Lebombo Mountains

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lebombo Mountains
Southern foothills of the Lebombo Mountains near Mkuze in KwaZulu-Natal

Southern foothills of the Lebombo Mountains near Mkuze in KwaZulu-Natal

Highest peak Mount Mananga ( 776  m )
location South Africa , Mozambique , Swaziland
Lebombo Mountains (South Africa)
Lebombo Mountains
Coordinates 26 °  S , 32 °  E Coordinates: 26 °  S , 32 °  E
Type Mountain range
rock Basalt , rhyolite , dolerite
Age of the rock 180 million years
p1

The Lebombo Mountains (also Lubombo Mountains , from ubombo ( isiZulu ), dt. "Big Nose") are a narrow chain of mountainous and hilly elevations in southern Africa, extending over a distance of about 600 kilometers .

Large parts of the mountains in Swaziland were June 2019 as a biosphere reserve of UNESCO recognized.

They develop on the national territories of South Africa , Mozambique and Swaziland and run with interruptions in a north-south direction. Their origin goes back to volcanic processes. The highest point is Mount Mananga at 776 meters above sea level, which is located near the northern triangle of Swaziland / Mozambique / South Africa.

geography

Komati breakthrough in the Lebombo Mountains

The northern end of the Lebombo Mountains is near Punda Maria in the South African province of Limpopo in the Kruger National Park , where they reach a height of 406 meters above sea level. From there, the hilly land of granitoid rocks extends at low altitude, interrupted by the flat valley of the Phugwane , along the South African-Mozambican border to the Letaba and the Massingir reservoir .

After a few slight elevations, the Lebombo plains begin further south. They extend as flat land to the vicinity of Komatipoort not far from the border with Swaziland and have several rivers directed towards Mozambique.

To the east of the South African settlement Esibayeni , ridges of the Lebombo Mountains emerge from the plains again and are increasing in height up to Swatian territory. This central part runs along the eastern border of Swaziland and forms a natural barrier between the country and Mozambique. The Swatin region of Lubombo is named after the mountains.

The flat southern end of the Lebombo Mountains is located near Hluhluwe in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa .

Several rivers, such as the Komati at Komatipoort, the Pongola and the Lusutfu , cross the Lebombo region from west to east.

geology

The Lebombo Mountains limit the main Karoo Basin in the northeast. The mountain range lies between the Precambrian Kaapvaal Kraton and the Precambrian, but younger Mozambique belt. In the south it is bounded by the Natal Namaqua Belt. It originated around 180 million years ago, before the fall of the eastern part of what was then the Gondwana continent . They are an east-sloping monocline . The lower layer consists of basalt the Sabie River - formation , the layer thereover of sequences of rhyolites , tuffs and ignimbrites the Jozini -Formation (Lebombo group, Karoo supergroup ). The area is surrounded by numerous dolerite - Dykes crossed. On their western flank they cover basalt rocks of the Letaba Formation (Lebombo group, Karoo super group) Karoo sediments.

history

Traces of settlement from the Middle Stone Age were found in a cave in the Lebombo Mountains . The Zulu king Dingane was murdered in the Lebombo Mountains in 1840.

The plane of Mozambican President Samora Machel crashed on October 19, 1986 while flying back from negotiations in Zambia with the South African apartheid government under unexplained circumstances in the Lebombo Mountains south of Komatipoort (see Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 crash 1986 ). Machel died along with 34 other inmates. On January 19, 1999, a memorial was inaugurated near Mbuzini based on a design by Mozambican architect Joes Foraz , which has since commemorated this plane crash.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Nick Norman, Gavin Whitefield: Geological Journeys . Cape Town (Struik Publishers) 2006, p. 166 ISBN 1-77007-062-1
  2. ↑ Eswatini gets UNESCO biosphere Tourism Update, June 28, 2019.
  3. ↑ The Great World Atlas . RV, Munich 1985
  4. ^ Duncan Neil Macfadyen: A comparative study of rodent and shrew diversity and abundance in and outside the N'washitshumbe enclosure site in the Kruger National Park . Dissertation, University of Pretoria, 2007 PDF document p. 47. at www.upetd.up.ac.za (English)
  5. ↑ Abstract of the article on the geology of the Lebombo Mountains , accessed on September 18, 2010
  6. ↑ Abstract to article about excavations in the Lebombo Mountains 1945 (English), accessed on September 18, 2010
  7. ↑ Brief note on the memorial. on www.umjindi.org ( Memento from March 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English)