Lesotho the mountain Kingdom
One of the best known natural landmarks in Lesotho is Maletsunyane waterfall. It belongs to top-league waterfalls of the world due to its impressive height (192 m), magnificent setting, rather wide stream and "clean", uninterrupted fall.
The waterfall has formed on the Maletsunyane tributary of Orange River, which falls over the ledge of Triassic - Jurassic basalt.
This Earthcache is an informative and educational piece about geography, geology and history of this small country, formerly called Basutoland, The Kingdom of Lesotho is a small, landlocked and mountainous country with a total area of only 30,355 square kilometers it is a geographic enclave completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa.
There are no large lakes and no direct access to the sea. This is the only country in the world where all the terrain is 1,000 meters above sea level and of that, more than 80% of the country 1800 meters above sea level. The westward tilting highland plateau descends from steep basaltic ridges into deep gorges and treeless rolling lowlands. It also boast the highest lowest point of any country, the confluence of the Orange and Makhaleng Rivers form this lowest point at 1,400 meters, while Thabana Ntlenyana is the highest peak 3,482 meters.
The bedrock of Lesotho belongs to the Karoo Supergroup, consisting mostly of Shale and Sandstone Peatlands can be found in the highlands of Lesotho, most extensively in the mountainous escarpment near the country's eastern border.
Semonkong is located in the Maluti Mountain Range at the end of the Thaba Putsoa Range. Thaba Putsoa meaning Blue Mountains is in the Maseru District along the mountain road to Mohale Dam. It is about 40 km from Roma and its altitude ranges from 2,500 m to 3,096 m.
Thaba Putsoa is climatically one of the coolest places in Lesotho. In summer, water oozes from the wetlands and seepage areas down towards the streams until it gets to Makhaleng and Jorodane rivers.
All these mountains belong geologically to the Stormberg Series (Upper Triassic Period). Maletsunyane/Le Bihan Falls is one of the biggest waterfalls in southern Africa and attracts tourists from all over the world. The altitude of Semonkong ranges from 2,000 m to 2,955 m above sea level. Water flows from the mountains and hills that surround Semonkong town down to Maletsunyane River.
The Karoo Supergroup is the most widespread stratigraphic unit in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. The supergroup consists of a sequence of units, mostly of non marine origin, deposited between the Late Carboniferous and Early Jurassic, a period of about 120 million years.
In southern Africa, rocks of the Karoo Supergroup cover almost two thirds of the present land surface, including central Cape Province, almost all of Orange Free State, western Natal, much of south-east Transvaal, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. The basins in which it was deposited formed during the formation and breakup of Pangaea.
Its strata, mostly shales and sandstones, record an almost continuous sequence of marine glacial to terrestrial deposition from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Jurassic. These accumulated in a retroarc foreland basin called the "main Karoo" Basin. This basin was formed by the subduction and orogenesis along the boundary of Gondwana (the past African continent) and the Panthalassan Sea (Palea-Pacific). Its sediments attain a maximum cumulative thickness of 12 km, with the overlying basaltic lavas (the Drakensberg Group) at least 1.4 km thick.
Fossils include plants (both macro-fossils and pollen), rare insects and fish, common and diverse tetrapods (mostly therapsid reptiles, temnospondyl amphibians, and in the upper strata dinosaurs), and ichnofossils. Their biostratigraphy has been used as the international standard for global correlation of Permian to Jurassic non marine strata.
It is possible to abseil next to the falls - this is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the tallest commercial abseil in the world, 204 m high.
Alternate names:Le Bihan Falls, Lebihan Falls, Semonkong Falls
Height:192 m
Width:25 m
Stream:Maletsunyane
information Sourced from http://www.wondermondo.com
In order to log this Cache
1. At Ground Zero are you standing on Basalt or Limestone ?
2. What is your Altitude at ground zero ?
3. Give a brief description of how the rock formations of the waterfall would have been formed?
4. Though optional, we would love you to post a photo of you and your team at the falls with your GPSr
Answers to be sent to brendonmuller@icloud.com for approval