Cape Town
Reader JS sent some Google-Earth images of the Cape Town area, prompted by reading an article on Yahoo! News entitled African Mountain Range Could be World’s Strongest.
The researchers calculated erosion rates for the mountains based on measuring radioactive isotopes of beryllium. They calculated an unbelievably slow rate of erosion for the Table Mountain area, [...]
On the shore at Sea Point, south of Cape Town, sits a dramatic geological contact (figure 1) that has been famous for some two centuries. This complex and spectacular feature was first described by Clark Abel in 1818,1 and then visited by the young Charles Darwin in 1836, on his journey around the world on [...]
Continue reading about Famous contact at Sea Point, South Africa, reveals rapid granite emplacement
The oldest rocks in the Cape Town area, South Africa, are part of the Malmesbury Group,1 named after the town of Malmesbury, 60 km north-west of Cape Town. The Malmesbury Group covers a large area around Cape Town: 200 km to the north and 100 km to the east. Beyond this they are covered by [...]
Continue reading about Cape Town’s oldest rocks deposited rapidly from abundant water
In the steep road cut alongside Chapman’s Peak Drive, south of Cape Town, South Africa, you can see some of the flat-lying beds of sediment that form the 1000-metre tall mountains along Cape Peninsula. The mudstone has a distinctive maroon colour while the coarser sandstone is buff. The road runs just above the contact between [...]
Continue reading about Cape Peninsula sandstones, South Africa, deposited during Noah’s Flood
When I was in South Africa in 2011, I photographed this glorious view looking south on Chapman’s Peak Drive, south of Cape Town. The road down Cape Peninsula runs along the junction between two spectacular geological features.
In the cut as you drive along the road you can see flat-lying maroon, purple and tan beds [...]
Continue reading about Cape Peninsula, South Africa, formed during Noah’s Flood
Latest Comments