June 2024 Program Information
June 2024 Program
----Our program was an awesome summary of Marcia's trip to South Africa with the GeoWorld Travel Group.She first reviewed some of the highlights and then showed a video of her adventures, with exquisite photos of mammals. birds, insects, lizards, butterflies & moths, a plethora of types of vegetation, and of course rocks and geologic formations. We were impressed that she had scientific and common names on every picture. She uses books, online information and consults naturalist assistants to identify her photos. She took over 4000 pictures and we are so grateful she sorted through them to make a video with background music.
Marcia started in Cape Town and the group traveled through the mid-section of South Africa to the border of Mozambique. She had several books that she referenced on the trip - 50 Must-See Geological Sites in South Africa by Gavin Whitfield and Barberton Makhonjwa Geotrail. The group focused on geologic formations and made 30 stops. Near CapeTown was Table Mountain National Park, the most visited national park in South Africa. They visited the Great Escarpment which separates the high interior plateau from the coastal strip. It can be seen from space. The Valley of Desolation is the result of volcanic, then erosion activity. Marcia was impressed with the Cradle of Humankind near Johannesburg. This site is the largest concentration of human ancestral remains in the world. The Kimberly Mine is an open-pit and underground diamond mine, purported to be the deepest hole dug by hand on earth. The mine is closed, but viewing is done from a platform called The Big Hole.
Another deep hole visited by the group was the Vredefort Dome, a large meteorite impact structure. It is the oldest astrobleme yet found on earth, at 2,023 million years old. It is also the largest with a radius of 118 miles, and is the deepest due to erosion. The breccia rock was formed by mixing mantle material with the meteorite material. At the time of impact, the temperature of the mantle was much higher than it is today, so this type of rock will never be formed on earth again. Two other "holes in the earth" were 2 caves they visited. The Cango Caves, which is one of South Africa's most popular caves and is formed in Precambrian limestone. The Sudwala Cave is one of the oldest in the world; formed in Precambrian dolomite and it is 240 million years old. After going down into the earth, Marcia and crew hiked UP the Barberton Peak Trail, Mpumalanga. It was a challenging 4.3 mile trail that went up over 2000'.
Whew! I'm getting tired just writing about all these places. Kudos to the group for their stamina! One day, they saw the famous Paarl Rock, an enormous granite outcrop with a smooth surface for hiking. They visited the beautiful Witpoortjie Falls in the Sisulu National Botanical Garden, where the water drops 70 meters. In northeastern S.A. they made a trip to see wild animals in the Kruger National Park, one of Africa's largest game reserves. Although it was raining while there, there were many varieties of animals to watch. In Mpumalanga, Marcia photographed beautiful naturally formed potholes in the rocks. Another formation was seen by the group - the Bushveld which is the largest repository in the world of magmatic ore that formed 2.1 billion years ago and covers a 25,000 square mile area. Marcia also mentioned the lowveld and the highveld, areas which differ in elevation and temperature and have distinct vegetation.
That was quite a trip! I didn't mention any of the animals or vegetation they saw, but Marcia shared the YouTube link so you can see these for yourself. Marcia even included many recordings of bird calls in the video. The link is https://youtu.be/0mWrHphSBVg?feature=shared
The video is about 20 minutes long, but if you're not going to South Africa anytime soon - here's your virtual trip! {Check out the sites in bold online.}
THANK YOU SO MUCH, MARCIA, FOR SHARING THIS AMAZING VIDEO WITH US. AND FOR THE EXPLANATION OF ALL THE GEOLOGY!