Trans Mara is located in the part of the park of Masaï bordering Tanzania. The Mara is a river flowing in Kenya and Tanzania which originates in the mountains of western Kenya, in the Great Rift Valley. It flows to the south-west towards the Masai Mara that it crosses from north to south. It then flows to Tanzania into Lake Victoria.
So, we stand here in the Kenyan Rift Valley.
The Rift Valley is a long fault that formed 8 million years ago between the Red Sea and Mozambique; it is one of the longest fault systems in the world.
Mount Kenya (5,199 m) and Killimandjaro (5895 m), the highest volcanic mountain in Africa, formed after the rift.
This valley is also called the "cradle of humanity" because many fossils of Hominids and many ancient archaeological remains were discovered there. This concentration of discoveries is related to favorable conditions in connection with the formation of the Rift that allowed a relatively rapid and continuous sedimentation. This accumulation of sediments facilitatedthe fossilization of bones and then erosion carved the sedimentary deposits allowing access to very ancient deposits.
You are on an arid part of the Rift Valley, where erosion from water flowing tears soil constituents and can dig gullies.
The basement is of volcanic origin and primarily made up of basalt. It is due to the tectonic plates of Occidental Rift (Nubian plate) and Oriental Rift (Somali plate) that continue to move away from each other.
There are usually two types of rocks of very different aspect:
- diatomite, a sedimentary rock, friable, porous and light-coloured entirely or almost entirely composed of "skeletons" of diatoms: unicellular algae surrounded by a shell of silica, whose accumulation at the bottom can lead to the formation of a rock. It can provide an excellent preservation of fossils, but the colours are not preserved, the organic material is carbonized and therefore blackens.
- volcanic rocks: hard. They came with old lava flows, but they are younger than diatomaceous earth, because they were placed above.
Reminder:
On 'Earthcaches', there is neither box nor logbook. Just go there and answer the owner's questions. Send your answers via email by contacting him on his profile on Geocaching.com, click on 'send message' and he will confirm by email that you can log a 'Found it' if your answers are correct.
Questions to validate: "Trans Mara Kenya"
Go to the cache position and tell us:
1/ What phenomenon due to erosion can you see at your feet? Describe it.
2/ What is its approximate length?
3/ What type of rock is it, in your opinion?
Send us your answers by email before you login (a picture of yourself or your GPS on site would be welcome but is not mandatory).
Très bon géocaching