Liberia

Introduction

Stretching about 579 km and facing SW, the Liberian coast (long known to mariners as the Grain Coast becauseof trade in Malagueta pepper) has a mélange of rockyoutcrops, some of which form conspicuous headlands, interspersed with long sandy beaches, some of whichhave become barriers backed by tidal lagoons. There are few good roadstead anchorages and almost no natural harbours.

Liberia has a humid tropical climate with year-round rainfall rising to a maximum in the wet season (May–October). Monrovia has mean monthly temperatures of 26.1°C in January and 24.4°C in July and a mean annual rainfall of 5,138 mm. Tide ranges are small: Monrovia has a mean spring tide range of 1.1 m. The continental shelf is narrow, and the SW swell that originates in the South Atlantic breaks heavily on the shore, forming sandy beaches on which giant beach cusps are often seen. Longshore drifting is generally to the southeast, but reverses when southerly winds produce waves that arrive obliquely...