Category: South Africa

Monday Geology Picture: A Dark-Colored Xenolith in the Cape Granite

A little dark-colored xenolith (isn’t it adorable?) in Cape Granite, Clifton Beach, Cape Town, South Africa, October 2011.

I’m back home in Cape Town, so I thought I’d post a local picture for this week’s Monday Geology Picture. The above picture shows a small, dark-colored xenolith in the Cape Granite, a 550 million year old granite that has megacrysts (very big crystals) of feldspar. This xenolith is most likely a small piece of the Malmesbury Group, an older group of rocks that consists of alternating grackwacke sandstone and slate that have experienced significant uplift and metamorphism. The above xenolith was observed at Clifton Beach, a fancy beach area known for its bright white beaches which result from the weathering of the Cape Granite. Abundant xenoliths, such as the one above, can be observed in the granite boulders at Clifton Beach. I took the above picture when we took my husband’s cousin around to look at a few geological sites in the Cape Town area .There is a 5-Rand South African coin for scale in the picture; this coin is slightly smaller than an American quarter.

I have a few thesis deadlines looming, so for the next 2-3 months as I prepare for my thesis defense this blog may consist mostly of short picture posts. If time permits, I’ll try to slip in a few geology words and longer posts, but my thesis comes first at the moment. Hopefully the pictures will be enough to tide over my readers as I wrap up this PhD of mine.

Monday Geology Picture: A Glimpse of the Cape Fold Belt Through a Car Window

South Africa's Cape Fold Belt viewed through a car window, September 2011.

This week’s Monday Geology Picture shows some geology viewed through a car window. Specifically, the picture shows a glimpse of the magnificently folded and twisted sandstones of the Cape Fold Belt in South Africa. I snapped this picture as my husband and I drove along the N1 road on our way from Cape Town to Oudtshoorn for a long weekend trip. One of my favorite things to do is drive around South Africa with my husband. We often encounter interesting rocks, animals, and plants along the way… and we often stop to take a closer look at them. Even when we don’t stop, I often take pictures through the car windows, such as the picture above. The only reason we didn’t stop for a picture at that moment was that I had already snapped a few dozen roadside pictures of similar rocks. However, I couldn’t resist a quick shot through the window.

One of the things I’m really looking forward to after I finally finish up this PhD of mine is a roadtrip across South Africa. Sometime next year, my husband and I plan to take a couple of weeks vacation and drive from Cape Town to KwaZulu-Natal, where we plan to visit some friends who live in the Drakensberg (note that Drakensberg means “Dragon Mountains”– how could I not want to visit there?). We plan to stop plenty along the way, investigating some local geology of course! I imagine I will also snap many more pictures through car windows.

Monday Geology Picture: A Gorgeous Cape Town Inselberg

Cape Town view with an inselberg, September 2010.

Well, I’ve fallen somewhat behind with my regular posting, such as the Geology Word of the Week. I’m afraid that these final few months of my PhD are going to sometimes keep me from regular blogging. These last few months are tough!  Over the past few weeks, I have been very busy finishing up the very last of my labwork for my thesis (yay!), traveling between Cape Cod and Cape Town (yet again!), and also taking on important blogging tasks such as writing up my strong opinions on science kits for girls and coming up with the Georneys What to Buy a Geologist for Christmas: 2011 list.

This next week is going to be very busy with work, and I’m afraid I just won’t have time for substantial blogging. I’ll try to write up another Geology Word of the Week post next weekend. Meanwhile, to keep this blog active, I’ll post a pretty geology picture every day this week, starting with the beautiful Cape Town inselberg picture above. I’m sure that many other geobloggers and blog readers are feeling very busy finishing up tasks in time for the festive holiday season. Hopefully, these pretty pictures will help keep us motivated to finish out the year’s work.

Have you also been neglecting your geoblog recently and been feeling stressed? Is there just not enough time for blogging this week? Feel free to also post a picture-a-day with me this week, if you want. Everyone loves pretty geology pictures!

Cango Caves in Pictures

Miniature lake at Cango Cave.

I haven’t yet received a reply to my letter to Dr. Sheldon Cooper about why geology is a real and valuable science and why caves are interesting, but that’s okay. For those of you who agree that caves are interesting, I thought I’d share some pictures from my most recent spelunking trip.

Back in September, my husband and I took a weekend trip to Outdshoorn, South Africa, where I rode an Ostrich and also saw some weatherstones. We also visited the Cango Caves, a large, beautiful, and impressive network of limestone caves. We visited the excellent (though slightly worn-down) geology exhibit at the Interpretive Center (or Centre, to be properly South African) and then went on a guided tour of the caves. We decided to go on the “Adventure Tour.” We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the “Adventure Tour” is actually fairly adventurous, even for two adventurous geologists! My 6’3″ husband actually had some trouble making his way through some of the tight squeezes.

Below are some pictures (albeit not the best since they were taken with a waterproof point-and-shoot camera) from our adventure tour through Cango Caves. Enjoy! Click on any of the pictures in the gallery below for a larger version.

 

West Coast Flowers in Pictures

A field of lavender flowers. That's the ocean in the distance!

About a month ago I posted some pictures from a Saturday picnic at Langebaan Lagoon, which is located in the West Coast National Park just north of Cape Town, South Africa. I promised to post a few more pictures of our visit to the park. Here they are… mostly, these are pictures of the beautiful September flowers. The flower season in the park is brief– a little over a month– but spectacular. Enjoy!

A field of flowers with a granite hill in the distance.
White and yellow flowers.
Field of flowers, houses, ocean. Not a bad place to live!
Human for scale. Oh, wait... does that only work for rock pictures?
Beautiful beach. There were whales hanging out in this little bay!
Cluster of orange flowers.
Okay, not a flower, but a close-up of the Cape Granite, which is found as small, rounded hills throughout the park. This is a geology blog, after all!
Moar granite!
A final view of the flowers.... pretty!

Langebaan Lagoon in Pictures

Seagull on the lagoon beach.

A few weeks ago, my fiance, some friends, and I took a day trip to the West Coast National Park, which is about an hour’s drive north of Cape Town, South Africa.  We had a picnic on Langebaan Lagoon and then drove around the park to see the beautiful flowers. If you’re ever in the Cape Town area, I highly recommend visiting the West Coast National Park. While you’re in the area, be sure to check out the nearby Fossil Park. Below are some pictures from our recent visit to Langebaan Lagoon. I’ll share some pictures from the rest of our visit to the park in a separate post… stay tuned!

The lagoon is mostly surrounded by loosely-consolidated, very young sandstone. However, there are also a few granitic plutons in the area. I’ll show some more pictures of this granite in my next post.

Setting up a picnic near a sandstone rock arch.
Sandstone cross-bedding.
Look! Sandstone cross-bedding! And graffiti, unfortunately.
A close look at the young, soft sandstone.
A view across the lagoon, showing one of the granitic plutons.
Another view of Mr. Seagull.
Inviting waters.

Ostrich Riding in Oudtshoorn

 

Self-explanatory sign.

I’ve been so busy working on my thesis recently that I haven’t had time to post many pictures from my new home in South Africa. That’s okay since I’ve been spending most of my time in my home office, which looks pretty much like offices back in America.

My fiance and I did manage to escape for a weekend trip, however. We visited some incredible geology near the town of Oudtshoorn. I’ll write up a few geology posts as time permits, but for now here’s an ostrich riding interlude:

Saddling Up:

Preparing for the ride. Remember to hold onto the wings, not the neck.

Video Evidence: