To a nation that has a great history and tradition we explore one continent if not the world’s most beautiful countries South Africa. I would like to inform you about South Africa’s geology, topography, rivers, lakes, and mountains. The land mass of South Africa is very old and particularly rich in mineral resources.
The Mountain socle in South Africa was already part of the supercontinent Gondwanaland which, 300 to 100 million years ago broke into many parts that built whole new continents, Africa being one of the nations included. Through the following, millions of years lasting geological shifts, tectonic arching, breaking and the formation of crevasses, the resulting outbreak of volcanoes, depressions, the deposition of gravel and wind and water erosion the geological profile of the land has formed. Since South Africa is located in the west, south, and east surrounded by single mountain ranges is known as the Great Escarpment. In front of the escarpment, there is a partially very narrow coastal strip, which is called the Lowveld. At the Indian Ocean, these coastal plains have high precipitations and are fertile. The western part, however, is, due to the cold Benguela current of the Atlantic, a coastal desert, reaching up to Namibia and Angola. When one crosses the escarpment they come across to central high plateau called the Highveld. The reason why the surrounding mountain chain forms a catchment area for the clouds from the sea, the precipitation on the Highveld is low which can result in arid, semi-desert conditions.
South Africa’s topography has a mean altitude of about 1,200 m (3,900 ft), and at least 40% of the surface is at a higher elevation. Parts of Johannesburg are more than 1,800 m (6,000 ft) above sea level. There are three major zones: the marginal regions, which range in width from 80 to 240 km (50–150 mi) in the east to 60–80 km (35–50 mi) in the west, and including the eastern plateau slopes, Cape folded belt, and western plateau slopes; a vast saucershaped interior plateau, separated from the marginal zone by the Great Escarpment; and the Kalahari Basin, only the southern part of which projects into north-central South Africa.
In South Africa there are only two major rivers in South Africa the Limpopo, a stretch of which is shared with Zimbabwe; and the Orange with its tributary, the Vaal, which runs with a variable flow across the central landscape from east to west, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean at the Namibian border. There are several small rivers run into the sea along the coastline, but none of them are navigable and none provide useful natural harbors. The coastline itself, being fairly smooth, provides only one good natural harbor, at Saldanha Bay north of Cape Town. A lack of fresh water in this country prevented major development here.
South Africa is home to the world’s largest natural lakes and human constructed lakes. Southern Africa’s natural lakes have very diverse origins. Those along the East African Rift Valley also known as Lakes Malawi, Albert, Tanganyika and Turkana are deep tectonic lakes; some lakes were formed by volcanic action, such as Lake Kivu in Rwanda/Democratic Republic of the Congo. There are also shallow floodplain lakes such as those in the Okavango Swamps. There are deflation basins or pans such as those found in the Kalahari and Panlands of South Africa. Africa’s lakes support important fisheries that sustain millions of livelihoods and contribute to food security.
While exploring the rest of the country you come across South Africa’s Mountain Ranges. These mountain ranges of South Africa are some of the oldest and most beautiful in the world. They include Cape Town’s Table Mountain and KwaZulu-Natal’s uKhahlamba-Drakensberg ranges, plus other wonders like the ancient Magaliesberg and the majestic Cederberg range. The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg is South Africa’s highest mountain range which goes up to 3,000m and spans more than 150km.
As we come to end to our South African tour. This glorious country has so much rich pride to not to be wasted. Come to a country which welcomes newcomers to explore special features we have unlike many countries before us. I learned so much traits about this country that i didn’t know before and if i was anyone who loves adventure South Africa is a place to discover.
