The Waterberg PlateauThe land that is South Africa today once formed the heart of Gondwana, a superc
The Waterberg PlateauThe land that is South Africa today once formed the heart of Gondwana, a supercontinent made of the modern continents of South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and the Indian Subcontinent. It contains some of the oldest rocks in the world, remnants of the assembly of the first continents over 2 billion years ago.On top of that ancient basement there are a few layers of rock, like those seen here. The heart of Gondwana was often above sea level, so there aren’t a whole lot of marine layers here, but these rocks were probably sand dunes. They formed deep in the center of the continent, when Gondwana was hooked to the rest of the world as part of Pangaea.These rocks are Triassic-aged, 220 million year old sandstones. When Pangaea formed, the heart of continents was so far away from the ocean that it drove the formation of deserts. After all, areas that far from the ocean don’t get a lot of rain supplied to them.Today, the Waterberg plateau sits within Marakele National Park, an area set aside to preserve the landscape and the wildlife in the area – including elephants, leopards, vultures, and antelopes.-JBBImage credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/martin_heigan/8334159099Read more:http://www.sanparks.org/parks/marakele/http://www.mme.gov.na/gsn/posters/geological-attractions/waterberg.pdf -- source link
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