Terrain and Climate

Relief Map of Vietnam.jpg

Vietnam is located on the far eastern side of the Indochina peninsula it has a humid subtropical climate with an average humidity around 84 percent, in comparison the average US humidity is between 50 to 60 percent.  Do to the elongated length of Vietnam the, around 1,650 kilometers long, the country has a very diverse climate range in the north versus to the south.  South Vietnam experiences a more topical climate, whereas the North has a longer monsoon season between May and September can accumulate up to 50 inches of rain.

Northern Vietnam consist of lowland lands around the Red River delta and the coastal areas, whereas you approach the border of China and Laos it becomes very mountainous, being the very beginning of the Himalayan mountain range.  Throughout North Central Vietnam the terrain same mostly the same with mountains and highlands on it’s western boarder with Laos and lowlands on it’s coast with the South China Sea.  The central mountains of Vietnam which are very irregular and consist of several high plateaus which for thousands of years served as a topological divide between North and South Vietnam.  Within the central Mountains of Vietnam which consist of the Central highlands is an area that comprises over 51,800 square kilometers that is surrounded by rugged mountain terrain, but the area inside the plateau is heavily forested and rich in farmable soil.  The rich lands inside the central highlands make up about 16 percent of the country’s farmable land and about 22 percent of the country’s forest.  Much of South Vietnam is dominated by the Mekong river delta.  The delta is only a few meters above sea level and is very often to flooding, the Mekong river, which origin emerges from the Tibetan plateau, was calculated to dump about 1 billion cubic meters of sediment annually into the delta region which is enough sediment to advance the delta another 60 to 80 meters.

Terrain and Climate