GeoZone - Applied Geology & Geotechnics

Romancing the Stone - A Journey Through Geological Time

A series of articles written for the Witness, KZN's regional newspaper, called Romancing the Stone. The articles covered the geological history of the province from 1.1 billion years ago almost to the present, and attempted to portray this history in a new, romantic, fascinating and accessible way. Please click on the images and then sit back and enjoy the ride through deep geological time.

		Click on Image
The Ancient of Days White, snow-capped peaks project jaggedly into the blue rarefied air of the jet stream, which draws out long plumes of snow from those high summits. In the valleys below the snow-flanked shoulders of the mountains, glaciers brood, grinding and plucking the encompassing rock which holds them in their icy realm........read more.
The Natal Group Sandstone Six hundred million years have flitted by since our mountain chain was thrust up into the teeth of icy gales and snow. Inexorably the agents of erosion have ground down the high peaks of our mountain range into nothing more than mud and sand......... read more
A Grue of Ice - The Dwyka Ice Age On a continental scale, vast ice lobes ground southwards across the ancient face of our continent, scarring and adding character to our African landscape. Vast deposits of tillite may be seen from the Dwyka River in the Cape to the far north of Zululand and are evidence of continental wanderings and an ice age which has us in its frigid grip 300 million years ago. read more
The Karoo Sea This is swampland on a giant scale. Teaming, pushing, living, scrambling forest grows riotously along the muddy banks of lagoons and stinking back swamps. Trees, club mosses, cycads and ferns compete for space, water and light, while those that have seen their days out collapse back exhausted to the forest floor, to be rapidly colonised by fungi and bacteria. ....read more
Reptiles of the Great Karoo Fifty million years on, and the Karoo Sea is but a hint of its former self. In its place is a giant lake fed by a number of northward flowing rivers draining from the high Cape Mountains which shimmer through the heat haze far to the south. Along the river banks vegetation grows in abundance thanks to a plentiful supply of silt, water and the hot climate. ...read more
A Fiery Embrace - The Formation of the Drakensberg Incandescent, red hot lavas pour out from a myriad of fissures in the Earth's crust. The flowing, rumbling mass spreads over the landscape, consuming all in its path. Scattered trees form paltry obstacles to the inexorable advance of the lava front, bursting suddenly into flame to add to the mind-blowing display of fireworks. ...read more
High Water Coral fronds wave gently in the ocean currents, occasionally more agitated by the passing of a larger swell nearing the shoreline. Brightly coloured fish, swimming in vast schools, dart amongst the coral heads while their larger counterparts swim sedately along the drop-offs, silhouetted against the deep blue of the ocean depths....read more

Romancing the Stone - A Journey Through Geological Time

GeoZone - Applied Geology & Geotechnics