The Witwatersrand is a 56-kilometre-long (35 mi), north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which account for the name Witwatersrand, meaning "white water ridge" in Afrikaans. This east-west-running scarp can be traced with only one short gap, from Bedfordview in the east, through Johannesburg and Roodepoort, to Krugersdorp in the west.
Witpoortjie Falls in the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden, formerly the Witwatersrand National Botanical Gardens. Waterfalls like this, cascading over a 56-kilometre-long (35 mi) quartzite ridge in Gauteng gave rise to the name “Witwatersrand”, which means “white water ridge” in Afrikaans.
Carbon Leader Gold Ore, Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine, Carletonville Goldfield, West Witwatersrand. The Carbon Leader is a blackened, hydrocarbon-rich stromatolitic interval richly impregnated with native gold and uraninite. This is a paleoplacer deposit, part of an ancient alluvial fan succession.
High-grade gold ore from the Witwatersrand near Johannesburg.
An ashtray carved out of a soft form of banded ironstone. Note the alternating red and beige layers that make up this rock. The red layers much richer in iron (III) oxides (Fe 2O 3) were laid down during time periods when Archean photosynthesizing cyanobacteria produced oxygen that rapidly reacted with the dissolved iron (II) (Fe2+ ) in water, to form insoluble iron oxide (hematite). The beige layers are sediments that settled during time periods when there was no (or much less) precipitation of iron oxide due to the depletion of dissolved oxygen or
Bedfordview is an affluent suburb in western Ekurhuleni, sharing an administrative boundary with the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Gauteng, South Africa. Bedfordview has been part of the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality since 2000. The Eastgate Shopping Centre, one of the biggest in Africa when first built, is also located here.
Northern view on Bedfordview