For this week’s “Monday Geology Picture” here’s a view of the Cape Fold Belt with a vineyard in the foreground. I took this picture yesterday when I took a short walk with some friends through a vineyard located in the Stellenbosch winelands, just outside of my home city of Cape Town. You can see some impressive folding in those distant mountains!
Over the weekend I participated in a kayak race that was held in the lovely little coastal town Hermanus, South Africa. The race was held on a lagoon with a beautiful background of mountains that are part of the Cape Fold Belt. You’ve seen pictures of this fold belt before here on Georneys. For example, here the belt is featured in one of Callan’s “Friday Fold” posts. However, these mountains are so pretty it’s worth sharing another picture here. Enjoy!
At long last, I’m finishing up my series of posts about my October 2013 visit to the small town of Sutherland in South Africa’s Northern Cape province. Sutherland is home to a South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) research station that contains many telescopes, including the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). You can read Part I of this series here, Part II of this series here, Part III of this series here, Part IV of this series here, Part V of this series here, and Part VI of this series here. In my previous posts, I blogged about the astronomical observatory, and I also discussed the Dwyka Diamictite rock that I observed along the road to Sutherland. In this final post, I’d like to share some views of the stunning Cape Fold Belt, which we drove through on our way from Cape Town to Sutherland.
I can’t believe that it’s taken me over a year to finish up this series of posts. I’ve certainly been neglecting my geology blogging this year! However, I’ve had an extremely busy year. I started a new job then 8 months later I was promoted into another new job. So, I’ve been trying to find my feet in my new work environment. I also spent 10 weeks working at sea and was busy with other travel, both for work and for personal reasons. In any case, I’m hoping that the rest of the year will be a little quieter so that I can catch up on my blogging backlog. Then, in the New Year, I’d like to resurrect the Geology Word of the Week.
For now, though, enjoy these beautiful views of the Cape Fold Belt:
Last week I blogged about the “Chondrite Town” of Chur in Switzerland. As I was going through my pictures from Switzerland to find the Chur picture, I came across some photographs of a spectacular Swiss fold. Of course, I was reminded of my fellow geoblogger Callan Bentley and his Friday Fold posts! If you like folds, Callan provides them a-plenty on Fridays.
 |
| Gorgeous Swiss Fold. Switzerland, June 2010. |
 |
| Fold, with person in the foreground for scale. Switzerland, June 2010. |
This beauty of a fold is located just behind the Verzasca Dam in Switzerland. This dam is also sometimes called the “Golden Eye” dam because in the opening scene of the movie James Bond bungee jumps off the very tall dam.
The dam is almost as impressive as the fold:
 |
| Verzasca Dam 1. Switzerland, June 2010. |
 |
| Verzasca Dam 2. Switzerland, June 2010. |
 |
| Verzasca Dam 3. Switzerland, June 2010. |
If you want, you can even pretend to be James Bond and bungee jump off the dam yourself:
 |
| Bungee jumping at Verzasca Dam. Switzerland, June 2010. |
Georneys 