Cape Fold Belt #1. Approaching the belt from Cape Town.
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:
Cape Fold Belt #2. Driving into the belt and looking back at some winelands.Cape Fold Belt #3. The Huguenot Tunnel through the Du Toitskloof Mountains.Cape Fold Belt #4.Cape Fold Belt #5. There’s some folding!Cape Fold Belt #6. Emerging into the winelands near Robertson.Cape Fold Belt #7. Vines and misty mountains.Cape Fold Belt #8.Cape Fold Belt #9. Stunning tilted mountains.Cape Fold Belt #10. A roadcut through tilted rocks.Cape Fold Belt #11. More beautiful winelands.Cape Fold Belt #12.Cape Fold Belt #13.Cape Fold Belt #14.Cape Fold Belt #15.Cape Fold Belt #16.Cape Fold Belt #17.Cape Fold Belt #18.Cape Fold Belt #19.Cape Fold Belt #20.Cape Fold Belt #21.
Dwyka diamictite can be recognised from a distance by its typical “tombstone” appearance, which forms during weathering.
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, and Part V of this series here. In my previous posts, I blogged about the astronomical observatory. In the last couple of posts, I’d like to blog about some of the geology that I observed on the drive from Cape Town to Sutherland.
On the drive to Sutherland, we stopped at some fantastic roadcut exposures of Dwyka Group glacial sedimentary rock. Specifically, we stopped to look at some Dwyka diamictite, a term used to describe a poorly sorted sedimentary rock, commonly one deposited by a glacier. Dwyka glacial sediments are often referred to as “Dwyka tillite”. However, tillite is a specific term that refers to poorly-sorted sediments deposited directly underneath a glacier. Since there is evidence that many of the Dwyka glacial sediments were deposited in a glaciomarine environment, the term “Dwyka diamictite” is more accurate… and also has pleasing alliteration! Dwyka diamictite is Carboniferous in age and was left behind by a large glacier that covered southern Gondwana. Thus, Dwyka diamictite can be found on several continents and provides evidence that the supercontinent of Gondwana once existed.
Dwyka diamictite can easily be recognized from a distance by its distinctive “tombstone” appearance:
More “tombstone” weathering of Dwyka diamictite.
For some reason (perhaps one of my geomorphologist readers knows why?), the Dwyka tends to weather into “tombstone” shapes.
Dwyka diamictite is generally is covered in a reddish-brown oxidation rim. A fresh surface of Dwyka consists of a dark gray matrix (finer-grained glacial sediment) that contains clasts of all sizes, shapes, and rock types.
Here’s a look at a fresh roadcut surface of Dwyka diamictite:
Dwyka diamictite roadcut, with 4×4 for scale.Another view of the Dwyka diamictite outcrop.
I was really excited to take a look at such a beautiful roadcut of Dwyka diamictite:
Look! Dwyka diamictite!After several “Vanna White” shots, my husband made me take a “calmer” picture with the Dwyka diamictite outcrop.
Here are some pictures of some of the interesting clasts I saw in the Dwyka diamictite outcrop:
Dwyka diamictite clasts #1.Dwyka diamictite clasts #2.Dwyka diamictite clasts #3.Dwyka diamictite clasts #4.Dwyka diamictite clasts #5. That black and white clast is worth a closer look.Dwyka diamictite clasts #6.
How many of the above clasts can you identify? I see some igneous rocks, some sedimentary rocks, some metamorphic rocks… all sorts of rocks!
Well, that’s all for this “Sutherland Sky” post. Next I’ll share some pictures of some rocks I saw as we drove through the Cape Fold Belt on our way from Cape Town to Sutherland.
Today I’m continuing with 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, and Part IV of this series here.
In my last post, I shared some pictures of the famous SALT. In this post I’m sharing pictures of some of the other telescopes that I saw on top of the hill near SALT. You can find a list of all of the telescopes at the SAAO Sutherland facility here. There are all sorts of telescopes located at Sutherland– it’s an astronomer’s heaven! If you can identify any of the telescopes in the pictures, please leave a comment below. I’d love to be able to match my pictures to the list of telescopes at Sutherland.
Without further ado, here are some pictures of some of the awesome telescopes located in Sutherland:
Telescopes #1.Telescopes #2.Telescopes #3.Telescopes #4.Telescopes #5.Telescopes #6.Telescopes #7. The telescope on the right is SALT.Telescopes #8.Telescopes #9.Telescopes #10.
That’s all for this post. In the next post in this series I’ll discuss some of the geology of the Karoo region in the vicinity of Sutherland.
Today I’m sharing some pictures of SALT, the most famous telescope located in Sutherland. I don’t know much about telescopes, to be honest, so here’s some information from the SALT website:
The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) is the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere and among the largest in the world. It has a hexagonal primary mirror array 11 metres across, comprising 91 individual 1.2m hexagonal mirrors. Although very similar to the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) in Texas, SALT has a redesigned optical system resulting in a larger field of view and effective collecting area.
SALT can detect the light from faint or distant objects in the Universe, a billion times too faint to be seen with the unaided eye – as faint as a candle flame would appear at the distance of the moon. The telescope and instruments are designed to operate from the near ultraviolet to the near infrared (320 to 1700 nm), and offer some unique or rare capabilities on a telescope of this size.
SALT is situated at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) field station near the small town of Sutherland, in the Northern Cape province, and is ~380 km from Cape Town. SALT is funded by a consortium of international partners from South Africa, the United States, Germany, Poland, India, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The construction phase was completed at the end of 2005 and from 2006 to 2009 it entered a period of commissioning and performance verification. Since September 2011, observing is now in full swing and the telescope is finally realising its huge potential as Africa’s Giant Eye on the Universe.
I definitely recommend checking out the SALT website. There’s much great information there although it does seem that some sections of the website, such as the “Picture of the Month”, have not been updated since 2011. However, there is a SALT blog that seems to be updated regularly. The blog has daily observation logs and the occasional post on topics such as optics and an astronomer’s braai (South African BBQ). There is also a website for scientists interested in working at SALT. This website provides information on how to apply for observation time at SALT. Since observation time at SALT is limited and sought after, there is an application / proposal process in place to allocate the observation time to various scientists. I also ran across this informative SALT webpage on the Rutgers University website. And here’s another great website about SALT.
During my weekend visit to Sutherland, I visited SALT and some of the other telescopes on the Saturday afternoon. SALT and the other telescopes are located a short drive away from the small town of Sutherland. The telescopes are perched on top of a hill away from the modest light pollution of the little town of Sutherland.
Here are some pictures that show the location of the telescopes on the hill:
The road from the town to the telescopes. You can make out the big SALT telescope in the upper left just below the power line.Another view of the telescopes from the road. SALT is the biggest telescope on the left. Some pretty Karoo wildflowers are in the foreground.All the telescopes up on the hill. There’s some nice sedimentary bedding on the hill, too!
Here are some pictures of SALT up close:
SALT viewed from the top of the hill.Another close-up view of SALT.
As part of the tour, I was able to visit the inside of SALT. Here’s a diagram showing what SALT looks like on the inside:
On the tour, I went past the Control Room, where I was able to see a scientist at work:
A scientist at work in the SALT control room.
Then I went up the stairs to the Visitor’s Gallery, where I was able to take a look at SALT’s impressive mirrors:
SALT’s mirrors.
I apologize for the poor quality of the above picture– it was difficult to take a good picture through the window of the Visitor’s Gallery. The gallery is kept separated from the mirrors by windows because it is important to keep conditions (temperature, humidity, etc.) perfectly controlled in the room with the mirrors.
Again, I’m afraid I don’t know much about telescopes, so here’s some information on SALT’s mirrors from Wikipedia:
Both SALT and HET have an unusual design for an optical telescope. Similar to the Keck Telescopes, the primary mirror is composed of an array of mirrors designed to act as a single larger mirror; however, the SALT mirrors produce a spherical primary, rather than the paraboloid shape associated with a classical Cassegrain telescope. Each SALT mirror is a 1-meter hexagon, and the array of 91 identical mirrors produces a hexagonal-shaped primary 11 x 9.8 meters in size. To compensate for the spherical primary, the telescope has a four-mirror spherical aberration corrector (SAC) that provides a corrected, flat focal plane with a field of view of 8 arcminutes at prime focus.
Each of the 91 mirrors is made of low-expansion Sitall glass and can be adjusted in tip, tilt and piston in order to properly align them so as to act as a single mirror. Because the mirror is spherical, light emitted from a position corresponding to the center of curvature of the mirror will be reflected and refocused to the same position. Therefore, the telescope employs a Center of Curvature Alignment Sensor (CCAS) situated at the top of a tall tower adjacent to the dome. Laser light is shone down on all the segments and the position of the reflections from each mirror measured. A process called “stacking” thus allows the telescope operator to optimize the adjustments of the mirrors.
SALT’s mirrors certainly look very impressive! To me, they look as if they belong in a science fiction movie or perhaps a James Bond movie… I can just see a James Bond villain taking over the world with SALT.
Speaking of science fiction, I mentioned in an earlier post that I visited SAAO and SALT as part of an event organized by a local (South African) Star Trek club to which I belong. Of course, if you attend a Star Trek club event, it’s best to attend in uniform. So, several of us wore Star Trek attire during our SAAO tour:
My husband Jackie and I in Star Trek: The Original Series uniforms in front of the SALT telescope.Four Trekkies in front of SALT.
The human race may not (yet) be exploring The Final Frontier as part of the United Federation of Planets. However, at least we are looking up at the sky in places such as Sutherland.
That’s all for this post. Next, I’ll share some pictures of some of the other telescopes located at Sutherland. After that, I’ll share a few pictures highlighting the geology of the Karoo region in the vicinity of Sutherland.
Today I’m going to share some pictures from our visit to the SAAO Visitor Centre, which has several museum-like displays. We started our official tour of SAAO / SALT by visiting the Visitor Centre and watching a 20 minute or so video about the universe. Then we went and toured several of the telescopes, which I’ll write about in my next post in this series. After touring the telescopes, we had an opportunity to look around the Visitor Centre displays, which included several astronomy displays and also a geology display that included a meteorite (I believe) and many interesting fossils. I spent some time looking through the astronomy displays, but I spent most of my time checking out the geology display. Thus, most of my pictures are of the geology display! Don’t worry, though… there will be plenty of astronomical telescope pictures in the next blog post in this series.
A pretty quilt– with a telescope on it!– in the lobby of the SAAO museum.
In the entrance to the geology display, there was a fairly big iron meteorite– at least, I assume that’s what it was, since I didn’t see any explanation card. I took a picture with the presumed meteorite:
Posing with a presumed meteorite.
The geology display had many fossils and bits and pieces of information organized by geologic time. The display included this neat poster showing continental reconstructions (“continental drift”) over the past 900 million years:
A poster of continental reconstructions over the past 900 million years. Click to enlarge.
Many of the other geologic information signs had a little continental reconstruction on the bottom of them, reminding the viewers of the state of the continents at that particular geologic time. The display highlighted various fossils, primarily from the nearby Karoo region, from different geologic times. The oldest of these fossils were the stromatolite fossils:
Informational sign about the stromatolite fossils on display at the SAAO Visitor Centre. These stromatolites are from Gauteng (a province of South Africa; the city of Johannesburg is located in this province).Stromatolite fossils!
Stromatalites are pretty neat. They are layered, accretionary, sedimentary structures formed by biofilms of micro-organisms, such as blue-green algae. Stromatalites were formed billions of years ago by some of the earliest lifeforms on Earth, and they are still formed by micro-organisms at several places on Earth today. Stromatalite fossils may not look like much, but as a geologist I find myself awestruck every time I see them.
Here are a few other informational signs and fossils for different periods of geologic time:
Informational sign for 400 million years ago… it was a trilobite world!Some trilobite and other fossils.Informational sign for 280 million years ago… Mesosaurus roams.I think that this is a Mesosaurus fossil? Well, it was near the Mesosaurus geological sign 🙂Informational sign for the Anteosaurus, a large reptile that was a top Karoo predator 280 million years ago.Anteosaurus skull. Pretty neat!Neat painitng… I think this painting shows Anteosaurus roaming the ancient Karoo.Informational sign for 235 million years ago… the time of the “red crocodile” in the Karoo.“Red crocodile” skull.Informational sign for 120 million years before present… ammonites are found in the oceans.A stunning ammonite fossil. Just beautiful!Informational sign for 70-80 million years ago… some clams died out.Gorgeous clam fossils.More gorgeous clam fossils.Informational sign for a sudden extinction event approximately 70 million years ago that created some stunning frog fossils.Frog fossils!Informational sign for more recent geological time a mere 5 million years ago… the time of the megatooth shark!Megatooth shark tooth. That’s quite a big tooth!
Last but not least, I want to share two pictures of a plaque titled “Pangea Reunited”. I really liked this little plaque. The inscriptions on the plaque read:
PANGEA REUNITED
Pangea is the name given to the single continent which existed about 200 million years ago. Evidence for this has been discovered in rocks and fossils in Africa and other continents of the world. Sediments and rocks associated with Pangea have been assembled from all continents of the world, symbolically reuniting Pangea at the beginning of the African Renaissance and the dawn of a new millennium.
and:
KAROO ROCK
This Permian rock, representing part of the Pangean super-continent, was excavated a the groundbreaking ceremony associated with the Southern African Large Telescope on September 1, 2000.
Pangea reunited.
I think it’s really wonderful that the SAAO museum contains so much geology information and that the SALT ground-breaking ceremony paid tribute to Pangea. The SAAO telescopes, including SALT, are located in a remarkable geological location– I’ll be sharing some more information and pictures about the geology of the Karoo region in future posts in this series. I think that it is wonderful, and very important, that the researchers using the SAAO telescopes to study other interesting parts of the universe– perhaps other little rocky planets where, perhaps, there may also be life– are reminded of the wonderful little rocky planet on which their telescopes are perched. At Sutherland, there is much to see by looking up into the sky… but there is also much to see by looking down toward one’s feet.
Speaking of looking up into the sky, stay tuned for the next post in this series… I’ll be sharing some pictures of some of the SAAO telescopes!
Today I am sharing a few more pictures of the town of Sutherland. In my next post I’ll discuss my visit to the SAAO museum. Then I’ll discuss our amazing tour of some of Sutherland’s telescopes, including SALT. Last but not least, I’ll discuss some of the great geology that we saw while traveling between Cape Town and Sutherland.
Without further ado, here are a few more pictures of the small– but important– town of Sutherland:
Along the main road in Sutherland there is an educational display about planets. This part of the display represents Mars. Sutherland, October 2013.Here’s the part of the display representing Earth and a few more planets. Sutherland, October 2013.A view of the church along Sutherland’s main street. October 2013.Another view of the church along Sutherland’s main street. October 2013.Windmill and a barn. Sutherland, October 2013.Backyard goats. Sutherland, October 2013.Backyard turkey. Sutherland, October 2013.Garage with chickens. Sutherland, October 2013.A typical road in Sutherland. October 2013.The White House… in Sutherland. It is (was?) for sale! October 2013.A solitary lion guardian. Sutherland, October 2013.Friendly cat adornments near a door. I’d love to get some of these for our home. Sutherland, October 2013.
My husband and I spent two nights in Sutherland, and we stayed at The Sutherland Hotel. The rooms at the hotel are very basic and somewhat small, but they are clean and the inn staff are very friendly. The hotel also has a bar and a kitchen providing some traditional Afrikaans food– very rich, hearty food. The food wasn’t anything to write home about, though– we’ve had much better Afrikaans food. Breakfast was included with our stay. For variety, if my husband and I visit Sutherland again we’ll probably stay in one of the smaller guest houses or possibly on a nearby guest farm. However, the Sutherland Hotel provided economical accommodation for our Star Trek club group. I certainly recommend the hotel– just don’t expect anything fancy.
The Sutherland Hotel. October 2013.
During our first night in Sutherland, we had dinner at a lovely little restaurant called Cluster d’ Hote. My husband and I arrived in Sutherland a night before the rest of the Star Trek club group. After walking around the town for a few hours on our first day, we popped into Cluster d’ Hote and asked if we could have afternoon tea. We enjoyed a leisurely pot of tea and some sweets in the restaurant, which is located in an old house that is filled with interesting antiques. We noticed that Cluster d’ Hote had a very good Trip Advisor rating advertised on their wall, so we made a booking for dinner later in the evening. We tried to pay for tea before we left to freshen up and spend an hour or so reading in our hotel room, but we were told not to worry about the bill; we were told that we could settle it after our evening meal. I guess that there is still some trust in some of the small South African towns! It was very refreshing to experience such small town trust.
We immensely enjoyed our dinner at Cluster d’ Hote. We sampled two traditional Karoo lamb dishes, and the food was excellent. I highly recommend a meal at Cluster d’ Hote if you find yourself in Sutherland.
Cluster d’ Hote dining room. Sutherland, October 2013.Another view of the Cluster d’ Hote dining room. Sutherland, October 2013.A delicious Karoo lamb dish at the Cluster d’ Hote restaurant. Sutherland, October 2013.
That’s all for this post. Stay tuned for Part III!
This is the first in what will be a series of posts about my recent visit to Sutherland, a small town in South Africa’s Northern Cape province. In October 2013 my husband Jackie and I visited Sutherland for a long weekend. Sutherland is famous because it is home to the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) research station, which has a number of telescopes that are used for astronomical and astrophysical research. The most famous telescope located at Sutherland is the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. Jackie and I visited Sutherland as part of a Star Trek club (yes, Star Trek club– we’re proud Star Trek fans!) event. Along with our fellow Trekkie friends, we toured the SAAO facility. We went on a daytime tour and visited the museum and also some of the large telescopes. Some of us wore Star Trek uniforms/costumes on the tour, and I think (and hope) that we delighted some of the other visitors with our attire. We certainly ended up posing for quite a few pictures! In addition to the daytime tour, we also attended an evening stargazing session during which we peered through some smaller telescopes that have been set up for educational purposes– the big telescopes are reserved for proper scientific research at night.
In addition to touring the SAAO research station, Jackie and I also spent some time exploring the wonderful little town of Sutherland. In addition, we spent some time exploring some of the impressive geology that can be viewed along the approximately four hour drive to Sutherland from our home in Cape Town. To reach Sutherland from Cape Town, we drove over the Cape Fold Belt and saw some highly impressive folded and uplifted sedimentary rocks. After we trekked (see what I did there?) across the Cape Fold Belt, we reached the flat, empty roads of the Karoo desert region. During the last two hours of our drive, we only passed one other car. Geologically, the Karoo region is home to the Karoo Supergroup, a stratigraphic unit that covers two-thirds of South Africa and consists of a sequence of sedimentary rocks that are intruded, in many places, by igneous rocks, including some impressive dolerite dikes. The Karoo region is also covered in many places by the Dwyka tillite, which was deposited by widespread glaciation.
In subsequent posts, I’ll discuss SAAO and SALT and some of the geology that we observed along the way to Sutherland. Today, I want to share a few pictures of the town of Sutherland. At first glance, Sutherland looks like many other small towns in the Karoo. There are small shops, cafes, a restaurant or two, guest houses, schools, and churches– and even the PEP store that is found in most South African towns, both large and small. My husband and I joke that the presence a PEP store, which sells inexpensive clothing and other items, marks the difference between a village and a town in South Africa.
Main Street. Sutherland, October 2013.Another view of Main Street. Sutherland, October 2013.The Sutherland Mall… for all your shopping needs! Sutherland, October 2013.Sutherland’s PEP store. October 2013.
However, after Jackie and I spent some time walking around Sutherland, we quickly realized that Sutherland is no ordinary small town in the Karoo. Rather, the town has a decidedly astronomical flavor. See for yourself:
Signs for the Jupiter and Andromeda guest houses. Sutherland, October 2013.Jupiter Guesthouse. Sutherland, October 2013.Sign for the Skitterland Guesthouse. Skitter means “Sparkle” in Afrikaans. Sutherland, October 2013.A sign pointing to The Galaxy. Sutherland, October 2013.The Galaxy itself. Sutherland, October 2013.A sign for the Galileo Guesthouse. Sutherland, October 2013.A sign for the Aquarius Guesthouse. Sutherland, October 2013.A sign for the Kosmos Guesthouse. “Kosmos” is Afrikaans for “Cosmos”. Sutherland, October 2013.
My favorite example of the astronomical theme found in the town of Sutherland is a cleverly named cafe:
Halley-sê-kom-eet Cafe. Sutherland, October 2013.
The name of the cafe is “Halley-sê-kom-eet”, which has a double meaning in Afrikaans. The cafe’s name obviously refers to the famous Halley’s Comet. In Afrikaans, “Halley’s Comet” is “Halley se komeet”. However, “Halley sê kom eet” means “Halley says come eat”. Adding a little hat above the one e and adding a space turns an astronomical reference into instructions to go eat some delicious Afrikaans food. The instructions worked– Jackie and I ate at the cafe a couple of times during our visit to Sutherland.
Well, that’s all I’ll share in this post. Stayed tuned for more about Sutherland!
Georneys 