GC1YRN0 Valley of a 1000 Hills (Earthcache) in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa created by DiePienaars

GC1YRN0 ▼

A cache by DiePienaars Message this owner

Hidden : 9/17/2009

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Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

Valley of a 1000 Hills

At the published Co Ordinates in front of you lies the Valley of a Thousand Hills, – of steep and deep valleys, some still wild, others densely populated – Dominating the north western side of the valley is “Table Mountain”, a 3 km long outlier of hard Natal sandstone. The Valley of a thousand Hills comprises a highly dissected massif of crystalline basement, measuring roughly 30 by 25 km, and now eroded below the level of the surrounding countryside.

The main players in the formation of this spectacular valley system are the down-cutting Mgeni River seen towards the northern side at the bottom of the valley, off which the Inanda dam form part of the river. The softer Basement granite and gneiss underlying the sandstone; and the structural influence of large-scale block faulting. The Mgeni River and its network of tributaries follow a strongly incised and sinuous path across the granitic terrain. The deeply weathered Basement, part of the geologically complex 1 100 million-year-old Natal Metamorphic Province (Seen at the second way point), constitutes rocs that are far more easily eroded than the overlying hard Natal sandstone. Around Inchanga/Drummond (Published Co- Ords), on the rim of a Thousand Hills, you are near the axis of what was known as the Natal, or Lebombo, Monocline. Speaking in very broad terms, the axis stretches from Swaziland in the north, and enters the Indian Ocean at the southern end of KwaZulu-Natal’s South Coast. Along it, very ancient Basement rocks are exposed: to the west at least where you are in central KwaZulu-Natal, are essentially flat-lying Karoo sediments; to the east, the same sediments and volcanics dip shallowly towards the east. A monocline is a fold, though, and normally large-scale folds are reflected by small-scale drag-folds. Instead of drag-folds along this axis, we find an extraordinary amount of faulting, and the currently accepted interpretation of the axis of older rocks flanked by younger rocks is that the structure is a consequence of rifting and drift-related faulting.
East of Inchanga/Drummond (Published Co-Ords), the N3 continues on flat-lying Natal Group sandstone, and exposures are seen in several road cuttings and as scattered, loose boulders. Close to Inchanga, the road follows a gorge in which the sandstones are shown off to advantage, as they are in prominent natural cliffs, easily visible from the road. A short detour onto the R103 will provide excellent close-up exposures.

Acknowledgements:
Geological journeys: a traveler’s guide to South Africa's rocks and landforms By Nick Norman, Gavin Whitfield

In order to qualify to log this cache, you need to answer the following questions and e-mail the cache owner. Any logs not accompanied by an email will be deleted.

1. Take a picture of yourself and GPS’r close to the listed waypoint with the Valley in the background and post it in your log.
2. At the published waypoint. Look at the rocks around you and describe the rock structure (grains – colour – cracks- hardness etc.)?
3. At the listed second waypoint. S29 42.766 E30 41.392
Look at the rock face in the road cutting and describe the rock structure (grains – colour – cracks etc.)?
4. In you own words name two formations of the valley of a 1000 hills.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)