Climate conditions of the present-day relief development on Cape Verde Islands

Cape Verde Islands are an example of a local diversity of the semi-arid equatorial climate zone. The type and intensity of the present-day morphogenetic processes is determined mostly by total precipitation and vegetation cover. We can distinguish three types of relief development. In the warm, arid climate conditions throughout the year, volcanic forms are very slowly changed or preserved by the action of episodic water, limited to a material redeposition in the wadi channels and sand dune forming by the wind. In the semi-arid climate conditions, volcanic forms are transformed into denudation-fluvial relief in the rain period. It is visible mainly on the windward side of islands and at a lower altitude, where the weathering material is washed from slopes and carried away down the wadi channels to the sea after periodic torrential rains. At the same time on the leeward side, at a higher altitude and in agricultural areas only a small amount of material is transported over short distance