dr. Sulaiman Yunus, Mallam Rabi’u Yarima of the Department of Geography Bayero University, Kano Dr. Ahmad Hamza Abdullhi of the Department of Geography and Environmental Management Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Atakpa Adioju of the Zonal Advance Technology Application Laboratory, Kano, Nigeria (ZATLKN) for assisting us in map work and setting of Google Earth images, we remain grateful.
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Rilwanu, T.Y., Samuel, Y. (2023). Landscapes and Landforms of the Jos Plateau. In: Faniran, A., Jeje, L.k., Fashae, O.A., Olusola, A.O. (eds) Landscapes and Landforms of Nigeria. World Geomorphological Landscapes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17972-3_10
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