Witteberge
| Witteberge | ||
|---|---|---|
 Landscape at Lundean's Nek |
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| Highest peak | Avoca Peak ( 2771 m ) | |
| location | Eastern Cape Province ( South Africa ) | |
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| Coordinates | 30 ° 42 ′ S , 27 ° 28 ′ E | |
| rock | Slate , sandstone | |
The Witte mountains (also Witteberg or Witberge ) are a mountain range in the South African province of Eastern Cape (Eastern Cape). It rises up to 2771 meters above sea level and is a southwestern branch of the Drakensberg .
geography
The Witteberge are near the southwest border of Lesotho . They extend from Lady Gray in the west to Lundean's Nek Pass ( Sesotho : Nko ea khomo ) in the east over about 60 kilometers and in north-south direction over 20 kilometers. The highest point is Avoca Peak at 2,771 meters. East of the pass, the mountains rise to the 3001 meter high Ben MacDhui , which is part of the Drakensberg. The name ( Afrikaans for "White Mountains") is based on the occasional snowfall in the mountains.
The Witteberg Series consists mainly of siltstone and receding sandstone . It is a fossil-bearing and the youngest section of the Cape Supergroup in the transition from the Devonian to the Carboniferous . Accordingly, it is stratigraphically classified directly under the series of the glacial Lower Karoo System ( Dwyka Group ). It contains, among other fossilized Lepidodendron -like plants and plants of the genera Sigillaria , Cyclo stigma , Dutoitia (formerly the Urfarnen expected) and Zoophycos . Even traces paleontological fauna are numerous. Among other things, two families were discovered and described here.
Others
The Witteberge formed the southern border of an exclave around Sterkspruit of the Transkei homeland, which existed until 1994 .
The writer Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) grew up in the Wesleyan Wittebergen Mission Station near the Witteberge.
Witteberge is also the name of another South African mountain range in the Free State (Freestate) on the northwestern border of Lesotho. There is a mountain range of the same name in Laingsburg in the province of Western Cape (Western Cape).
Individual evidence
- ^ Philips' College Atlas for Southern Africa. George Philip & Son, London 1976, ISBN 0-540-05320-1 , p. 26.
- ↑ Roy Lubke, Irene J. De Moor (eds): Field Guide to the Eastern & Southern Cape Coasts . University of Cape Town Press, Rondebosch 1998, p. 11 ISBN 1-919713-03-4 ( online at www.books.google.de )
- ^ Witteberg Series entry at britannica.com (English), accessed on April 21, 2018
- ↑ LJ Zhang, RY Fan, YM Gong: Zoophycos macroevolution since 541 Ma. In: Scientific Reports . Volume 5, October 2015, p. 14954, doi : 10.1038 / srep14954 , PMID 26449543 , PMC 4598866 (free full text).
- ↑ BG GARDINER: New palaeoniscoid fish from the Witteberg series of South Africa. In: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 48, 1969, p. 423, doi : 10.1111 / j.1096-3642.1969.tb00722.x .
- ↑ Eric Rosenthal: Southern African Dictionary of National Biography . Frederick Warne, London & New York, 1966, p. 332
- ^ South African History Online: Olive Schreiner . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
- ↑ Witteberg Nature Reserve at witteberg.co.za (English), accessed on April 20, 2018