1.
Cape Town
–
Cape Town is a coastal city in South Africa. It is the second-most populous urban area in South Africa after Johannesburg and it is also the capital and primate city of the Western Cape province. As the seat of the Parliament of South Africa, it is also the capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality, the city is famous for its harbour, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for such well-known landmarks as Table Mountain and Cape Point. As of 2014, it is the 10th most populous city in Africa and it is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, reflecting its role as a major destination for immigrants and expatriates to South Africa. The city was named the World Design Capital for 2014 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, in 2014, Cape Town was named the best place in the world to visit by both the American New York Times and the British Daily Telegraph. Located on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town was first developed by the Dutch East India Company as a station for Dutch ships sailing to East Africa, India. Jan van Riebeecks arrival on 6 April 1652 established the first permanent European settlement in South Africa, Cape Town quickly outgrew its original purpose as the first European outpost at the Castle of Good Hope, becoming the economic and cultural hub of the Cape Colony. Until the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the development of Johannesburg, Cape Town was the largest city in South Africa, the earliest known remnants in the region were found at Peers Cave in Fish Hoek and date to between 15,000 and 12,000 years ago. It was later renamed by John II of Portugal as Cape of Good Hope because of the optimism engendered by the opening of a sea route to India. Vasco da Gama recorded a sighting of the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, in the late 16th century, Portuguese, French, Danish, Dutch and English but mainly Portuguese ships regularly stopped over in Table Bay en route to the Indies. They traded tobacco, copper and iron with the Khoikhoi in exchange for fresh meat, the settlement grew slowly during this period, as it was hard to find adequate labour. This labour shortage prompted the authorities to import slaves from Indonesia, many of these became ancestors of the first Cape Coloured communities. Some of these, including grapes, cereals, ground nuts, potatoes, apples and citrus, had an important, the Dutch Republic being transformed in Revolutionary Frances vassal Batavian Republic, Great Britain moved to take control of its colonies. Britain captured Cape Town in 1795, but the Cape was returned to the Dutch by treaty in 1803, British forces occupied the Cape again in 1806 following the Battle of Blaauwberg. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, Cape Town was permanently ceded to Britain and it became the capital of the newly formed Cape Colony, whose territory expanded very substantially through the 1800s. With expansion came calls for independence from Britain, with the Cape attaining its own parliament. Suffrage was established according to the non-racial, but sexist Cape Qualified Franchise, the discovery of diamonds in Griqualand West in 1867, and the Witwatersrand Gold Rush in 1886, prompted a flood of immigrants to South Africa
Cape Town
–
Clockwise from top: Cape Town CBD,
Strand,
Clifton beach,
Table Mountain,
Port of Cape Town,
Cape Town City Hall
Cape Town
–
Coat of arms
Cape Town
–
Arrival of
Jan van Riebeeck in
Table Bay by
Charles Bell
Cape Town
–
View of Table Bay with ships of the
Dutch East India Company, c. 1683
2.
Bloubergstrand, Cape Town
–
Bloubergstrand /ˌbloʊbərɡˈstrænd/ is a suburb of Cape Town along the shores of Table Bay,15 km due north of the city centre of Cape Town. The name Bloubergstrand literally means blue mountain beach in Afrikaans, and is derived from Blaauwberg, Bloubergstrand is mainly a residential area, and attracts large numbers of visitors. The beach at Bloubergstrand is a location for a classic view of Table Mountain across the bay. Robben Island is located 6,9 km west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, “Harry die Strandloper”, or Hadah, was the leader of the Goringhaikonas, who were the first people documented to live in Bloubergstrand. Hadah, whose name was Autshumao, was taken to Java in 1629 by the Captain of the ship London to be taught English. Because of his duties to deliver letters to the British seafaring community. In 1806, the first casualties of the Battle of Blaauwberg drowned when their boat was driven by the large surf into the point at the end of Stadler road. The invading British forces went on to defeat the defending Dutch forces and this was an initial step in the major colonisation that then took place throughout the southern African continent. Now a famous monument, Ons Huisie has a long. The first dwelling of Frederick Louis Stadler, shortly after the Battle of Blouberg in 1806, he became owner of almost all the farm property that is now known as Bloubergstrand. The exact building date is not known, but a Thomas Bowler made a pencil drawing of the house in 1853. Hendrik Louis Stadler, the son of Frederick Louis, was the owner of Ons Huisie at that time. Her ashes are buried under the front step of the house, when she died Mollie Lochner Huis was bequeathed to the South African Teachers Union as a holiday home for female teachers but because of the high maintenance cost they had to dispose of it. Over the years it was changed beyond recognition, ultimately demolished in 2004, the large wooden cross out on the promontory rocks was erected in memory of Heather Bam who lived in the same house before Mollie and who drowned off the point in 1911. During Apartheid, Bloubergstrand was classified as a whites-only beach, the ruling was repealed in 1991 following the abolishing of the Group Areas Act. The past continues in certain areas, local licensed fishermen still use a small local design of rowing boat to put their nets out in Small Bay for mullet when the temperature and other conditions are favourable. They retrieve their nets manually, after which the fortunate locals buy this delicacy directly from them, the mullet has quite a few small bones and needs to be carefully digested together with freshly baked bread or pap from maize, enhanced with a regional traditional jam. Sometimes another local delicacy, “braaibrood”, replaces the freshly baked bread, “Blouberg Braaibrood” consists of 2 slices of white, whole wheat or brown bread, on the outside, barbecued with onion, a chutney, tomato and cheese on the inside
Bloubergstrand, Cape Town
–
An aerial view of Bloubergstand with
Table Mountain on the far side of
Table Bay. The blue colour of the mountain from the beach gives the beach its name.
Bloubergstrand, Cape Town
–
Recreation at Bloubergstrand, with Table Mountain in the background
Bloubergstrand, Cape Town
–
Heather Bam monument, Bloubergstrand
3.
Summit
–
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a maximum in elevation. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak, and zenith are synonymous, the UIAA definition is that a summit is independent if it has a prominence of 30 metres or more, it is a mountain if it has a prominence of at least 300 metres. This can be summarised as follows, A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top, Summit may also refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route. In many parts of the western United States, the term refers to the highest point along a road, highway. For example, the highest point along Interstate 80 in California is referred to as Donner Summit while the highest point on Interstate 5 is Siskiyou Mountain Summit, geoid Hill List of highest mountains Maxima and minima Nadir Summit accordance Peak finder
Summit
–
The highest elevation summit, Mount Everest, shown with a climber at the summit wearing an oxygen mask. The summit is 8850 m (29,035 ft) elevation. (While the cruising altitude of jetliners is roughly 10,000 m (32,808 feet), they are pressurized.)
Summit
–
View from the summit of Switzerland's highest,
Monte Rosa
Summit
–
The summit of
Mount Damavand,
Iran, in winter
Summit
–
Jeff Davis Peak, one of the highest peaks entirely within
Nevada
4.
Topographic prominence
–
It is a measure of the independence of a summit. A peaks key col is a point on this contour line. By convention, the prominence of Mount Everest, the Earths highest mountain, is taken to equal the elevation of its summit above sea level, if the peaks prominence is P metres, to get from the summit to any higher terrain one must descend at least P metres. Together with the convention for Mount Everest, this implies that the prominence of any island or continental highpoint is equal to its elevation above sea level, for every ridge connecting the peak to higher terrain, find the lowest point on the ridge. The key col is defined as the highest of these cols, the prominence is the difference between the elevation of the peak and the elevation of the key col. The following mental exercise may illustrate the meaning of topographic prominence, imagine you are standing at the top of a peak and imagine that an imaginary sea level rises to your feet. Now slowly lower the sea level and an imaginary island appears beneath your feet. Your island will grow and will merge with other islands that emerge, the parent peak may be either close or far from the subject peak. The summit of Mount Everest is the parent peak of Aconcagua at a distance of 17,755 km, the key col may also be close or far from the subject peak. The key col for Aconcagua is the Bering Strait at a distance of 13,655 km, the key col for the South Summit of Mount Everest is about 100 m distant. Prominence is interesting to many mountaineers because it is a measurement that is strongly correlated with the subjective significance of a summit. Peaks with low prominences are either subsidiary tops of some higher summit or relatively insignificant independent summits, peaks with high prominences tend to be the highest points around and are likely to have extraordinary views. Only summits with a sufficient degree of prominence are regarded as independent mountains, for example, the worlds second-highest mountain is K2. While Mount Everests South Summit is taller than K2, it is not considered an independent mountain because it is a subsummit of the main summit, many lists of mountains take topographic prominence as a criterion for inclusion, or cutoff. John and Anne Nuttalls The Mountains of England and Wales uses a cutoff of 15 m, in the contiguous United States, the famous list of fourteeners uses a cutoff of 300 ft /91 m. Also in the U. S.2000 feet of prominence has become a threshold that signifies that a peak has major stature. This generates lists of peaks ranked by prominence, which are different from lists ranked by elevation. Such lists tend to emphasize isolated high peaks, such as range or island high points, one advantage of a prominence-ranked list is that it needs no cutoff, since a peak with high prominence is automatically an independent peak
Topographic prominence
–
Figure 3. Diagram of a mountain range showing peaks and cols, from which mountain parentage and prominences can be determined.
Topographic prominence
–
Topographic prominence of three peaks near Great Pond Mountain, Maine, USA. Red triangles mark the peaks, the lowest contour line encircling each peak are shown in black and the green dots mark the key cols. The prominences are Atkins Hill: 430 – 310 = 120 ft, Cave Hill: 570 - 530 = 40 ft, Mead Mountain: 671 - 530 = 141 ft. The parent peak of each peak is Great Pond Mountain.
5.
List of mountains in South Africa
–
List of Mountains in South Africa is a general list of mountains in South Africa, with elevation. The highest mountain in South Africa is 3,450 metres high Mafadi, located on the border of South Africa, several of the highest peaks have snow in the Southern hemisphere winter season. A Khulu is a peak above 3,000 m and not within 1 km of another Khulu, seweweekspoortpiek and Du Toits Peak are among the ultra prominent peaks of Africa. A few mountains, such as Spion Kop or Isandlwana are historically important hills, table Mountain is important because of its emblematic value. Geography of South Africa List of Ultras of Africa List of mountain ranges of South Africa Highest mountain peaks of Africa South Africa - Highest Mountains Highest summits in southern Africa
List of mountains in South Africa
–
Table Mountain
6.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
7.
Geologic time scale
–
The table of geologic time spans, presented here, agrees with the nomenclature, dates and standard color codes set forth by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. Evidence from radiometric dating indicates that Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, the geology or deep time of Earth’s past has been organized into various units according to events which took place in each period. Older time spans, which predate the reliable record, are defined by their absolute age. Some other planets and moons within the Solar System have sufficiently rigid structures to have preserved records of their own histories, for example, Venus, Mars, dominantly fluid planets, such as the gas giants, do not preserve their history in a comparable manner. Apart from the Late Heavy Bombardment, events on other planets probably had little influence on the Earth. Construction of a scale that links the planets is, therefore, of only limited relevance to the Earths time scale. The existence, timing, and terrestrial effects of the Late Heavy Bombardment is still debated, the largest defined unit of time is the supereon, composed of eons. Eons are divided into eras, which are in turn divided into periods, epochs, the terms eonothem, erathem, system, series, and stage are used to refer to the layers of rock that correspond to these periods of geologic time in Earths history. Geologists qualify these units as early, mid, and late when referring to time, and lower, middle, for example, the lower Jurassic Series in chronostratigraphy corresponds to the early Jurassic Epoch in geochronology. The adjectives are capitalized when the subdivision is formally recognized, and lower case when not, thus early Miocene but Early Jurassic. Geologic units from the time but different parts of the world often look different and contain different fossils. For example, in North America the Lower Cambrian is called the Waucoban series that is subdivided into zones based on succession of trilobites. In East Asia and Siberia, the unit is split into Alexian, Atdabanian. A key aspect of the work of the International Commission on Stratigraphy is to reconcile this conflicting terminology, the term Anthropocene is used informally by popular culture and a growing number of scientists to describe the current epoch in which we are living. The term was coined by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in 2000 to describe the current time, others say that humans have not even started to leave their biggest impact on Earth, and therefore the Anthropocene hasnt even started yet. Whatever the case, the ICS has not officially approved the term, leonardo da Vinci concurred with Aristotles interpretation that fossils represented the remains of ancient life. The 11th-century Persian geologist Avicenna and the 13th-century Dominican bishop Albertus Magnus extended Aristotles explanation into a theory of a petrifying fluid. Avicenna also first proposed one of the principles underlying geologic time scales, the Chinese naturalist Shen Kuo also recognized the concept of deep time
Geologic time scale
–
Key concepts
Geologic time scale
8.
Silurian
–
The Silurian is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at 443.8 million years ago, to the beginning of the Devonian Period,419.2 Mya. As with other periods, the rock beds that define the periods start and end are well identified. The base of the Silurian is set at a major Ordovician-Silurian extinction event when 60% of marine species were wiped out, a significant evolutionary milestone during the Silurian was the diversification of jawed and bony fish. However, terrestrial life would not greatly diversify and affect the landscape until the Devonian, the Silurian system was first identified by British geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, who was examining fossil-bearing sedimentary rock strata in south Wales in the early 1830s. He named the sequences for a Celtic tribe of Wales, the Silures, inspired by his friend Adam Sedgwick and this naming does not indicate any correlation between the occurrence of the Silurian rocks and the land inhabited by the Silures. As it was first identified, the Silurian series when traced farther afield quickly came to overlap Sedgwicks Cambrian sequence, however, charles Lapworth resolved the conflict by defining a new Ordovician system including the contested beds. An early alternative name for the Silurian was Gotlandian after the strata of the Baltic island of Gotland, the French geologist Joachim Barrande, building on Murchisons work, used the term Silurian in a more comprehensive sense than was justified by subsequent knowledge. He divided the Silurian rocks of Bohemia into eight stages and his interpretation was questioned in 1854 by Edward Forbes, and the later stages of Barrande, F, G and H, have since been shown to be Devonian. Despite these modifications in the groupings of the strata, it is recognized that Barrande established Bohemia as a classic ground for the study of the earliest fossils. The epoch is named for the town of Llandovery in Carmarthenshire, the Wenlock, which lasted from 433.4 ±1.5 to 427.4 ±2.8 mya, is subdivided into the Sheinwoodian and Homerian ages. It is named after Wenlock Edge in Shropshire, England, during the Wenlock, the oldest known tracheophytes of the genus Cooksonia, appear. The first terrestrial animals also appear in the Wenlock, represented by air-breathing millipedes from Scotland. The Ludlow, lasting from 427.4 ±1.5 to 423 ±2.8 mya, comprises the Gorstian stage, lasting until 425.6 million years ago, and it is named for the town of Ludlow in Shropshire, England. The Pridoli, lasting from 423 ±1.5 to 419.2 ±2.8 mya, is the final and it is named after one locality at the Homolka a Přídolí nature reserve near the Prague suburb Slivenec in the Czech Republic. Přídolí is the old name of a field area. The high sea levels of the Silurian and the flat land resulted in a number of island chains. The southern continents remained united during this period, the melting of icecaps and glaciers contributed to a rise in sea level, recognizable from the fact that Silurian sediments overlie eroded Ordovician sediments, forming an unconformity. The continents of Avalonia, Baltica, and Laurentia drifted together near the equator and this event is the Caledonian orogeny, a spate of mountain building that stretched from New York State through conjoined Europe and Greenland to Norway
Silurian
–
Ordovician -Silurian boundary on
Hovedøya,
Norway, showing gray Ordovician
sandstone and brown Silurian
mudstone. The layers have been overturned by the
Caledonian orogeny.
Silurian
–
Marine extinction intensity during the
Phanerozoic
Silurian
–
Silurian sea bed fossils collected from Wren's Nest Nature Reserve, Dudley UK
Silurian
–
Crinoid fragments in a Silurian (Pridoli) limestone (
Saaremaa, Estonia)
9.
Ordovician
–
The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.2 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period 485.4 million years ago to the start of the Silurian Period 443.8 Mya. Lapworth recognized that the fauna in the disputed strata were different from those of either the Cambrian or the Silurian periods. It received international sanction in 1960, when it was adopted as a period of the Paleozoic Era by the International Geological Congress. Life continued to flourish during the Ordovician as it did in the earlier Cambrian period, invertebrates, namely molluscs and arthropods, dominated the oceans. The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event considerably increased the diversity of life, fish, the worlds first true vertebrates, continued to evolve, and those with jaws may have first appeared late in the period. Life had yet to diversify on land, about 100 times as many meteorites struck the Earth during the Ordovician compared with today. The Ordovician Period began with a major extinction called the Cambrian–Ordovician extinction event and it lasted for about 42 million years and ended with the Ordovician–Silurian extinction event, about 443.8 Mya which wiped out 60% of marine genera. The dates given are recent radiometric dates and vary slightly from those found in other sources and this second period of the Paleozoic era created abundant fossils that became major petroleum and gas reservoirs. The boundary chosen for the beginning of both the Ordovician Period and the Tremadocian stage is highly significant and it correlates well with the occurrence of widespread graptolite, conodont, and trilobite species. The base of the Tremadocian allows scientists to relate these species not only to each other and this makes it easier to place many more species in time relative to the beginning of the Ordovician Period. A number of terms have been used to subdivide the Ordovician Period. In 2008, the ICS erected an international system of subdivisions. There exist Baltoscandic, British, Siberian, North American, Australian, the Ordovician Period in Britain was traditionally broken into Early, Middle and Late epochs. The corresponding rocks of the Ordovician System are referred to as coming from the Lower, Middle, the Floian corresponds to the lower Arenig, the Arenig continues until the early Darriwilian, subsuming the Dapingian. The Llanvirn occupies the rest of the Darriwilian, and terminates with it at the base of the Late Ordovician. The Sandbian represents the first half of the Caradoc, the Caradoc ends in the mid-Katian, during the Ordovician, the southern continents were collected into Gondwana. Gondwana started the period in equatorial latitudes and, as the period progressed, drifted toward the South Pole, the small continent Avalonia separated from Gondwana and began to move north towards Baltica and Laurentia, opening the Rheic Ocean between Gondwana and Avalonia
Ordovician
–
External mold of Ordovician
bivalve showing that the original
aragonite shell dissolved on the sea floor, leaving a cemented mold for biological encrustation (
Waynesville Formation of Franklin County, Indiana).
Ordovician
–
A
diorama depicting Ordovician flora and fauna.
Ordovician
–
Nautiloids like
Orthoceras were among the largest predators in the Ordovician.
Ordovician
–
Fossiliferous limestone slab from the Liberty Formation (Upper Ordovician) of Caesar Creek State Park near Waynesville, Ohio.
10.
Sandstone
–
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earths crust, like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, quartz-bearing sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure, usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. They are formed from cemented grains that may either be fragments of a rock or be mono-minerallic crystals. The cements binding these grains together are typically calcite, clays, grain sizes in sands are defined within the range of 0.0625 mm to 2 mm. The formation of sandstone involves two principal stages, first, a layer or layers of sand accumulates as the result of sedimentation, either from water or from air. Typically, sedimentation occurs by the settling out from suspension. The most common cementing materials are silica and calcium carbonate, which are derived either from dissolution or from alteration of the sand after it was buried. Colours will usually be tan or yellow, a predominant additional colourant in the southwestern United States is iron oxide, which imparts reddish tints ranging from pink to dark red, with additional manganese imparting a purplish hue. Red sandstones are seen in the Southwest and West of Britain, as well as central Europe. The regularity of the latter favours use as a source for masonry, either as a building material or as a facing stone. These physical properties allow the grains to survive multiple recycling events. Quartz grains evolve from rock, which are felsic in origin. Feldspathic framework grains are commonly the second most abundant mineral in sandstones, Feldspar can be divided into two smaller subdivisions, alkali feldspars and plagioclase feldspars. The different types of feldspar can be distinguished under a petrographic microscope, below is a description of the different types of feldspar. Alkali feldspar is a group of minerals in which the composition of the mineral can range from KAlSi3O8 to NaAlSi3O8. Plagioclase feldspar is a group of solid solution minerals that range in composition from NaAlSi3O8 to CaAl2Si2O8. Lithic framework grains are pieces of ancient source rock that have yet to weather away to individual mineral grains, accessory minerals are all other mineral grains in a sandstone, commonly these minerals make up just a small percentage of the grains in a sandstone
Sandstone
–
Cut slab of sandstone showing
Liesegang banding
Sandstone
–
Devonian Sandstone at Suur Taevaskoda,
Põlva County,
Estonia
Sandstone
–
Alcove in the
Navajo Sandstone
Sandstone
–
Sandstone Rock-cut tombs (
Kokhim) in
Petra,
Jordan
11.
First ascent
–
In climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First ascents are notable because they entail genuine exploration, with risks, challenges. The person who performs the first ascent is called the first ascensionist, the details of the first ascents of even many prominent mountains are scanty or unknown, sometimes the only evidence of prior summiting is a cairn, artifacts, or inscriptions at the top. Today, first ascents are generally recorded and usually mentioned in guidebooks. Overwhelmingly, the idea of a first ascent is a one, especially in places such as Africa. There may be little or no evidence or documentation about the climbing activities of indigenous peoples living near the mountain. The term is used when referring to ascents made using a specific technique or taking a specific route, such as via the North Face. In rock climbing, some of the earlier first ascents, particularly for difficult routes, involved a mix of free, as a result, purist free climbers have developed the designation first free ascent to acknowledge ascents intentionally made more challenging by using equipment for protection only. Some other first ascents could be recorded for particular mountains or routes, one is the First Winter Ascent, which is, as the name easily suggests, the first ascent made during winter season. This is most important where the climate of winter is a factor in increasing the difficulty grade of the route, in the Northern Hemisphere conventional winter ascents are made between December 21 and March 21 and are not related to the conditions. Also in the Himalayan area, although Nepal and Chinas winter season permits start on December 1, another is the First Solo Ascent, which is the first ascent made by a single climber. This is most important on high-level rock climbing, when the climber has to provide his own security or even when climbing without any protection at all, another type of ascent, also known as FFA is the first female ascent. The term last ascent has been used to refer to an ascent of a mountain or face that has changed to such an extent – often because of rockfall – that the route no longer exists. It can also be used facetiously to refer to a climb that is so unpleasant or unaesthetic that no one would willingly repeat the first ascent partys ordeal. List of first ascents List of first ascents in the Alps List of first ascents in the Himalaya Glossary of climbing terms Alpinist Magazine – Peter Mortimers First Ascent, Issue 17
First ascent
–
Henry Barber on first ascent of Savage Journey at Lost World,
Mt. Wellington,
Tasmania, 1975
12.
Khoikhoi language
–
It belongs to the Khoe language family, and is spoken in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa by three ethnic groups, the Nama, Damara, and Haiǁom. The Haiǁom, who had spoken a Juu language, later shifted to Khoekhoe, the name for Khoekhoegowab speakers, Khoekhoen, in English khoe is a person, with reduplication and the suffix -n to indicate the plural. Georg Friedrich Wreede was the first European to study the language, Khoekhoe is a national language in Namibia, where it is used for teaching up to the university level as well as in the public administration. In Namibia and South Africa, state-owned broadcasting corporations produce and broadcast radio programmes in Khoekhoegowab, ǂĀkhoe, itself a dialect cluster, and intermediate between Haiǁom and the Kalahari Khoe languages They are distinct enough that they might be considered two or three distinct languages. Eini is also close but is now counted as a distinct language. There are 5 vowel qualities, found as oral /i e a o u/, /u/ is strongly rounded, /o/ only slightly so. /a/ is the vowel with notable allophony, it is pronounced before /i/ or /u/. Nama has been described as having three or four tones, /á, ā, à/ or /a̋, á, à, ȁ/, the high tone is higher when it occurs on one of the high vowels or on a nasal than on mid or low vowels. The tones combine into a number of tone melodies, which have sandhi forms in certain syntactic environments. The most important melodies, in their citation and main forms, are as follows, Within a phrase. Within a word, the first syllable receives the most stress, subsequent syllables receive less and less stress and are spoken more and more quickly. Nama has 31 consonants,20 clicks and only 11 non-clicks, between vowels, /p/ is pronounced and /t/ is pronounced. The affricate series is strongly aspirated, and may be analysed phonemically as aspirated stops, Beach reported that the Khoehkoe of the time had a velar lateral ejective affricate, a common realisation or allophone of /kxʼ/ in languages with clicks. This sound no longer occurs in Khoekhoe but remains in its cousin Korana, the clicks are doubly articulated consonants. Each click consists of one of four primary articulations or influxes, the combination results in 20 phonemes. The aspiration on the aspirated clicks is often light but is raspier than the nasal clicks. The glottalised clicks are clearly voiceless due to the hold before the release, tindall notes that European learners almost invariably pronounce the lateral clicks by placing the tongue against the side teeth and that this articulation is harsh and foreign to the native ear. The Namaqua instead cover the whole of the palate with the tongue, lexical root words consist of two or rarely three moras, in the form CVCV, CVV, or CVN
Khoikhoi language
–
Nama man giving lessons on the Khoekhoe language
Khoikhoi language
–
The distribution of the Nama language in
Namibia.
13.
Afrikaans
–
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and, to a lesser extent, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Hence, it is a language of Dutch, and was previously referred to as Cape Dutch or kitchen Dutch. Although, it is described as a creole, a partially creolised language the least. The term is derived from Dutch Afrikaans-Hollands meaning African Dutch. It is the first language of most of the Afrikaner and Coloured people of Southern Africa, therefore, differences with Dutch often lie in the more analytic morphology and grammar of Afrikaans, and a spelling that expresses Afrikaans pronunciation rather than standard Dutch. There is a degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages—especially in written form. With about 7 million native speakers in South Africa, or 13. 5% of the population and it has the widest geographical and racial distribution of all the eleven official languages of South Africa, and is widely spoken and understood as a second or third language. About 1. 5% of black South Africans speak it as their first language, large numbers of speakers of Bantu languages and English-speaking South Africans also speak it as their second language. It is taught in schools, with about 10.3 million second-language students and it, along with German, was among the official languages of Namibia until the country became independent in 1990, 25% of the population of Windhoek spoke Afrikaans at home. Both Afrikaans and German survive as recognised regional languages in the country, estimates of the total number of Afrikaans speakers range between 15 and 23 million. The Afrikaans language arose in the Dutch Cape Colony, through a gradual divergence from European Dutch dialects, there is a degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, particularly in written form. Nevertheless, Dutch speakers are confronted with fewer non-cognates when listening to Afrikaans than the way round. Mutual intelligibility thus tends to be asymmetrical, as it is easier for Dutch speakers to understand Afrikaans than for Afrikaans speakers to understand Dutch, in general, mutual intelligibility between Dutch and Afrikaans is better than between Dutch and Frisian or between Danish and Swedish. The workers and slaves who contributed to the development of Afrikaans were Asians and Malagasys, as well as the Khoi, San, and Bantu peoples who also lived in the area. African creole people in the early 18th century — documented on the cases of Hendrik Bibault, Only much later in the second half of the 19th century did the Boers adopt this attribution, too. The Khoi and mixed-race groups became collectively referred to as Coloureds, beginning in about 1815, Afrikaans started to replace Malay as the language of instruction in Muslim schools in South Africa, written with the Arabic alphabet, see Arabic Afrikaans. Later, Afrikaans, now written with the Latin alphabet, started to appear in newspapers and political, in 1925, Afrikaans was recognised by the South African government as a real language, rather than simply a slang version of Dutch proper. Before the Boer Wars, and indeed for some time afterwards, rather, Afrikaans was described derogatorily as ‘a kitchen language’ or as ‘a bastard jargon, suitable for communication mainly between the Boers and their servants
Afrikaans
–
Slogan in front of the Afrikaans Language Monument, near Paarl, South Africa. Loosely translated, it reads "This we care about/This is important to us", or, literally, "This is our seriousness".
Afrikaans
–
Regions shaded dark blue represent areas of concentrated Afrikaans-speaking communities
Afrikaans
–
Side view of the Pretoria Art Museum in Arcadia, Pretoria, with Afrikaans language sign.
Afrikaans
–
Sign in Afrikaans: "Gevaar Slagysters" or "Warning (danger), Traps"
14.
Mountain
–
A mountain is a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is steeper than a hill. Mountains are formed through tectonic forces or volcanism and these forces can locally raise the surface of the earth. Mountains erode slowly through the action of rivers, weather conditions, a few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in huge mountain ranges. High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level and these colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains, different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain and climate, mountains tend to be used less for agriculture and more for resource extraction and recreation, the highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Asia, whose summit is 8,850 m above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars at 21,171 m, there is no universally accepted definition of a mountain. Elevation, volume, relief, steepness, spacing and continuity have been used as criteria for defining a mountain, whether a landform is called a mountain may depend on local usage. The highest point in San Francisco, California, is called Mount Davidson, notwithstanding its height of 300 m, similarly, Mount Scott outside Lawton, Oklahoma is only 251 m from its base to its highest point. Whittows Dictionary of Physical Geography states Some authorities regard eminences above 600 metres as mountains, in addition, some definitions also include a topographical prominence requirement, typically 100 or 500 feet. For a while, the US defined a mountain as being 1,000 feet or taller, any similar landform lower than this height was considered a hill. However, today, the United States Geological Survey concludes that these terms do not have technical definitions in the US, using these definitions, mountains cover 33% of Eurasia, 19% of South America, 24% of North America, and 14% of Africa. As a whole, 24% of the Earths land mass is mountainous, there are three main types of mountains, volcanic, fold, and block. All three types are formed from plate tectonics, when portions of the Earths crust move, crumple, compressional forces, isostatic uplift and intrusion of igneous matter forces surface rock upward, creating a landform higher than the surrounding features. The height of the feature makes it either a hill or, if higher and steeper, major mountains tend to occur in long linear arcs, indicating tectonic plate boundaries and activity. Volcanoes are formed when a plate is pushed below another plate, at a depth of around 100 km, melting occurs in rock above the slab, and forms magma that reaches the surface. When the magma reaches the surface, it builds a volcanic mountain. Examples of volcanoes include Mount Fuji in Japan and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, the magma does not have to reach the surface in order to create a mountain, magma that solidifies below ground can still form dome mountains, such as Navajo Mountain in the US
Mountain
–
Mount Everest, the highest peak on Earth
Mountain
–
Chimborazo,
Ecuador. The point on Earth's surface farthest from its center.
Mountain
–
Aiguille du Dru in the
French Alps
Mountain
–
The
Matterhorn,
Swiss Alps
15.
Tourist attraction
–
Factory tours, industrial heritage, creative art and crafts workshops are the object of cultural niches like industrial tourism and creative tourism. Many tourist attractions are also landmarks, tourist attractions are also created to capitalise on legends such as a supposed UFO crash site near Roswell, New Mexico and the alleged Loch Ness monster sightings in Scotland. Ghost sightings also make tourist attractions, ethnic communities may become tourist attractions, such as Chinatowns in the United States and the black British neighbourhood of Brixton in London, England. In the US, owners and marketers of attractions advertise tourist attractions on billboards along the side of highways and roadways, tourist attractions often provide free promotional brochures and flyers in information centres, fast food restaurants, hotel and motel rooms or lobbies, and rest area. Such places are known as tourist traps. Within cities such transport tourist attractions as rides by boats and buses are very popular, novelty attractions are not limited to the American Midwest, but are part of Midwestern culture. It may contain one or more tourist attractions and possibly some tourist traps, siem Reap town for example is a popular tourist destination in Cambodia, mainly owed to its proximity to Angkor temples. A tropical island resort is an island or archipelago that also depends on tourism as its source of revenue, according to the World Tourism Organization, •698 million people travelled to a foreign country in 2000, spending more US$478 billion. Lists of tourist attractions Attractions at DMOZ
Tourist attraction
–
The
Eiffel Tower in
Paris,
France, a popular tourist attraction. Almost 7 million visit the tower each year.
Tourist attraction
–
Tropical beaches and
Balinese culture are attractions that draw tourists to this popular
island resort, such as
Melasti rituals performed on the beach.
Tourist attraction
–
Sea otters, like this one near
Moss Landing, are a popular tourist attraction in the
Monterey Bay, California area.
16.
Table Mountain Aerial Cableway
–
The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway is a state of the art cable car transportation system offering visitors a five-minute ride to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. It is one of Cape Towns most popular tourist attractions with approximately 900,000 people a year using the Cableway, in February 2016, the Cableway welcomed its 25 millionth visitor. The upper cable station in on the westernmost end of the Table Mountain plateau, the upper cable station offers views over Cape Town, Table Bay and Robben Island to the north, and the Atlantic seaboard to the west and south. Amenities at the station include free guided walking tours, an audio tour, meals. By the 1870s, Capetonians had proposed a railway to the top of Table Mountain, the City Council began investigating the options again in 1912, but this was in turn halted by the First World War. Despite initial cost estimates of GB£100,000 to build the cableway the citys population was supportive of the project, a Norwegian engineer, Trygve Stromsoe, presented plans for a cableway in 1926, and construction began soon after with the formation of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company. Construction of was completed in 1929 at a cost of GB£60,000, the cableway has been upgraded three times since then. Sir David Graaff, a leading industrialist, former mayor of Cape Town and government minister, in 1993, the son of one of the founders sold the TMACC and the new owners took charge of upgrading the cableway. In 1997, the cableway was reopened after renovations. The Rotair cableway was installed in 1997, the design being based on the Titlis Rotair cableway in Engelberg, each car carries 65 passengers, and runs on a double cable making them more stable in high winds, giving a faster journey of 4–5 minutes to the summit. The floors of the cars rotate through 360 degrees during the ascent or descent, Table Mountain Aerial Cableway History of the cableway
Table Mountain Aerial Cableway
–
Table Mountain Aerial Cableway
Table Mountain Aerial Cableway
–
The old Cableway on Table Mountain in 1929
Table Mountain Aerial Cableway
–
Table Mountain cable car,
Cape Town.
Table Mountain Aerial Cableway
–
Cape Town,
Signal Hill,
Table Bay and
Robben Island as seen from the upper cable station of the Table Mountain Cableway.
17.
Table Mountain National Park
–
The park is managed by South African National Parks. The property is included as part of the UNESCO Cape Floral Region World Heritage Site, the park contains two well-known landmarks, Table Mountain, for which the park is named, and the Cape of Good Hope, the most southwestern extremity of Africa. Arguments for a park on the Cape Peninsula, centred on Table Mountain. The Table Mountain Preservation Board was set up in 1952, and in 1957 its recommendation to the National Monuments Board was accepted, in the mid 1960s, the Cape Town City Council declared nature reserves on Table Mountain, Lions Head, Signal Hill, and Silvermine. This laid the foundations for the Cape Peninsula Protected Natural Environment area, however, environmental management was still bedeviled by the fragmented nature of land ownership on the Peninsula. Following a big fire above the city bowl in 1991, Attorney General Frank Kahn was appointed to reach consensus on a plan for rationalising management of the CPPNE. In 1995, Prof. Brian Huntley recommended that SANParks be appointed to manage the CPPNE, on 29 May 1998, then-president Nelson Mandela proclaimed the Cape Peninsula National Park. The park was renamed to the Table Mountain National Park. The park is not a contiguous area, the undeveloped mountainous areas which make up most of the park are separated by developed urban areas on shallower terrain. Thus the park is divided into three sections, as listed below. This section covers Signal Hill, Lions Head, Table Mountain proper, including the Back Table, Devils Peak, the Twelve Apostles, and Orange Kloof. It borders on central Cape Town in the north, Camps Bay and the Atlantic coast in the west, the Southern Suburbs in the east and this section was formed from the Table Mountain National Monument, Cecilia Forest, and Newlands Forest. Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is not officially part of the national park and this section runs northwest-southeast across the Peninsula from the Atlantic seaboard to the False Bay coast. It covers Constantiaberg, Steenberg Peak and the Kalk Bay mountains and it borders on Hout Bay in the north-west, the suburbs of Constantia and Tokai in the north-east, Kalk Bay in the south-east, and Fish Hoek and Noordhoek in the south-west. This section was formed from the Tokai State Forest and the Silvermine Nature Reserve and it was formed from the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. This area forms part of the Cape Floristic Region and as such supports a diversity of flora, much of which is rare. Protea, erica, restio and Asteraceae species, as well as geophytes, are all found in abundance, the main indigenous vegetation types are Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos and Cape Granite Fynbos, both of which are endangered and endemic to Cape Town - occurring nowhere else in the world. In addition, some sections of the park are the home of deep
Table Mountain National Park
–
Table Mountain seen from the slopes of
Lion's Head
Table Mountain National Park
Table Mountain National Park
–
A
King Protea growing in
Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos in Table Mountain National Park
Table Mountain National Park
–
Silver trees (Leucadendron argenteum) growing in
Peninsula Granite Fynbos in Table Mountain National Park
18.
Endemism
–
The extreme opposite of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution. An alternative term for a species that is endemic is precinctive, the word endemic is from New Latin endēmicus, from Greek ενδήμος, endēmos, native. Endēmos is formed of en meaning in, and dēmos meaning the people, the term, precinctive, has been suggested by some scientists, and was first used in botany by MacCaughey in 1917. It is the equivalent of endemism, precinction was perhaps first used by Frank and McCoy. That definition excludes artificial confinement of examples by humans in far-off botanical gardens or zoological parks, physical, climatic, and biological factors can contribute to endemism. The orange-breasted sunbird is found in the fynbos vegetation zone of southwestern South Africa. The glacier bear is found only in limited places in Southeast Alaska, political factors can play a part if a species is protected, or actively hunted, in one jurisdiction but not another. There are two subcategories of endemism, paleoendemism and neoendemism, paleoendemism refers to species that were formerly widespread but are now restricted to a smaller area. Neoendemism refers to species that have arisen, such as through divergence and reproductive isolation or through hybridization. Endemics can easily become endangered or extinct if their restricted habitat changes, particularly—but not only—due to human actions, there were millions of both Bermuda petrels and Bermuda cedars in Bermuda when it was settled at the start of the seventeenth century. By the end of the century, the petrels were thought extinct, cedars, already ravaged by centuries of shipbuilding, were driven nearly to extinction in the twentieth century by the introduction of a parasite. Bermuda petrels and cedars are now rare, as are species endemic to Bermuda
Endemism
–
The
orange-breasted sunbird (Nectarinia violacea) is exclusively found in
fynbos vegetation.
19.
Signal Hill (Cape Town)
–
Signal Hill, or Lions Rump, is a landmark flat-topped hill located in Cape Town, next to Lions Head and Table Mountain. The hill was known as The Lions Flank, a term now obsolete. Together with Lions Head, Signal Hill looks like a lion sphinx, Signal flags were used to communicate weather warnings as well as anchoring instructions to visiting ships in order to ensure that they prepared adequately for stormy weather while in the bay. Similarly, ships could use flags to signal for assistance if, for example and it is known for the Noon Gun that is operated there by the South African Navy and South African Astronomical Observatory. In this way ships in the bay were able to check their marine chronometers, the daily practice of dropping of the ball continued until 1934, when it was made redundant by radio signals. The guns on Signal Hill were used to notify the public when a ship was in trouble, three guns would be fired from Chavonnes Battery, followed by a single gun in answer from Imhoff Battery. There is a road to the summit and that vantage point provides views over the Cape Town city centre and Atlantic Seaboard and surroundings. Along Signal Hill Road one can find the Appleton Scout Campsite owned and operated by the South African Scout Association. There are several tombs, or kramats, on the hill for Muslim missionaries, the most conspicuous one, a white square building with a green dome, is for the sheikh Mohamed Hassen Ghaibie, a follower of Sheikh Yusuf. Other tombs consist of raised rectangles, decorated with satin and they are still visited by some local Muslim. Signal Hill is one of the places in the world where critically endangered Peninsula Shale Renosterveld vegetation can be found. Peninsula Shale Renosterveld used to be the dominant ecosystem of the Cape Town City Bowl, urban growth has now covered most of this ecosystem and — along with a tiny patch on Devils Peak — Signal Hill has the only surviving sample of this vegetation in the world. Lions Head Table Mountain Photographs of a summer dawn taken from Signal Hill
Signal Hill (Cape Town)
–
Signal Hill as seen from the north side of
Lion's Head. The white-and-green building on the ridge is a kramat (Muslim grave).
Signal Hill (Cape Town)
–
A view of the kramat (tomb for a Muslim) towards Lion's Head from the Signal Hill hiking trail
Signal Hill (Cape Town)
–
Lion's Head and Signal Hill from the summit of
Table Mountain with
Robben Island in
Table Bay. (Photo Hilton Teper)
20.
Amphitheatre
–
An amphitheatre or amphitheater /ˈæmfᵻˌθiːətər/ is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ἀμφιθέατρον, from ἀμφί, ancient Roman amphitheatres were oval or circular in plan, with seating tiers that surrounded the central performance area, like a modern open-air stadium. In contrast both ancient Greek and ancient Roman theatres were built in a semicircle, with tiered seating rising on one side of the performance area. In modern usage, amphitheatre is used to describe theatre-style stages with spectator seating on only one side, theatres in the round. Natural formations of similar shape are known as natural amphitheatres. Ancient Roman amphitheatres were major public venues, circular or oval in plan and they were used for events such as gladiator combats, chariot races, venationes and executions. About 230 Roman amphitheatres have been found across the area of the Roman Empire, the earliest Roman amphitheatres date from the middle of the 1st century BC, but most were built under Imperial rule, from the Augustan period onwards. Imperial amphitheatres were built throughout the Roman empire, the largest could accommodate 40, the most elaborate featured multi-storeyed, arcaded façades and were elaborately decorated with marble, stucco and statuary. After the end of games in the 5th century and of staged animal hunts in the 6th. Their materials were mined or recycled, some were razed, and others were converted into fortifications. A few continued as convenient open meeting places, in some of these, in modern usage, an amphitheatre is a circular, semicircular or curved, acoustically vibrant performance space, particularly one located outdoors. Small-scale amphitheatres can serve to host outdoor local community performances, notable modern amphitheatres include the Shoreline Amphitheatre and the Hollywood Bowl. The term amphitheatre is used for some indoor venues such as the Gibson Amphitheatre. The term amphitheatre can also be used to naturally occurring formations which would be ideal for this purpose. Arena Stadium Thingplatz List of Roman amphitheatres List of contemporary amphitheatres List of indoor arenas List of ancient Greek theatres Roman theatre Bomgardner, the Story of the Roman Amphitheatre
Amphitheatre
–
The
Colosseum in Rome, built c. 70 – 80 AD, is considered one of the greatest works of
architecture and
engineering.
Amphitheatre
–
Interior of the
Colosseum
Amphitheatre
–
Arles Amphitheatre, a
Roman arena in Arles, France, still in use today for bullfighting,
plays and summer
concerts.
Amphitheatre
–
The
Hollywood Bowl,
Hollywood,
California
21.
City Bowl
–
The City Bowl is a part of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a natural amphitheatre-shaped area bordered by Table Bay and defined by the mountains of Signal Hill, Lions Head, Table Mountain and Devils Peak. Cape Town CBD in the City Bowl is a business district in Cape Town’s metropolitan area. The South African parliament is located in Plein Street, and is the seat of government for six months in the year, the Western Cape provincial government and City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality also have their head offices in the Cape Town CBD. Satellite imagery from Google Maps in which shape of City Bowl is clearly visible
City Bowl
–
The Cape Town city bowl as seen from
Table Mountain.
Robben Island is visible in
Table Bay,
Signal Hill is on the left, and
Molteno dam can be seen in the centre.
City Bowl
–
An aerial panoramic of Cape Town's City Bowl taken from above
Signal Hill looking north.
22.
Table Bay
–
Table Bay is a natural bay on the Atlantic Ocean overlooked by Cape Town and is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula, which stretches south to the Cape of Good Hope. It was named because it is dominated by the flat-topped Table Mountain, bartolomeu Dias was the first European to explore this region in 1486. The bay, although famous for centuries as a haven for ships, is actually a rather poor natural harbour and is exposed to gales from both the SE and NW. Many sailing ships seeking refuge in the bay during the 17th and 18th centuries were driven ashore by storms, the Dutch colonists nevertheless persisted with their efforts on the shores of Table Bay, because good natural harbours along this coastline are almost non-existent. Eventually a harbour was built in Table Bay by a process of reclamation and was defended by breakwaters to protect shipping. The older part of structure is called the Victoria Dock. The newer part is called the Duncan Dock, robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for decades, is in this bay
Table Bay
–
An aerial view of Table Bay from
Bloubergstrand, to the north of Cape Town.
Table Mountain is visible in the distance on the far side of the bay.
Table Bay
–
Table Bay, the harbour and the
City Bowl from the summit of Table Mountain.
Table Bay
–
Dutch ships off Table Bay in the 17th century
Table Bay
–
Looking over sailing ships in Table Bay in 1727 with
Table Mountain in the background
23.
Thomas Maclear
–
Sir Thomas Maclear was an Irish-born South African astronomer who became Her Majestys astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope. He was born in Newtownstewart, County Tyrone, Ireland, the eldest son of Rev James Maclear, in 1808 he was sent to England to be educated in the medical profession. After passing his examinations, in 1815 he was accepted into the Royal College of Surgeons of England and he then worked as house-surgeon in the Bedford Infirmary. In 1823 he went into partnership with his uncle at Biggleswade, two years later in 1825 he was married to Mary Pearse, the daughter of Theed Pearse, Clerk of the Peace for the county of Bedford. Maclear had a keen interest in astronomy, and would begin a long association with the Royal Astronomical Society. He worked with John Herschel until 1838, performing a survey of the southern sky, the Maclears and Herschels formed a close friendship, the wives drawn together by the unusual occupations of their husbands and the raising of their large families. Mary Maclear, like Margaret Herschel, was a beauty and intelligent. Sir George Everest visited the Cape in 1820 and visited the site of La Cailles measurements, from his experience in the Himalayas he believed that the presence of considerable mountain masses in the Cape could have caused false measurements to be made by La Caille. Between 1841 and 1848, Maclear would be occupied in performing a survey for the purpose of recalculating the dimensions. He became close friends with David Livingstone, and they shared a common interest in the exploration of Africa and he performed many other useful scientific activities, including collecting meteorological, magnetic and tide data. Two years later he was granted a pension, but did not retire from the observatory until 1870 and he lived thereafter at Grey Villa, Mowbray. By 1876, he had lost his sight, and he died three years later in Cape Town, South Africa and he is buried next to his wife in the grounds of the Royal Observatory. Knighted in 1860 for his achievements as an astronomer, lalande Prize Royal Medal of the Royal Society, for his measurement of an arc of the meridian in the 1840s. John Maclear, his son, was an Admiral in the Royal Navy, london, Smith, Elder & Co. Thomas Maclear 1794 -1879 — SA History Maclear family Thomas Maclear biography
Thomas Maclear
–
Thomas Maclear 1833
Thomas Maclear
–
Mary Maclear
Thomas Maclear
–
A memorial to the Abbe de la Caille and Thomas Maclear, at Aurora in the Western Cape of South Africa. The English portion of the inscription reads: "This is the site of the Maclear Beacon positioned in 1838 near the original North Terminal of the Arc of Meridian positioned by Abbe de la Caille, the first surveyor to introduce Geodetic Surveying into South Africa."
24.
Orographic lift
–
Orographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, precipitation induced by orographic lift occurs in many places throughout the world. Examples include, The Mogollon Rim in central Arizona The western slope of the Sierra Nevada range in California The mountains near Baja California North – specifically La Bocana to Laguna Hanson, the windward slopes of Khasi and Jayantia Hills in the state of Meghalaya in India. The Western Highlands of Yemen, which receive by far the most rain in Arabia, the Western Ghats that run along Indias western coast. The Great Dividing Range of Eastern and South Eastern Australia which forces uplift of moist air originating from the ocean to the east, the mountains of New Zealand, which faces a prevailing westerly flow off the Tasman Sea. The mountains of western Tasmania which also face a prevailing westerly flow, the southern Andes, which faces a prevailing westerly flow off the Pacific Ocean. The Northwestern United States and Canada see prevailing westerly flow off the northern Pacific Ocean, places on the sea-facing side of coastal mountains see in excess of 140 inches of precipitation per year. These locales are on the side of the mountains which are in the path of storm systems, the ski country region of New York and Pennsylvania, particularly with lake effect snows. Transylvania County, North Carolina, which gets the most rainfall of anywhere in the Eastern U. S, the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia. Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa, the Front Range Foothills of Northern Colorado – west of Boulder to Golden as storms pass by. Winter storms can produce 5–6 feet of snow, the highest precipitation amounts are found slightly upwind from the prevailing winds at the crests of mountain ranges, where they relieve and therefore the upward lifting is greatest. As the air descends the lee side of the mountain, it warms and dries, on the lee side of the mountains, sometimes as little as 15 miles away from high precipitation zones, annual precipitation can be as low as 8 inches per year. The entire island of Kahoolawe is in the shadow of Maui North East England is in the rain shadow of the Pennines. This explains the significant differences between the rainfall in the North West and North East, the Judean Desert in the Land of Israel and the Dead Sea. Downslope winds occur on the side of mountain barriers when a stable air mass is carried over the mountain by strong winds that increase in strength with height. Moisture is removed and latent heat released as the air mass is orographically lifted, as the air mass descends, it is compression heated. As air flows over mountain barriers, orographic lift can create a variety of cloud effects, orographic fog is formed as the air rises up the slope and will often envelope the summit. When the air is humid, some of the moisture will fall on the windward slope, when there is a high wind, a banner cloud is formed downwind of the upper slopes of isolated, steep-sided mountains
Orographic lift
Orographic lift
–
Windy evening
twilight enhanced by the Sun's angle, can visually mimic a
tornado resulting from orographic lift
Orographic lift
–
Wave clouds.
Orographic lift
–
Banner cloud formation on the
Matterhorn
25.
Tobacco smoking
–
Tobacco smoking is the practice of burning tobacco and inhaling the smoke. The practice was believed to begin as early as 5000–3000 BC, Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 17th century where it followed common trade routes. In 1950, British researchers demonstrated a relationship between smoking and cancer. Evidence continued to mount in the 1980s, which prompted political action against the practice, rates of consumption since 1965 in the developed world have either peaked or declined. However, they continue to climb in the developing world, Smoking is the most common method of consuming tobacco, and tobacco is the most common substance smoked. The agricultural product is mixed with additives and then combusted. The resulting smoke is inhaled and the active substances absorbed through the alveoli in the lungs. Combustion was traditionally enhanced by addition of potassium or other nitrates, many substances in cigarette smoke trigger chemical reactions in nerve endings, which heighten heart rate, alertness, and reaction time, among other things. Dopamine and endorphins are released, which are associated with pleasure. As of 2008 to 2010, tobacco is used by about 49% of men and 11% of women aged 15 or older in 14 low-income and middle-income countries, the gender gap tends to be less pronounced in lower age groups. Many smokers begin during adolescence or early adulthood, after an individual has smoked for some years, the avoidance of withdrawal symptoms and negative reinforcement become the key motivations to continue. In a study conducted by Jennifer OLoughlin and colleagues, first smoking experiences of students were studied. They found out that the most common factor leading students to smoke is cigarette advertisements, Smoking by parents, siblings and friends also encourage students to smoke. The practice worked its way into shamanistic rituals, many ancient civilizations — such as the Babylonians, the Indians, and the Chinese — burnt incense during religious rituals. Smoking in the Americas probably had its origins in the ceremonies of shamans but was later adopted for pleasure or as a social tool. The smoking of tobacco and various hallucinogenic drugs was used to achieve trances, adults as well as children enjoyed the practice. It was believed that tobacco was a gift from the Creator, apart from smoking, tobacco had a number of uses as medicine. As a pain killer it was used for earache and toothache, in 1612, six years after the settlement of Jamestown, John Rolfe was credited as the first settler to successfully raise tobacco as a cash crop
Tobacco smoking
–
Aztec women are handed flowers and smoking tubes before eating at a banquet,
Florentine Codex, 16th century.
Tobacco smoking
–
Gentlemen Smoking and Playing Backgammon in an Interior by
Dirck Hals, 1627.
26.
Devil
–
The Devil is, according to Christianity, the primary opponent of God. Islam identifies the Devil with all those who oppose Allah, some non-Abrahamic religions contain figures similar to the Devil, such as the Buddhist demon Mara and the Zoroastrian spirit Angra Mainyu. The Modern English word devil descends from the Middle English devel, from Old English dēofol, that in turn represents an early Germanic borrowing of Latin diabolus. This in turn was borrowed from Ancient Greek Greek, διάβολος, slanderer, from Greek, διαβάλλειν to slander, διά- across, through + βάλλειν to hurl, probably akin to the Sanskrit gurate he lifts up. In the New Testament, Satan occurs more than 30 times in passages alongside diábolos, in mainstream Judaism there is no concept of a devil as in mainstream Christianity or Islam. Texts make no direct link between the serpent that tempts Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis and the references to Satan are in Zechariah. For the Hasidim of the century, ha-satan was Baal Davar. In the Book of Wisdom, the devil is represented as the one who brought death into the world, a similar story is found in 1 Enoch, however, in that book, the leader of the Grigori is called Semjâzâ. In the apocryphal literature, Satan rules over a host of angels, mastema, who induced God to test Abraham through the sacrifice of Isaac, is identical with Satan in both name and nature. The Book of Enoch contains references to Sathariel, thought also to be Sataniel and Satanel, the similar spellings mirror that of his angelic brethren Michael, Raphael, Uriel and Gabriel, previous to his expulsion from Heaven. In mainstream Christianity the devil is usually referred to as Satan, some modern Christians consider the devil to be an angel who, along with one-third of the angelic host rebelled against God and has consequently been condemned to the Lake of Fire. He is described as hating all humanity, opposing God, spreading lies, other modern Christians consider the devil in the Bible to refer figuratively to human sin and temptation and to any immoral human system. Satan is often identified as the serpent who convinced Eve to eat the fruit, thus. He is also identified as the dragon in the Book of Revelation, beelzebub is originally the name of a Philistine god but is also used in the New Testament as a synonym for Satan. A corrupted version, Belzeboub, appears in The Divine Comedy, in Islam the Devil is referred to as Iblis or sometimes the Shaytan. Etymologically, Iblis means the desperate in Arabic, thus, the name Iblis can be seen as a sobriquet given to Shaitan after falling from Grace. The primary characteristic of the Devil, besides hubris, is that he has no other than the power to cast evil suggestions into the hearts of men and women. He was of the jinn and departed from the command of his Lord, then will you take him and his descendants as allies other than Me while they are enemies to you
Devil
–
Depiction of the devil as seen in the
Codex Gigas.
Devil
–
The
Baphomet, adopted symbol of some
Left-Hand Path systems, including
Theistic Satanism.
Devil
–
Devils – a fresco detail from the
Rila Monastery.
Devil
–
The devil depicted in the
Temptation of Christ, by
Ary Scheffer, 1854.
27.
Pirate
–
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship- or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable items or properties. Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates, the earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, a land-based parallel is the ambushing of travelers by bandits and brigands in highways and mountain passes. While the term can include acts committed in the air, on land, or in major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against people traveling on the vessel as the perpetrator. Piracy or pirating is the name of a crime under customary international law. They also use larger vessels, known as ships, to supply the smaller motorboats. The international community is facing challenges in bringing modern pirates to justice. In the 2000s, a number of nations have used their naval forces to protect ships from pirate attacks. The English pirate is derived from the Latin term pirata and that from Greek πειρατής, brigand, in turn from πειράομαι, I attempt, from πεῖρα, attempt, the meaning of the Greek word peiratēs literally is one who attacks. The word is cognate to peril. The term is first attested to c, spelling was not standardised until the eighteenth century, and spellings such as pirrot, pyrate and pyrat were used until this period. It may be reasonable to assume that piracy has existed for as long as the oceans were plied for commerce, the earliest documented instances of piracy are the exploits of the Sea Peoples who threatened the ships sailing in the Aegean and Mediterranean waters in the 14th century BC. In classical antiquity, the Phoenicians, Illyrians and Tyrrhenians were known as pirates, the ancient Greeks condoned piracy as a viable profession, it apparently was widespread and regarded as an entirely honourable way of making a living. References are made to its perfectly normal occurrence many texts including in Homers Iliad and Odyssey, by the era of Classical Greece, piracy was looked upon as a disgrace to have as a profession. In the 3rd century BC, pirate attacks on Olympos brought impoverishment, among some of the most famous ancient pirateering peoples were the Illyrians, a people populating the western Balkan peninsula. Constantly raiding the Adriatic Sea, the Illyrians caused many conflicts with the Roman Republic and it was not until 229 BC when the Romans finally decisively beat the Illyrian fleets that their threat was ended
Pirate
–
French pirate
Jacques de Sores looting and burning Havana in 1555
Pirate
–
Mosaic of a
Roman trireme in Tunisia
Pirate
–
A fleet of
Vikings, painted mid-12th century
Pirate
–
The Vitalienbrüder. Piracy became endemic in the
Baltic sea in the
Middle Ages.
28.
Cape Peninsula
–
The Cape Peninsula is a generally rocky peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, on the northern end is Table Mountain, overlooking Cape Town, South Africa. The peninsula is 52 km long from Mouille point in the north to Cape Point in the south. The Peninsula has been an island on and off for the past 5 million years, as sea levels fell and rose with the ice age and interglacial global warming cycles of, particularly, the Pleistocene. The last time that the Peninsula was an island was about 1.5 million years ago, soon afterwards it was joined to the mainland by the emergence from the sea of the sandy area now known as the Cape Flats. The towns and villages of the Cape Peninsula and Cape Flats now form part of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, the Cape of Good Hope is sometimes given as the meeting point of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Thus the west coast of the Peninsula is invariably referred to as the Atlantic Coast and it is at Cape Point that the ocean to the south is often said to be divided into the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Indian Ocean to the east. However, according to the International Hydrographic Organization agreement that defines the ocean boundaries, from there it is retroflexed in an easterly direction by the South Atlantic, South Indian and Southern Ocean currents, known as the West Wind Drift, which flow eastwards round Antarctica. The Benguela Current, on the hand, is an upwelling current which brings cold. Having reached the surface it flows northwards as a result of the prevailing wind, thus the Benguela and Agulhas currents do not strictly meet anywhere, although eddies from the Agulhas current do from time to time round the Cape to join the Benguela Current. The park comprises a part of the undeveloped area of the Cape Peninsula. The coastal waters surrounding the Cape Peninsula are proclaimed as a protected area since 2004, and include several no-take zones. The waters of this protected area are unusual in that they are parts of two fairly distinct marine bioregions, namely the Agulhas Bioregion and the South-western Cape Bioregion. The boundary is at Cape Point, the Cape Peninsula has an unusually rich biodiversity. Its vegetation consists predominantly of several different types of the unique, on the sandy Cape Flats lowlands there are a few pockets of protected Cape Flats Sand Fynbos. The Peninsulas vegetation types form part of the Cape Floral Region protected areas, many of these species, including a great many types of proteas, are endemic to these mountains and can be found nowhere else. It is a showy orchid that blooms from January to March on the Table Mountain Sandstone regions of the mountain. Although they are widespread on the Back Table, the best place to view these beautiful blooms is in the Aqueduct off the Smuts Track
Cape Peninsula
–
The Cape of Good Hope; looking towards the west, from the coastal cliffs above Cape Point.
Cape Peninsula
–
Map showing the Cape Peninsula, illustrating the positions of the
Cape Town City Centre,
Table Mountain, the main mountains and peaks that make up the Peninsula, and the
Cape of Good Hope.
Cape Peninsula
–
The courses of the warm Agulhas current (red) along the east coast of South Africa, and the cold Benguela current (blue) along the west coast. Note that the Benguela current does not originate from Antarctic waters in the South Atlantic Ocean, but from upwelling of water from the cold depths of the Atlantic Ocean against the west coast of the continent. The two currents do not "meet" anywhere along the south coast of Africa.
Cape Peninsula
–
A
King protea growing in
Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos on Table Mountain
29.
Cape of Good Hope
–
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. In fact, the southernmost point of Africa is Cape Agulhas, when following the western side of the African coastline from the equator, however, the Cape of Good Hope marks the point where a ship begins to travel more eastward than southward. Thus, the first modern rounding of the cape in 1488 by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was a milestone in the attempts by the Portuguese to establish trade relations with the Far East. Dias called the cape Cabo das Tormentas, which was the name of the Cape of Good Hope. As one of the capes of the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a waypoint on the Cape Route and the route followed by clipper ships to the Far East and Australia. The term Cape of Good Hope is also used in three ways, It is a section of the Table Mountain National Park, within which the cape of the same name, as well as Cape Point. Prior to its incorporation into the park, this section constituted the Cape Point Nature Reserve. It was the name of the early Cape Colony established by the Dutch in 1652, just before the Union of South Africa was formed, the term referred to the entire region that in 1910 was to become the Cape of Good Hope Province. When Eudoxus was returning from his voyage to India the wind forced him south of the Gulf of Aden. Somewhere along the coast of East Africa, he found the remains of the ship, due to its appearance and the story told by the natives, Eudoxus concluded that the ship was from Gades and had sailed anti-clockwise around Africa, passing the Cape and entering the Indian Ocean. This inspired him to repeat the voyage and attempt a circumnavigation of the continent, organising the expedition on his own account he set sail from Gades and began to work down the African coast. The difficulties were too great, however, and he was obliged to return to Europe, after this failure he again set out to circumnavigate Africa. Although some, such as Pliny, claimed that Eudoxus did achieve his goal, in the 1450 Fra Mauro map, the Indian Ocean is depicted as connected to the Atlantic. It sailed for 40 days in a south-westerly direction without ever finding anything other than wind and water. According to these people themselves, the ship went some 2,000 miles ahead until - once favourable conditions came to an end - it turned round and sailed back to Cape Diab in 70 days. The ships called junks that navigate these seas carry four masts or more, some of which can be raised or lowered, and have 40 to 60 cabins for the merchants and only one tiller. They can navigate without a compass, because they have an astrologer, thus one can believe and confirm what is said by both these and those, and that they had therefore sailed 4,000 miles
Cape of Good Hope
–
The Cape of Good Hope; looking towards the west, from the coastal cliffs above Cape Point, overlooking Dias beach
Cape of Good Hope
–
Map showing the
Cape Peninsula, illustrating the position of the Cape of Good Hope. The main mountains and their peaks, including
Table Mountain, and its relation to the City of
Cape Town are shown.
Cape of Good Hope
–
Reproduction of the Cross of
Vasco da Gama at the Cape of Good Hope.
Cape of Good Hope
–
Sign at the Cape of Good Hope
30.
Cape Point
–
Table Mountain and the city of Cape Town are close to the northern extremity of the same peninsula. The cape is located at 34°21′26″S 18°29′51″E, about 2.3 kilometres east, the peak above Cape Point is higher than that above the Cape of Good Hope. The rugged sandstone ridge that rises from Cape Point at sea level develops into two peaks, there is a major peak that dominates the skyline locally but there is also a smaller peak about 100 m further south. The higher peak has the old lighthouse on the top, from the end of the railway a second path leads to the lower peak. Secondly, foggy conditions often prevail at the levels, making the older lighthouse invisible to shipping. On 18 April 1911, the Portuguese liner Lusitania was wrecked just south of Cape Point at 34°23′22″S 18°29′23″E on Bellows Rock for precisely this reason, prompting the relocation of the lighthouse. The new lighthouse, located at 34°21′26″S 18°29′49″E, cannot be seen from the West until ships are at a distance to the South. The light of the new Cape Point lighthouse is the most powerful on the South African coast, with a range of 63 miles, Cape Point is situated within the Table Mountain National Park, within a section of the park referred to as Cape of Good Hope. This section covers the whole of the tip of the Cape Peninsula. The Cape of Good Hope section of the park is generally wild, the vegetation at Cape Point consists primarily of Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos. Cape Point is often claimed to be the place where the cold Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean. In fact, the meeting point fluctuates along the southern and southwestern Cape coast, the two intermingling currents help to create the micro-climate of Cape Town and its environs. Contrary to popular mythology, the point of the currents produces no obvious visual effect. There are, however, strong and dangerous swells, tides and localized currents around the point and these troubled seas have witnessed countless maritime disasters in the centuries since ships first sailed here. Fishing is good along the coast but the unpredictable swells make angling from the very dangerous. Over the years scores of fishermen have been swept to their deaths from the platforms by freak waves. False Bay, which opens to the east and north of Cape Point, is the location of the naval port of Simons Town. The bay is also famous - or infamous - for its great white sharks, Cape Point is the site of one of the Global Atmosphere Watchs atmospheric research stations
Cape Point
–
View over Cape Point; the lighthouse's white dome with red stripes is just visible.
Cape Point
–
The old lighthouse at the top of Cape Point
Cape Point
–
A map of the Cape Peninsula showing its major features. Cape Point is the small cape jutting out towards the east from
The Cape of Good Hope at the southern end of the Peninsula. The Lighthouse is on Cape Point, rather than on the Cape of Good Hope to the west.
Cape Point
–
The new lighthouse
31.
Constantia Nek
–
Constantia Nek is a low pass over the Table Mountain range in Cape Town, South Africa, linking Constantia to Hout Bay in the west. It is one of three passes connecting Hout Bay to the rest of the city, and, with Ou Kaapse Weg is one of the two passes over the range between the city centre and the Fish Hoek valley. The summit of the pass is at 212m and it is the highest point on the Two Oceans Marathon ultramarathon route. Many hiking routes start at Constantia Nek, to the south, a path heads over Vlakkenberg towards Constantiaberg. To the north, the Jeep Track ascends to the reservoirs on the table of Table Mountain. To the west, a path heads into the area of Orange Kloof. The pass was called Clooff Pas by Jan van Riebeeck when he crossed it on 23 March 1657, Constantia Nek Restaurant, situated at the top of the pass, is the oldest restaurant in Cape Town. The mountainside at Constantia Nek is covered in Peninsula Granite Fynbos, another different endangered and endemic vegetation type, Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos, can be found much further up the mountain slopes
Constantia Nek
–
Intersection at Constantia Nek, looking south towards Vlakkenberg
Constantia Nek
Constantia Nek
–
Eagles Nest (421m), a rocky outcrop overlooking Constantia Nek
32.
Hout Bay
–
Hout Bay is a town near Cape Town, South Africa situated in a valley on the Atlantic seaboard of the Cape Peninsula, twenty kilometres south of the Central Business District of Cape Town. The name Hout Bay can refer to the town, the bay on which it is situated, when the Dutch established a colony in Table Bay in 1652, a great quantity of good timber was required for construction, shipbuilding other purposes. There was no large forest in the vicinity of the settlement. The area was made up of two farms, which were slowly subdivided to make way for urban expansion. While still maintaining its rural atmosphere, the area of Hout Bay has more than 12,000 residences inhabited by a population of about 42,000 people, Hout Bay is divided into several neighbourhoods. The Hout Bay Neighbourhood Watch describes 28 distinct areas, Llandudno an entirely separate village of about 200 houses lies over the Suikerbossie pass from Hout Bay. The main informal settlement in the Hout Bay area, Imizamo Yethu, is situated within a community consisting of both affluent and middle income citizens. Relations between the residents of Hout Bay and those of Imizamo Yethu have been strained for years following the national elections in 1994 and 1999. Current issues between residents of Hout Bay and Imizamo Yethu are focused on delivery for the informal settlement. The 18 hectares area supports 20,000 people, with many of these living in cramped and squalid conditions with no plumbing and this is in sharp contrast to the affluence of residences in much of Hout Bay. In addition to middle income housing for local South Africans, there are also a number of multi-million rand mansions, luxurious holiday homes. As of 2007, political differences between the Democratic Alliance and African National Congress have hampered the building of houses for the residents of Imizamo Yethu, because of its location and the overcrowding, Imizamo Yethu is vulnerable to hazards like floods and fires. A particularly devastating fire broke out on March 11th 2017, fanned by dry weather, hundreds of families were left homeless and there was an outpouring of support from across Cape Town to help the victims. Hout Bay is surrounded by mountains to the north, east and west, in the north, it is bordered by Table Mountain National Park comprising the Orangekloof Nature reserve and the bottom slopes of Table Mountain beyond that. To the north-west, it is bordered by the backside of the Twelve Apostles, to the west, it is bordered by Little Lions Head, Karbonkelberg, Kapteins Peak and The Sentinel. To the east it is bordered by the Vlakkenberg, Skoorsteenskopberg and Constantiaberg, the world famous Chapmans Peak Drive is carved out of the mountainside and leads towards Noordhoek and onwards to Cape Point. The sheltered bay of Hout Bay has a sand beach. Hout Bay has one of the busiest fishing harbours in the Western Cape with a tuna, snoek
Hout Bay
–
Hout Bay
Hout Bay
–
Hout Bay as seen from Suther Peak. The west coast of the
Cape Peninsula, up to
Signal Hill, is on the left. The bay, with Chapman's Peak, is on the right.
Hout Bay
–
Hout Bay Harbour
Hout Bay
–
East Fort Battery, Hout Bay
33.
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from the western coast of
Portugal
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean, not including
Arctic and
Antarctic regions
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from
Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Atlantic Ocean
–
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina view of the Atlantic Ocean.
34.
Newlands Forest
–
Newlands Forest is a conservancy area on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, beside the suburb of Newlands, Cape Town. It is owned and maintained by the Table Mountain National Parks Board, along with the City Parks Department of Cape Town, the forest itself is a popular walking and jogging destination, close and easily accessible from the citys southern suburbs. Due to its location on the slopes, there are impressive views eastward over the Cape Flats. Newlands Forest lies at a transition zone between endangered Granite Fynbos and Peninsula Shale Fynbos, in an area that also originally supported large indigenous forests. In the late 1800s, much of the forests were felled, and the fynbos cleared, to make way for commercial pine plantations. This is a vegetation type, which can still be found on the southern edges of Newlands Forest. This ecosystem is endemic to the city of Cape Town and occurs nowhere else in the world, existing only on the Cape Granite Formation, it naturally assumes the form of medium-dense tree vegetation, dominated by a variety of Protea and daisy species. The striking and iconic Silvertree grows in this type and a small population of these massive proteas can still be seen at Newlands forest. Historically this ecosystem supported a great many animals and there are at least 9 plant species which occur nowhere else in the world. This vegetation is severely threatened, mainly by invasive alien plants, a total of 13 of this ecosystems plant species are classed as endangered, two of them critically. One local species, the Wynberg Conebush, is now extinct and this is actually a type of Cape Winelands Shale Fynbos, which is mainly found far to the east of Cape Town in the Boland region. The patch that occurs around Newlands Forest is a natural outlier, the soils are naturally poor and slightly acidic but the biodiversity is incredibly rich. The vegetation consists of an array of Protea, Erica, geophyte and daisy species. In the moister areas, the Ericas predominate over the plant groups. Along with the Granite Fynbos, this is by far the most diverse, as it typically grows on lower mountain slopes, which tend to be developed for housing or cultivated for farming, this vegetation is incredibly vulnerable. A total of 23 of this plant species are officially threatened,7 of which are classified as endangered. Newlands Forest lies in an area used to naturally support large, dense. Such forests proliferated on the Cape Peninsula in areas that were partially or totally protected from seasonal fires, wherever fires are naturally more frequent, the forests give way to various types of fynbos
Newlands Forest
–
Newlands Forest, viewed from the south
Newlands Forest
Newlands Forest
Newlands Forest
35.
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
–
Kirstenbosch is an important botanical garden nestled at the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town. The garden is one of nine National Botanical Gardens covering five of South Africas six different biomes, prior to 1 September 2004, the institute was known as the National Botanical Institute. When Kirstenbosch, the most famous of the gardens, was founded in 1913 to preserve the unique flora. Kirstenbosch places an emphasis on the cultivation of indigenous plants. The garden includes a large conservatory exhibiting plants from a number of different regions, including savanna, fynbos, karoo, outdoors, the focus is on plants native to the Cape region, highlighted by the spectacular collections of proteas. Kirstenbosch enjoys great popularity with residents and visitors, from the gardens several trails lead off along and up the mountain slopes and these are much used by walkers and mountaineers. One of the trails, up a ravine called Skeleton Gorge, is an easy and this route is also known as Smuts Track after Prime Minister Jan Smuts who used this route regularly. On the slopes above the cultivated parts of the garden a contour path leads through forests to Constantia Nek to the south. The same contour path can be followed to the north for many kilometres and it will take the hiker past the Rhodes Memorial to the slopes of Devils Peak, Kirstenbosch regularly exhibits Zimbabwean stone sculptures in the gardens. Many of the artists are associated with Chapungu Sculpture Park in Zimbabwe, in summer, a popular series of outdoor concerts are held in the gardens on Sunday evenings. In 1660, by order of Jan van Riebeek, a hedge of Wild Almond, sections of this hedge, named Van Riebeeks Hedge, still exist in Kirstenbosch. The hedge is a Provincial Heritage Site, the area of the botanical garden was used for the harvesting of timber during this period. The Kirsten part of the name is believed to be the surname of the manager of the land, J. F. Kirsten, the bosch part of the name is a Dutch word for forest or bush. The handover of ownership of the colony to Britain in 1811 wrought changes in the use of the Kirstenbosch area, two large land grants were made, with a Colonel Bird building a house, planting chestnut trees, and probably establishing a bath fed by a natural spring. The Ecksteen family acquired the land in 1823, and it came into the possession of the Cloete family. It was under their stewardship that the area was farmed more formally, being planted with oaks, fruit trees, the land was thereafter purchased by Cecil John Rhodes in 1895. After this point, the area became run-down, with groups of pigs feeding on the acorns. The famous Camphor Avenue was planted in 1898, the land now occupied by the Kirstenbosch Gardens was bequeathed to the Nation by Cecil Rhodes, who died in 1902
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
–
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
–
Wild Seed Pod by
Arthur Fata at the entrance to Kirstenbosch
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
–
360° Panorama of a part of Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
36.
Cecilia Forest
–
Cecilia Forest is a stretch of land on the lower eastern slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town, located just to the south of Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. It was previously used for logging, but has now been given protected status. It is not known what the original Khoisan inhabitants called this piece of land. The name Cecilia derives from the first name of Cecil Rhodes who at one point owned the land and it is located in an area of granite, and the undulating hilly slopes were naturally covered in Peninsula Granite Fynbos, with patches of Silvertree forest. The valleys that cut across the park would naturally have been filled with indigenous afro-temperate forest, today, large parts of the park are still covered in uniform plantations of Pine and Gum trees, relicts from the days of commercial logging. The park itself stretches in a band, from the north-east to the south-west. The car-park and main entrance is located at the corner near the border with Kirstenbosch. The buildings of the forest station are a bit further up the slope, from the main entrance, the most popular walk follows a circular road, along the length of the park towards the south-western corner and then turns back making a complete loop. This road was built for the management and harvesting of the commercial plantations. The high Contour Path can be accessed from the slopes, where there are impressive views out over Cape Town. The Diep River has its origins in the slopes above Cecilia Forest. The highest peak on the slopes above Cecilia Forest is Klaasenkop, the natural ecosystem of the area is Peninsula Granite Fynbos, a critically endangered vegetation-type that occurs nowhere else in the world. Mature Peninsula Granite Fynbos is dominated by large tree-Proteas, such as the Silvertree, the Tree Pincushion-Protea and the Waboom, interspersed in the fynbos, rocky scree slopes are home to indigenous trees such as Pock-Ironwood, Kiggelaria, Camphor trees, Maurocenia and Candlewood trees. There are a variety of plant species which are restricted to this specific vegetation type. The primary threat to this ecosystem is invasive plants, such as European Pines. On the steep slopes and mountain-tops is Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos. This tiny ecosystem has a rich biodiversity, with roughly the same number of plant species as can be found in the whole of the United Kingdom. In addition, smaller patches of indigenous Afro-temperate forest survive in the river valleys, Cecil Rhodes bought this land in the 1890s resulting in him owning nearly the entire eastern flank of the Table Mountain range
Cecilia Forest
–
"Eagles Nest" Peak, near the southern edge of Cecilia Park
Cecilia Forest
–
Indigenous Afro-temperate forest still survives in sheltered kloofs higher on the mountain slopes
Cecilia Forest
–
The rare and majestic Silvertree (
Leucadendron argenteum) is making a slow return to the Cecilia slopes
37.
Robben Island
–
Robben Island is an island in Table Bay,6.9 km west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. The name is Dutch for seal island, Robben Island is roughly oval in shape,3.3 km long north-south, and 1.9 km wide, with an area of 5.07 km². It is flat and only a few metres above sea level, nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid. To date, three of the inmates of Robben Island have gone on to become President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe. Robben Island is both a South African National Heritage Site as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, since the end of the 17th century, Robben Island has been used for the isolation of mainly political prisoners. The Dutch settlers were the first to use Robben Island as a prison and its first prisoner was probably Autshumato in the mid-17th century. Among its early permanent inhabitants were political leaders from various Dutch colonies, including Indonesia, after the British Royal Navy captured several Dutch East Indiamen at the battle of Saldanha Bay in 1781, a boat rowed out to meet the British warships. On board were the kings of Ternate and Tidore, and the princes of the respective families, the Dutch had long held them on Isle Robin, but then had moved them to Saldanha Bay. After a failed uprising at Grahamstown in 1819, the fifth of the Xhosa Wars and he drowned on the shores of Table Bay after escaping the prison. The island was used as a leper colony and animal quarantine station. Starting in 1845 lepers from the Hemel-en-Aarde leper colony near Caledon were moved to Robben Island when Hemel-en-Aarde was found unsuitable as a leper colony, initially this was done on a voluntary basis and the lepers were free to leave the island if they so wished. In April 1891 the cornerstones for 11 new buildings to house lepers were laid, after the introduction of the Leprosy Repression Act in May 1892 admission was no longer voluntary and the movement of the lepers was restricted. Prior to 1892 an average of about 25 lepers a year were admitted to Robben Island, but in 1892 that number rose to 338, and in 1893 a further 250 were admitted. During the Second World War the island was fortified and BL9. 2-inch guns, from 1961, Robben Island was used by the South African government as prison for political prisoners and convicted criminals from 1961. In 1969 the Moturu Kramat, which is now a site for Muslim pilgrimage on Robben Island, was built to commemorate Sayed Abdurahman Moturu. Moturu, who was one of Cape Towns first imams, was exiled to the island in the mid-1740s, Muslim political prisoners would pay homage at the shrine before leaving the island. The maximum security prison for political prisoners closed in 1991, the medium security prison for criminal prisoners was closed five years later. With the end of apartheid, the island has become a destination with global tourists
Robben Island
–
Robben Island Village
Robben Island
–
Robben Island as viewed from
Table Mountain. The view is roughly to the north–northwest. The distant sandy shore beyond disappears towards
Saldanha Bay.
Robben Island
–
De Waal Battery on Robben Island
Robben Island
–
Dutch map of the island, from 1731.
38.
Cape Flats
–
The Cape Flats is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. To many people in Cape Town, the area is simply as The Flats. Described by some as apartheids dumping ground, from the 1950s the area home to people the apartheid government designated as non-White. The Flats have since then been home to much of the population of Greater Cape Town, most of the sand is unconsolidated, however, in some places near the False Bay coast the oldest sand dunes have been cemented into a soft sandstone. These formations contain important fossils of such as the extinct Cape lion. The area has a Mediterranean climate, with dry summers and cool. It is generally exposed to the wind, both from the NW and SE, flooding can be a problem, especially in July and August. Cold wet spells, especially in August and September, can make life difficult for those living in sub-standard housing. The noted English naturalist, William John Burchell, remarked in 1811 that the sand of the Flats made travel by cart or wagon extremely difficult. The situation was aggravated by a shortage of firewood, causing fuel collectors to cut the relatively few indigenous shrubs. During the second half of the 19th century, the area was overrun by alien vegetation. The plants included hakeas and especially wattles, the principal reason for this infestation lay in decisions made by the colonial authorities. This made travel between Cape Town and the very difficult, particularly for the large ox-drawn wagons of the time. The authorities decided to try to stabilise the sand with plants native to the British colonies of New South Wales, the earliest importation of wattles was in 1827. Massive plantings were established in the 1840s and 1850s and the work continued well after 1875. At the time, the plan worked well enough, the march of the dunes was arrested, the price paid, in ecological terms, was that the Cape Flats was carpeted by invasive species. Serious efforts have in recent years been made to back this alien scourge. The Cape Flats has undergone change in the past half a century
Cape Flats
–
Landsat image of Cape Town and environs, looking roughly east. Cape Peninsula in the foreground; Table Bay with Robben Island to the left; False Bay with
Seal Island (small white dot) to the right. The mountains of the Boland to the rear. The oval (long axis about 25km) roughly encompasses the Cape Flats.
Cape Flats
–
Street scene in Bonteheuwel township
Cape Flats
–
'West Side' & 'Thug Life' murals in the
Coloured township of Manenberg, in Hard Livings gang territory
Cape Flats
–
Cape Flats train station
39.
Cape Fold Mountains
–
The Cape Fold Belt is a fold and thrust belt of late Paleozoic age, which affected the sequence of sedimentary rock layers of the Cape Supergroup in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It was originally continuous with the Ventana Mountains near Bahía Blanca in Argentina, the Pensacola Mountains, the Ellsworth Mountains, the rocks were laid down as sediments in a rift valley that developed in southern Gondwana, just south of Southern Africa, during the Cambrian-Ordovician Periods. An 8-km-thick layer of sediment, known as the Cape Supergroup, the folded Cape Supergroup formed the northern foothills of this towering mountain range. The weight of the Falkland-Cape Supergroup mountains caused the continental crust of Southern Africa to sag, forming a retroarc foreland system, although the tops of the original Cape Fold Mountains were eroded away, they eroded much slower than the considerably softer Karoo deposits to the north. Thus the Cape Fold Belt erupted from the eroding African landscape to form the ranges of mountains that run for 800 km along the southern and south-western Cape coastline today. In fact, they form the coastline, either sloping steeply directly into the sea, even though the mountains are very old by Andean and Alpine standards, they remain steep and rugged due to their quartzitic sandstone geology making them very resistant to weathering. The Cape Fold Belt extends from about Clanwilliam, to about Port Elizabeth, the Cape Supergroup sediments beyond these points are not folded into mountain ranges, but do, in places, form steep cliffs or gorges, where the surrounding sediments have been eroded away. The mountains, although only of moderate height, are majestic and dramatic and this is due in part to numerous geological factors, The ranges usually have few to no foothills and rise directly from valley floors. The bases of the mountains are usually at or near sea level, the mountains of the Cape Fold Belt are composed of rocks belonging to the Cape Supergroup, which is more extensive than the Fold Belt. The Supergroup is divided into several distinct Groups, the western and southern extents of the Supergroup have been folded into a series of longitudinal mountain ranges, by the collision of the Falkland Plateau into what would later become South Africa. Drilling in the Karoo has established that Cape Supergroup rocks are found below the surface up to approximately 150 km north of their northernmost exposure on the surface, the Cape Supergroup extends eastwards beyond the Fold Belt into the Eastern Cape and northern KwaZulu-Natal, where no folding took place. The initial sedimentation into the valley which developed in southern Gondwana was confined to the western and eastern ends of the rift. Rivers diverted into these early rifts deposited sand and gravel to form the Klipheuwel Group in the west, today the Klipheuwel Group is exposed in several small patches near Lamberts Bay, Piketberg, and to the south-west of Paarl Rock. The Natal Group, which is similar to the Table Mountain Group, is found in several elongated patches near the coast of the northern Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. It forms the cliffs of Oribi Gorge, and can also be seen in a road cutting between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, particularly at the Marian Hill Toll Plaza. Most of the group has been eroded by numerous rivers creating the ragged plateaus. The sea floor consisted of the Klipheuwel Group in the west, the Natal Group in the east, and eroded pre-Cambrian rocks in between. The first sediments into the initially still shallow, possibly inland, sea were alternating layers of maroon colored mudstones and buff colored sandstones, each mostly between 10 and 30 cm thick
Cape Fold Mountains
–
A map of South Africa showing the central plateau edged by the
Great Escarpment and its relationship to the Cape Fold Mountains in the south. The portion of the Great Escarpment shown in red is known as the
Drakensberg.
Cape Fold Mountains
Cape Fold Mountains
–
Klein Swartberg Range, seen from the
Laingsburg area
Cape Fold Mountains
–
Folded rock formations of the Swartberg
40.
Marine geology of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay
–
The Cape Peninsula is a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At its tip is the Cape of Good Hope, the peninsula forms the west side of False Bay. The two main formations are the late-Precambrian Malmesbury group and the Peninsula granite, a huge batholith that was intruded into the Malmesbury Group about 630 million years ago. These sediments were deposited on an ancient continental slope by submarine slumping. The sequence was subsequently metamorphosed by heat and pressure and folded tightly in a NW direction during the Saldanian orogeny so that the layers are now almost vertical. These rocks were, in most places, scoured by wave action during past periods of sea level. Most of the exposed shoreline Malmesbury rocks are steeply dipped, the rocks are generally dark in colour where fresh rock has been exposed by erosion, and may be finely laminated. The characteristic spheroidal shapes of granite boulders are a result of preferential weathering along intersecting fractures and are displayed around Llandudno. The climate of this region was warmer and wetter in the Cretaceous and this led to severe chemical weathering of the granite to saprolite rich in kaolin clays, decomposed from the large visible crystals of potassium feldspar that are so conspicuous in the granite. The contact zone where the Malmesbury Group was intruded by molten granite can be seen at Sea Point and was famous by Charles Darwin during his voyage of scientific discovery on H. M. S. Here, slivers of dark coloured Malmesbury rocks, altered by heat are intermingled and folded with the pale coloured intrusive granite to form a complex mixed rock. Other large granite plutons of similar age are found in the Western Cape, the Stellenbosch pluton extends under the Helderberg and Hottentots Holland mountains. Cape Blue Rock, a dense Hornfels, was formed from the Malmesbury series rock by the Stellenbosch pluton, the Blue Rock Quarry has been closed and is now flooded and used for water sports including diving and water skiing. Almost all the granite has been extensively weathered and is in the form of rounded corestones. The colour is pale to medium grey, and the surface is typically fairly rough, with clearly visible crystals. As an intrusive rock, dip and strike do not apply, but the rock is cracked on jointing planes, which tend to be characteristic of the location. The sand, silt and mud deposits were lithified by pressure and then folded during the Cape Orogeny to form the Cape Fold Belt, the basal Graafwater Formation consists of interlayered pale brown sandstone, laminated pink siltstone and dark maroon coloured shale. Closer examination shows deposition cycles from current-bedded channel sandstones to increasing proportions of fine-grained maroon shales at the top, the Peninsula Formation consisting of hard, light grey medium to coarse grained pebbly quartz sandstone, dominates the steep mountain cliffs
Marine geology of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay
–
Sea Point contact zone
Marine geology of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay
–
Geological map of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay
Marine geology of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay
–
Sea Point contact zone Tygerberg sedimentary rock contact metamorhosed with small granitic inclusions
Marine geology of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay
41.
Quartz
–
Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in Earths continental crust, behind feldspar. There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are semi-precious gemstones, since antiquity, varieties of quartz have been the most commonly used minerals in the making of jewelry and hardstone carvings, especially in Eurasia. The word quartz is derived from the German word Quarz and its Middle High German ancestor twarc, the Ancient Greeks referred to quartz as κρύσταλλος derived from the Ancient Greek κρύος meaning icy cold, because some philosophers apparently believed the mineral to be a form of supercooled ice. Today, the rock crystal is sometimes used as an alternative name for the purest form of quartz. Quartz belongs to the crystal system. The ideal crystal shape is a six-sided prism terminating with six-sided pyramids at each end, well-formed crystals typically form in a bed that has unconstrained growth into a void, usually the crystals are attached at the other end to a matrix and only one termination pyramid is present. However, doubly terminated crystals do occur where they develop freely without attachment, a quartz geode is such a situation where the void is approximately spherical in shape, lined with a bed of crystals pointing inward. α-quartz crystallizes in the crystal system, space group P3121 and P3221 respectively. β-quartz belongs to the system, space group P6222 and P6422. These space groups are truly chiral, both α-quartz and β-quartz are examples of chiral crystal structures composed of achiral building blocks. The transformation between α- and β-quartz only involves a comparatively minor rotation of the tetrahedra with respect to one another, although many of the varietal names historically arose from the color of the mineral, current scientific naming schemes refer primarily to the microstructure of the mineral. Color is an identifier for the cryptocrystalline minerals, although it is a primary identifier for the macrocrystalline varieties. Pure quartz, traditionally called rock crystal or clear quartz, is colorless and transparent or translucent, common colored varieties include citrine, rose quartz, amethyst, smoky quartz, milky quartz, and others. The most important distinction between types of quartz is that of macrocrystalline and the microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline varieties, the cryptocrystalline varieties are either translucent or mostly opaque, while the transparent varieties tend to be macrocrystalline. Chalcedony is a form of silica consisting of fine intergrowths of both quartz, and its monoclinic polymorph moganite. Other opaque gemstone varieties of quartz, or mixed rocks including quartz, often including contrasting bands or patterns of color, are agate, carnelian or sard, onyx, heliotrope, amethyst is a form of quartz that ranges from a bright to dark or dull purple color. The worlds largest deposits of amethysts can be found in Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Russia, France, Namibia, sometimes amethyst and citrine are found growing in the same crystal. It is then referred to as ametrine, an amethyst is formed when there is iron in the area where it was formed
Quartz
–
Quartz
crystal cluster from
Tibet
Quartz
–
Clear rock crystals on a white base
Quartz
–
Amethyst crystals on matrix
Quartz
–
Citrine from Brazil
42.
Cape Fold Belt
–
The Cape Fold Belt is a fold and thrust belt of late Paleozoic age, which affected the sequence of sedimentary rock layers of the Cape Supergroup in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It was originally continuous with the Ventana Mountains near Bahía Blanca in Argentina, the Pensacola Mountains, the Ellsworth Mountains, the rocks were laid down as sediments in a rift valley that developed in southern Gondwana, just south of Southern Africa, during the Cambrian-Ordovician Periods. An 8-km-thick layer of sediment, known as the Cape Supergroup, the folded Cape Supergroup formed the northern foothills of this towering mountain range. The weight of the Falkland-Cape Supergroup mountains caused the continental crust of Southern Africa to sag, forming a retroarc foreland system, although the tops of the original Cape Fold Mountains were eroded away, they eroded much slower than the considerably softer Karoo deposits to the north. Thus the Cape Fold Belt erupted from the eroding African landscape to form the ranges of mountains that run for 800 km along the southern and south-western Cape coastline today. In fact, they form the coastline, either sloping steeply directly into the sea, even though the mountains are very old by Andean and Alpine standards, they remain steep and rugged due to their quartzitic sandstone geology making them very resistant to weathering. The Cape Fold Belt extends from about Clanwilliam, to about Port Elizabeth, the Cape Supergroup sediments beyond these points are not folded into mountain ranges, but do, in places, form steep cliffs or gorges, where the surrounding sediments have been eroded away. The mountains, although only of moderate height, are majestic and dramatic and this is due in part to numerous geological factors, The ranges usually have few to no foothills and rise directly from valley floors. The bases of the mountains are usually at or near sea level, the mountains of the Cape Fold Belt are composed of rocks belonging to the Cape Supergroup, which is more extensive than the Fold Belt. The Supergroup is divided into several distinct Groups, the western and southern extents of the Supergroup have been folded into a series of longitudinal mountain ranges, by the collision of the Falkland Plateau into what would later become South Africa. Drilling in the Karoo has established that Cape Supergroup rocks are found below the surface up to approximately 150 km north of their northernmost exposure on the surface, the Cape Supergroup extends eastwards beyond the Fold Belt into the Eastern Cape and northern KwaZulu-Natal, where no folding took place. The initial sedimentation into the valley which developed in southern Gondwana was confined to the western and eastern ends of the rift. Rivers diverted into these early rifts deposited sand and gravel to form the Klipheuwel Group in the west, today the Klipheuwel Group is exposed in several small patches near Lamberts Bay, Piketberg, and to the south-west of Paarl Rock. The Natal Group, which is similar to the Table Mountain Group, is found in several elongated patches near the coast of the northern Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. It forms the cliffs of Oribi Gorge, and can also be seen in a road cutting between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, particularly at the Marian Hill Toll Plaza. Most of the group has been eroded by numerous rivers creating the ragged plateaus. The sea floor consisted of the Klipheuwel Group in the west, the Natal Group in the east, and eroded pre-Cambrian rocks in between. The first sediments into the initially still shallow, possibly inland, sea were alternating layers of maroon colored mudstones and buff colored sandstones, each mostly between 10 and 30 cm thick
Cape Fold Belt
–
A map of South Africa showing the central plateau edged by the
Great Escarpment and its relationship to the Cape Fold Mountains in the south. The portion of the Great Escarpment shown in red is known as the
Drakensberg.
Cape Fold Belt
Cape Fold Belt
–
Klein Swartberg Range, seen from the
Laingsburg area
Cape Fold Belt
–
Folded rock formations of the Swartberg
43.
Basement rock
–
In the same way, the sediments or sedimentary rocks on top of the basement can be called a cover or sedimentary cover. Basement rock is the foundation of ancient, and oldest metamorphic and igneous rock that forms the crust of continents. Basement rock is contrasted to overlying sedimentary rocks which are laid down on top of the basement rocks after the continent was formed, the sedimentary rocks which may be deposited on top of the basement usually form a relatively thin veneer, but can be more than 3 miles thick. The basement rock of the crust can be 20–30 miles thick, the basement rock can be located under layers of sedimentary rock, or be visible at the surface. Basement rock is visible at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, consisting of 1. 7-2 billion year old granite, an extensive cross section of sedimentary rocks laid down on top of it through the ages is visible as well. The basement rocks of the continental crust tend to be older than the oceanic crust. The oceanic crust can be from 0-250 million years in age, the basement rocks are often highly metamorphosed and complex. They may consist of different types of rock - volcanic, intrusive igneous. They may also contain fragments of oceanic crust that became wedged between plates when a terrane was accreted to the edge of the continent, any of this material may be folded, refolded and metamorphosed. New igneous rock may freshly intrude into the crust from underneath, or may form underplating, much of the basement rock may have originally been oceanic crust, but it was highly metamorphosed and converted into continental crust via a series of events. A typical pattern is as follows and this produces an oceanic chain of volcanoes, like Japan. This volcanism causes metamorphosis of rocks, intrusions of magma that produce such as granite. This tends to make the crust lighter and thicker, as a result making it immune to subduction, oceanic crust can be subducted, while continental crust cannot. Eventually, the subduction of the oceanic crust can bring the volcano chain close to a continent. When the overriding plate collides with the continent, instead of being subducted, it is accreted to the edge of the continent and becomes a part of that continent. In this manner, continents can grow over time as new terranes are accreted to their edges, as such, the basement rock can become younger going closer to the edge of the continent. There are exceptions of however, such as exotic terranes, exotic terranes are pieces or fragments of other continents that have broken off their original parent continent and have become accreted to a different continent. For instance, Pangea consisted of most of the Earths continents being accreted into one giant supercontinent, most continents indeed have several continental cratons, in other words they are made up of the accretion of many smaller continents, such as Asia, Africa, and Europe
Basement rock
–
Gneiss outcrop, basement rock,
Scotland.
44.
Granite
–
Granite is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock that is granular and phaneritic in texture. Granites can be white, pink, or gray in color. The word granite comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the structure of such a holocrystalline rock. By definition, granite is a rock with at least 20% quartz. The term granitic means granite-like and is applied to granite and a group of igneous rocks with similar textures and slight variations in composition. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a texture is known as a granite porphyry. Granitoid is a general, descriptive field term for lighter-colored, coarse-grained igneous rocks, petrographic examination is required for identification of specific types of granitoids. The extrusive igneous rock equivalent of granite is rhyolite, Granite is nearly always massive, hard and tough, and therefore it has gained widespread use throughout human history, and more recently as a construction stone. The average density of granite is between 2.65 and 2.75 g/cm3, its compressive strength usually lies above 200 MPa, and its viscosity near STP is 3–6 •1019 Pa·s. The melting temperature of dry granite at ambient pressure is 1215–1260 °C, it is reduced in the presence of water. Granite has poor primary permeability, but strong secondary permeability, true granite according to modern petrologic convention contains both plagioclase and alkali feldspars. When a granitoid is devoid or nearly devoid of plagioclase, the rock is referred to as alkali feldspar granite, when a granitoid contains less than 10% orthoclase, it is called tonalite, pyroxene and amphibole are common in tonalite. A granite containing both muscovite and biotite micas is called a binary or two-mica granite, two-mica granites are typically high in potassium and low in plagioclase, and are usually S-type granites or A-type granites. A worldwide average of the composition of granite, by weight percent, based on 2485 analyses. Much of it was intruded during the Precambrian age, it is the most abundant basement rock that underlies the relatively thin veneer of the continents. Outcrops of granite tend to form tors and rounded massifs, granites sometimes occur in circular depressions surrounded by a range of hills, formed by the metamorphic aureole or hornfels. Granite often occurs as small, less than 100 km² stock masses
Granite
–
Granite containing
potassium feldspar,
plagioclase feldspar,
quartz, and
biotite and/or
amphibole
Granite
–
Close-up of granite exposed in
Chennai,
India
Granite
–
The
Cheesewring, a granite
tor
Granite
–
A granite peak at
Huangshan, China
45.
Fold (geology)
–
A geological fold occurs when one or a stack of originally flat and planar surfaces, such as sedimentary strata, are bent or curved as a result of permanent deformation. Synsedimentary folds are those due to slumping of material before it is lithified. Folds in rocks vary in size from microscopic crinkles to mountain-sized folds and they occur singly as isolated folds and in extensive fold trains of different sizes, on a variety of scales. A set of folds distributed on a regional scale constitutes a fold belt, Folds are classified by their size, fold shape, tightness, and dip of the axial plane. A fold surface seen in profile can be divided into hinge, the limbs are the flanks of the fold and the hinge is where the flanks join together. The hinge point is the point of minimum radius of curvature for a fold, the crest of the fold is the highest point of the fold surface, and the trough is the lowest point. The inflection point of a fold is the point on a limb at which the concavity reverses, on regular folds, the hinge points along an entire folded surface form a hinge line, which can be either a crest line or a trough line. The trend and plunge of a hinge line gives you information about the orientation of the fold. To more completely describe the orientation of a fold, one must describe the axial surface, the axial surface is the surface defined by connecting all the hinge lines of stacked folding surfaces. If the axial surface is a surface then it is called the axial plane and can be described by the strike. An axial trace is the line of intersection of the surface with any other surface. Finally, folds can have, but dont necessarily have a fold axis, a fold axis, “is the closest approximation to a straight line that when moved parallel to itself, generates the form of the fold. ”. A fold that can be generated by an axis is called a cylindrical fold. This term has broadened to include near-cylindrical folds. Often, the axis is the same as the hinge line. A fold can be shaped as a chevron, with planar limbs meeting at an axis, as cuspate with curved limbs, as circular with a curved axis. Fold tightness is defined by the size of the angle between the limbs, called the interlimb angle. Gentle folds have an angle of between 180° and 120°, open folds range from 120° to 70°, close folds from 70° to 30°
Fold (geology)
–
Folds in rocks in Nunavut, Canada (with hammer for scale).
Fold (geology)
–
Folds in rocks in Crete, Greece.
Fold (geology)
–
Rainbow Basin
syncline in the
Barstow Formation near
Barstow, California
Fold (geology)
–
An asymmetric angular fold in Ukrainian
Carpathians in Dora (near Jaremcze, Ivano-Frankivsk region, West Ukraine
46.
Phyllite
–
Phyllite is a type of foliated metamorphic rock created from slate that is further metamorphosed so that very fine grained white mica achieves a preferred orientation. It is primarily composed of quartz, sericite mica, and chlorite, among foliated metamorphic rocks, it represents a gradation in the degree of metamorphism between slate and schist. The minute crystals of graphite, sericite, or chlorite, or the translucent fine-grained white mica, impart a silky, sometimes golden sheen to the surfaces of cleavage, the word comes from the Greek phyllon, meaning leaf. The protolith for phyllite is shale or pelite, or slate and its constituent platy minerals are larger than those in slate but are not visible with the naked eye. Phyllites are said to have a texture called phyllitic sheen, and are classified as having formed through low-grade metamorphic conditions through regional metamorphism metamorphic facies. Phyllites are usually black to gray or light gray in color. The foliation is commonly crinkled or wavy in appearance, phyllite is commonly found in the Dalradian metasediments of northwest Arran. In north Cornwall, there are Tredorn phyllites and Woolgarden phyllites
Phyllite
–
Phyllite
Phyllite
–
Photomicrograph of
thin section of phyllite (in cross
polarised light)
47.
Hornfels
–
Hornfels is called so because of its exceptional toughness and texture both reminiscent of animal horns. These properties are due to fine grained non-aligned crystals with platy or prismatic habits, Hornfels rocks were referred to by miners in northern England as whetstones. Though they may show banding, due to bedding, etc. they break across this as readily as along it, in fact, the most common hornfels are dark-brown to black with a somewhat velvety luster owing to the abundance of small crystals of shining black mica. The lime hornfels are often white, yellow, pale-green, brown, green and dark-green are the prevalent tints of the hornfels produced by the alteration of igneous rocks. The structure of the hornfels is very characteristic, very rarely do any of the minerals show crystalline form, but the small grains fit closely together like the fragments of a mosaic, they are usually of nearly equal dimensions. This has been called pflaster or pavement structure from the resemblance to rough pavement work, each mineral may also enclose particles of the others, in the quartz, for example, small crystals of graphite, biotite, iron oxides, sillimanite or feldspar may appear in great numbers. Often the whole of the grains are rendered semi-opaque in this way, the minutest crystals may show traces of crystalline outlines, undoubtedly they are of new formation and have originated in situ. The regeneration of the rock has been sufficient to efface most of the original structures, but crystallization has been hampered by the solid condition of the mass and the new minerals are formless and have been unable to reject impurities, but have grown around them. There is also quartz, and often a considerable amount of feldspar, while graphite, tourmaline, the andalusite may be pink and is then often pleochroic in thin sections, or it may be white with the cross-shaped dark enclosures of the matrix that are characteristic of chiastolite. Sillimanite usually forms exceedingly minute needles embedded in quartz, in the rocks of this group cordierite also occurs, not rarely, and may have the outlines of imperfect hexagonal prisms that are divided up into six sectors when seen in polarized light. In biotite hornfels, a faint striping may indicate the original bedding of the unaltered rock, more commonly there is a distinct spotting, visible on the surfaces of the hand specimens. The spots are round or elliptical, and may be paler or darker than the rest of the rock. In some cases they are rich in graphite or carbonaceous matter, in others they are full of brown mica, tourmaline hornfels are found sometimes near the margins of tourmaline granites, they are black with small needles of schorl that under the microscope are dark brown and richly pleochroic. As the tourmaline contains boron, there must have been some permeation of vapors from the granite into the sediments, rocks of this group are often seen in the Cornish tin-mining districts, especially near the ludes. A second great group of hornfels are the calc–silicate hornfels that arise from the alteration of impure limestone. These rocks are fine-grained, and though often banded, are tough and they are excessively variable in their mineralogical composition, and very often alternate in thin seams with biotite hornfels and indurated quartzites. When perfused with boric and fluoric vapors from the granite they may contain much axinite, fluorite and datolite, from diabases, basalts, andesites and other igneous rocks a third type of hornfels is produced. They consist essentially of feldspar with hornblende and pale pyroxene, sphene, biotite and iron oxides are the other common constituents, but these rocks show much variety of composition and structure
Hornfels
–
A sample of banded hornfels, formed by contact metamorphism of
sandstones and
shales by a
granite intrusion
48.
Precambrian
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The Precambrian is the earliest period of Earths history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is a supereon that is subdivided into three eons of the time scale. It spans from the formation of Earth about 4.6 billion years ago to the beginning of the Cambrian Period, about 541 million years ago, the Precambrian accounts for 89% of geologic time. Relatively little is known about the Precambrian, despite it making up roughly seven-eighths of the Earths history, the Precambrian fossil record is poorer than that of the succeeding Phanerozoic, and fossils from that time are of limited biostratigraphic use. This is because many Precambrian rocks have been metamorphosed, obscuring their origins, while others have been destroyed by erosion. A stable crust was apparently in place by 4,412 Ma, the term Precambrian is recognized by the International Commission on Stratigraphy as a general term including the Archean and Proterozoic eons. It is still used by geologists and paleontologists for general discussions not requiring the more specific eon names and it was briefly called the Cryptozoic eon. A specific date for the origin of life has not been determined, carbon found in 3.8 billion year old rocks from islands off western Greenland may be of organic origin. Well-preserved microscopic fossils of bacteria older than 3.46 billion years have found in Western Australia. Probable fossils 100 million years older have been found in the same area, there is a fairly solid record of bacterial life throughout the remainder of the Precambrian. The oldest fossil evidence from that era of such complex life comes from the Lantian formation of the Ediacarian period, a very diverse collection of soft-bodied forms is found in a variety of locations worldwide and date to between 635 and 542 Ma. These are referred to as Ediacaran or Vendian biota, hard-shelled creatures appeared toward the end of that time span, marking the beginning of the Phanerozoic era. By the middle of the following Cambrian period, a diverse fauna is recorded in the Burgess Shale. The explosion in diversity of lifeforms during the early Cambrian is called the Cambrian explosion of life, while land seems to have been devoid of plants and animals, cyanobacteria and other microbes formed prokaryotic mats that covered terrestrial areas. Evidence of the details of plate motions and other activity in the Precambrian has been poorly preserved. It is generally believed that small proto-continents existed prior to 4280 Ma, the supercontinent, known as Rodinia, broke up around 750 Ma. A number of glacial periods have been identified going as far back as the Huronian epoch, one of the best studied is the Sturtian-Varangian glaciation, around 850–635 Ma, which may have brought glacial conditions all the way to the equator, resulting in a Snowball Earth. The atmosphere of the early Earth is not well understood, most geologists believe it was composed primarily of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and other relatively inert gases, and was lacking in free oxygen
Precambrian
Precambrian
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Hottentots-Holland
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The Hottentots Holland Mountains are part of the Cape Fold Belt in the Western Cape, South Africa. The mountain range forms a barrier between the Cape Town metropolitan area and the southern Overberg coast, Sir Lowrys Pass is the only crossing, in the form of the N2 motorway. The Steenbras Dam, one of Cape Towns main supply dams, is located in the section of the range. This is due to the abundant rainfall experienced in the uplands, at the start of the Great Trek in 1835 when migrants decided to leave the Cape Town area, or Cape Colony as it was then known, the first mountain range they crossed was this range. Cuts and wheel markings from their ox wagons can still be seen in formations in the vicinity of Sir Lowrys Pass on this mountain range. This route still serves as the route out of the Cape Town area for travellers heading up the east coast of South Africa. Snow is not unusual on the peaks, like Verkykerkop, Somerset Sneeukop at 1590 m high. This area and the ranges to the south are considered the hub of the Cape floristic region with the most biodiversity in the entire fynbos biome. The surrounding lowlands have rich alluvial soils supporting viticulture and other deciduous fruit farms, Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve – CapeNature
Hottentots-Holland
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Hottentots Holland Mountains and
Sir Lowry's Pass
50.
Syncline
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In structural geology, a syncline is a fold with younger layers closer to the center of the structure. A synclinorium is a syncline with superimposed smaller folds. Synclines are typically a downward fold, termed a synformal syncline, if the fold pattern is circular or elongate circular the structure is a basin. Folds typically form during crustal deformation as the result of compression that accompanies orogenic mountain building, sideling Hill roadcut along Interstate 68 in western Maryland, USA, where the Rockwell Formation and overlying Purslane Sandstone are exposed
Syncline
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Syncline exposed in
Sideling Hill roadcut
Syncline
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The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with Europe and English-speaking countries and do not represent a
worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the
talk page. (August 2015)
Syncline
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Snow-dusted syncline in
Provo Canyon,
Utah.
Syncline
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Road cut near
Fort Davis, Texas showing a syncline.
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Table Mountain travel guide from Wikivoyage
