That’s a big pile of alluvial fan deposits (and colluvial debris?) on the eastern edge of the highway leading from Cape Town down to Rooiels. It’s not lithified, but it does seem to be at least partially cemented (perhaps by caliche?), because the outcrop face is essentially vertical, and there seems to be very little … Read more
Callan visits the Sea Point migmatite, a contact between intrusive granite and older metasedimentary rocks, along the west coast of South Africa near Cape Town. His guide? None other than AGU Blogosphere blogger Evelyn Mervine of Georneys!
Weird plant from South Africa, in the north-central portion of Table Mountain National Park: it’s just two leaves! How bizarre is that? Two enormous leaves emerging from the leaf litter, nothing more. In Namibia, Welwitschia also have just two leaves, but they are much longer (and more prone to getting tattered). I’d love to learn … Read more
Spheroidal weathering in Kruger National Park, South Africa. This outcrop is Archean granite of the Kaapvaal Craton. It’s producing a nice little inselberg in the low veld; good klipspringer habitat. “Kopje” is the word I learned to call these things in East Africa, but I guess the proper Afrikaans spelling is “koppie.”
Today, let’s zoom in on a little something I saw at the outcrop of the Contorted Bed in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa: What are these things? I only saw them at this one spot. These look to me like en echelon fractures at a high angle to bedding, that were then deformed due to dextral … Read more
Got access to the wife’s photos from South Africa. Here are two other charismatic insects:
These are turbidites of the Malmsbury Group in South Africa, on the east shore of False Bay. A couple of nice little folds running sub-vertically through the package… Happy Friday!
Callan and his wife journey to Africa’s southernmost point, and find a geological mystery there.
Here’s where to find it, if you want to. Can’t say I recommend it – just an overlook, with no opportunities to hike or swim or explore in any more detail than just passively observing gravity exert its pull on water unencumbered by underlying rock.
After our safari, Lily and I were taken up onto the Great Escarpment in northern South Africa. The escarpment is supported by sedimentary strata of the Transvaal Supergroup that overlie the Archean basement rock of the Kaapvaal Craton. The Transvaal strata are Paleoproterozoic in age, somewhere between 2.5 and 2.0 billion years old. They are … Read more
Here’s a look at what you see if you go to the Three Rondawels viewpoint above the Blyde River Nature Reserve in northern South Africa: A lovely scene. The three mega-hoodoos on the left are the eponymous “rondawels” (pronounced ron-da-vulz), which is the Afrikaans word for a round hut. These erosional remnants are more or … Read more
Here’s two nice examples of mudcracks I saw used as paving stones in South Africa:
Site of the mystery photo I posted over the weekend, the beach at Rooiels (“red grass” in Afrikaans), South Africa, is a lovely place… Located on the western side of False Bay a tad north of Cape Hangklip, Rooiels is somewhat famous in my mind because the Guru of Gigapan, Illah Nourbakhsh, spoke glowingly of … Read more
Yesterday, I showed you this picture and asked what you saw there: Today I’ll give you my impressions. This is an outcrop of sandstone of the Table Mountain Supergroup, seen on the beach in the idyllic village of Rooiels, on the eastern side of False Bay, north of Cape Hangklip, in South Africa.The field of … Read more
One day in South Africa, Lily and I walked across Noordhoek Beach… Along the way, I noticed these little squiggles of sand: folded tube shapes. I decided I should photograph a few to share with Tony Martin, since he’s into trace fossils along coastal areas. Anyone have any idea what made these diminutive sculptures of … Read more
The charming rock hyrax, a cuddly-looking fellow whose nearest living relative is the elephant: This is in the coastal town of Hermanus, a lovely place for whale-watching, in season. We were there at the wrong season, but the hyrax provided a mammal sighting that made us happy. The little fellow seemed to really be enjoying … Read more
At the Three Rondavels overlook in the northern Drakensburg Mountains of South Africa, I saw this chunk of quartzite with a peculiar variety of Liesegang banding (iron oxide staining of the rock by groundwater): A short distance away, I found another example: In one key way, I liked this second example better, even though the … Read more
African penguins (formerly “jackass penguins”) at Boulders Beach, Simon’s Town, South Africa:
Here is a collection of creepy-crawlies I saw in South Africa: Big grasshopper/katydid orthopteran: Another big orthopteran (“locust”?), obviously beefier than the previous one: Beach roach (Blattodea): Mating true bugs (hemipterans): Here’s a big snail, too: And best of all? This solpugid! Solpugids are arachnids, but they are not spiders. Along with vinegaroons, scorpions, pseudoscorpions, … Read more
Elephant shrew Epauletted fruit bat Savannah baboon Vervet monkey Scrub hare Tree squirrel Woodland (?) dormouse Unidentified rat Cape porcupine (as roadkill only) Black-backed jackal Wild dog Banded mongoose Dwarf mongoose Small-spotted genet Spotted hyena African wild cat Lion Leopard African elephant Rock hyrax (dassie) Plains zebra Square-lipped (white) rhinoceros Common warthog Hippopotamus Giraffe African … Read more