"Escarpment in the Karoo is also formed, in many places including the Karoo National Park, by a thick dolerite sill. The vegetation consists primarily of dwarf (less than 1 m high) xerophytic shrubs with some grasses. The shrubs and grasses are deciduous, mainly in response to the irregular rainfall Karoo National Park The Karoo National Park, founded in 1979, is a wildlife reserve in the Great Karoo area of the Western Cape, South Africa near Beaufort West. This semi-desert area covers an area of . The Nuweveld portion of the Great Escarpment runs through the Park. It is therefore partly"
"the Great Karoo, and acts as a ""de facto"" nature reserve. This is the arid region along the north-western coastline (northwards from approximately the 31°S line of latitude) of South Africa, partly above and partly below the Great Escarpment. The region extends into Namibia, north of the Orange River, where it is known as “Great Namaqualand”, or “Namaland”. The South African portion of Namaqualand is known as “Little Namaqualand”, and falls within the Northern Cape Province. The region is sparsely populated, mainly by Afrikaans speaking people of Nama, and Khoikhoi descent. The original Nama and Khoikhoi languages are spoken in"
"reserve in the world. These figures, however, were based on desktop research and would only be refined through an extensive exploration programme In the present day, the Karoo is a semi-desert stretching over 400,000 square kilometers and home to a population of around 1 million people. The Karoo is divided into two regions: the Little Karoo, which is wet, and the Great Karoo, which is mainly desert. Because of certain exclusions, including topography and townships, around 28% of the Karoo has been estimated to be accessible to commercial development. Unique to the Karoo shale reserves is the presence of dolerite"
"desert ephemerals, spaced 50 cm or more apart, and becoming very sparse going northwards into Bushmanland and, from there, into the Kalahari Desert. The driest region of the Karoo, however, is its southwestern corner, between the Great Escarpment and the Cederberg-Skurweberg mountain ranges, called the Tankwa Karoo, which receives only 75 mm of rain annually. The eastern and north-eastern Karoo are often covered by large patches of grassland. The typical Karoo vegetation used to support large game, sometimes in vast herds. Today, sheep thrive on the xerophytes, though each sheep requires about 4 ha of grazing to sustain itself. The"
"Nama Karoo Nama Karoo is a xeric shrubland ecoregion located on the central plateau of South Africa and Namibia. It occupies most of the interior of the western half of South Africa and extends into the southern interior of Namibia. The climate tends to be volatile and very harsh. Droughts are frequent with rain primarily falling in the summer. Rainfall can also be varied with it fluctuating between per year. Rainfall is known to be highly seasonal, peaking between December and March. It tends to decrease from the east to west and from north to south. The variability in the"
"which is Afrikaans for Little Karoo. The Great Karoo straddles the 30° S parallel on the west of the continent, in a similar position to other semidesert areas on earth, north and south of the equator. It is furthermore in the rainfall shadow of the Cape Fold Mountains along the western coastline. The western ""Lower Karoo"" (the Tankwa Karoo and Moordenaarskaroo) contain remnants of the Cape Fold Mountains (e.g. the Witteberg and Anysberg Mountains) which give it a moderate hilly appearance, but further east, the Lower Karoo becomes a monotonously flat plain. The ""Upper Karoo"" has been intruded by dolerite"
"stretch is known as the Drakensberg. The south and south-western parts of the plateau (at approximately 11001800m above sea level), and the adjoining plain below (at approximately 700800m above sea levelsee map on the right) is known as the Great Karoo, which consists of sparsely populated scrubland. To the north the Great Karoo fades into the even drier and more arid Bushmanland, which eventually becomes the Kalahari desert in the very north-west of the country. The mid-eastern, and highest part of the plateau is known as the Highveld. This relatively well-watered area is home to a great proportion of the"
"environmental impacts. The Karoo is the geographic area that is the focus of future hydraulic fracturing in South Africa, derived from a word in the local language meaning ""dry"". Previously a lake 275 million years ago, shale gas began to form in the low-oxygen Karoo as organic mud accumulated. As pressure increased over time, the organic material within the mud gradually turned into oil and gas trapped in shale rock. Estimates on how much gas is in the Karoo vary, with the Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimating reserves of 390 trillion cubic feet, which would make it the eighth largest"
"Karoo are arbitrary and ill-defined. To the north the Karoo grades into even more arid Bushmanland. To the north-east, the Orange River is often regarded as the boundary between Karoo and the Highveld. To the east the Karoo fades into the grasslands of the Eastern Midlands. The town of Sutherland is located in the Roggeveld region of the Upper Karoo, with midwinter temperatures as low as −15 °C, and is thought to be the coldest inhabited place in South Africa. The Little Karoo is separated from the Great Karoo by the Swartberg mountain range. It lies in a 290 km"
"plants of any of the world's arid regions. The biome has an area of about 107,200 km², stretching along South Africa's and southern Namibia's western coasts, and includes most of the Richtersveld. There are more than 5,000 plant species in this biome, including more than a third of all the succulent species in the world. Approximately 40% of the biome's plant species are endemic and 18% are threatened. The biome also has diverse invertebrate and reptile species, some of which are endemic. Illegal plant harvesting, overgrazing, and mining threaten endemic species. Only a very small percentage of the Succulent Karoo's"
"inter-annual rainfall also tends to increase with increasing aridity. Temperature variations as large as between day and night are common. Mean maximum temperatures in the mid-summer (January) exceeds , while mean minimum mid-winter (July) temperatures are below freezing. Nama Karoo Nama Karoo is a xeric shrubland ecoregion located on the central plateau of South Africa and Namibia. It occupies most of the interior of the western half of South Africa and extends into the southern interior of Namibia. The climate tends to be volatile and very harsh. Droughts are frequent with rain primarily falling in the summer. Rainfall can also"
"plain with Mississippi-like rivers depositing mud from an immense range of mountains to the south. Ancient reptiles and amphibians prospered in the wet forests, and their remains have made the Karoo famous amongst palaeontologists. The first of these Karoo fossils was discovered in 1838 by Scots-born Andrew Geddes Bain at a road cutting near Fort Beaufort. He sent his specimens to the British Museum, where fellow Scotsman Robert Broom recognised the Karoo fossils' mammal-like characteristics in 1897. After the Beaufort period, Southern Africa (still part of Gondwana) became an arid sand desert with only ephemeral rivers and pans. These sands"
"Lower Karoo Group The Lower Karoo Group is a sequence of late Carboniferous and Permian sandstone sedimentary rocks of the Karoo Supergroup, found in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. The Lower Karoo corresponds to the lower portion of the Karoo Supergroup sequence. The basal unit comprises glacial tillites, being the Dwyka Formation in the Mid-Zambezi Basin, Basal Beds in the Limpopo basins and Kondo Pools Formation in the Mana Pools and Cabora Bassa Basins. These are overlain in the Mid-Zambezi by the Wankie sandstones and coal and the Madumabaisa Mudstone Formation It is underlain and overstepped by the Upper Karoo"
"Kalahari Desert, an arid region that extends into South Africa and Botswana, is one of Namibia's well-known geographical features. The Kalahari, while popularly known as a desert, has a variety of localised environments, including some verdant and technically non-desert areas. The Succulent Karoo is home to over 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic; approximately 10 percent of the world's succulents are found in the Karoo. The reason behind this high productivity and endemism may be the relatively stable nature of precipitation. Namibia's Coastal Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world. Its sand dunes, created"
"part of the Angolan Mopane woodlands ecoregion, which extends north across the Cunene River into neighbouring Angola. The Kalahari Desert is perhaps Namibia’s best known geographical feature. Shared with South Africa and Botswana, it has a variety of localised environments ranging from hyper-arid sandy desert, to areas that seem to defy the common definition of desert. One of these areas, known as the Succulent Karoo, is home to over 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic; fully one-third of the world’s succulents are found in the Karoo. The reason behind this high productivity and endemism may be the"
"Karoo dwarf chameleon The Karoo dwarf chameleon (""Bradypodion karrooicum"") is a chameleon native to South Africa. It is about 14 cm (6 in) long, mostly colored grey and brown, sometimes olive. The thin skin around the throat is yellow, and it has conical scales along the spine. It inhabits rather dry habitat on the border between the Great and Little Karoo of eastern Northern Cape and western Free State provinces, South Africa. This animal is occasionally considered a subspecies of the Cape dwarf chameleon (e.g. Klaver & Böhme 1997), but among the South African dwarf chameleons, these two are by"
"but a very few people (in the case of Nǁnǂe). The two areas consist of semi-arid to arid tracts of the Upper Karoo (to the south) and the Southern Kalahari (to the north). Both areas are rich in archaeological traces inter alia of the Later Stone Age, while rocky hills and outcrops in the southern area (which has been referred to as ǀXam-ka ǃxau, meaning home of the ǀXam) have a wealth of rock art sites, preponderantly in the form of rock engravings. In the ǂKhomani area to the north (where the sandy desert topography precludes rock art) a cultural"
"yellow cake producing Beaufort West mine is nearby. Beaufort West Beaufort West (Afrikaans: Beaufort-Wes) is a town in the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is the largest town in the arid Great Karoo region, and is known as the ""Capital of the Karoo"". It forms part of the Beaufort West Local Municipality, with 34 085 inhabitants in 2011. It is the centre of an agricultural district based mainly on sheep farming, and is a significant town on the N1 national road. Next door to Beaufort West is the Karoo National Park. Important fossils have been found in the"
"Karoo-Ferrar The Karoo and Ferrar Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) are two large igneous provinces in Southern Africa and Antarctica respectively, collectively known as the Karoo-Ferrar, Gondwana, or Southeast African LIP, associated with the initial break-up of the Gondwana supercontinent at . Its flood basalt mostly covers South Africa and Antarctica but portions extend further into southern Africa and into South America, India, Australia and New Zealand. Karoo-Ferrar formed just prior to the breakup of Gondwana in the Lower Jurassic epoch, about 183 million years ago; this timing corresponds to the early Toarcian anoxic event and the Pliensbachian-Toarcian extinction. It covered"
"worldwide. South Africa has a major sedimentary basin that contains thick organic-rich shales: the Karoo Basin in central and southern South Africa. The Karoo Basin is large, extending across nearly two-thirds of the country, with the southern portion of the basin potentially favorable for shale gas. However, the basin contains significant areas of igneous sill intrusions that may impact the quality of the shale gas resources, limit the use of seismic imaging, and increase the risks of shale gas exploration. The Karoo is estimated to have technically recoverable resource of 485 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas. Several companies intend"
"Tankwa Karoo National Park Tankwa Karoo National Park is a national park in South Africa. The park lies about 70 km due west of Sutherland near the border of the Northern Cape and Western Cape, in one of the most arid regions of South Africa, with areas receiving less than 100 mm of average annual precipitation, moisture-bearing clouds from the Atlantic Ocean being largely stopped by the Cederberg mountains. Other low areas receive little more, as the Roodewerf station (co-ordinates: S32°14’27.9” E20°05’44.5”) with 180 mm of mean annual rainfall. In the hottest areas of the park, the mean maximum temperature"
"Beaufort West Beaufort West (Afrikaans: Beaufort-Wes) is a town in the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is the largest town in the arid Great Karoo region, and is known as the ""Capital of the Karoo"". It forms part of the Beaufort West Local Municipality, with 34 085 inhabitants in 2011. It is the centre of an agricultural district based mainly on sheep farming, and is a significant town on the N1 national road. Next door to Beaufort West is the Karoo National Park. Important fossils have been found in the area, initially by David Baird, son of the"
"km². The park is semi-desert, with hot and dry summers and cold winters with variable, generally sparse rainfall. Most precipitation occurs between May and August. The eastern part of the park receives more rainfall than the west. The park is located in Namaqualand, which lies within the Succulent Karoo. Namaqualand has an area covering 55,000 hectares, located in the northwest corner of Northern Cape Province. The park is part of the semi-desert Succulent Karoo biome, one of the most unusual biomes in the world. This biome is a biodiversity hotspot with the greatest biodiversity and the highest concentration of succulent"
"graves, among others. Molteno also forms part of the Calata Heritage Route for the liberation struggle. Molteno is surrounded by mountains and high Karoo plains, known for its vast panoramic views. It is also located almost exactly on the watershed between the catchment areas of the Atlantic Ocean (e.g. the Orange River to the north) and the Indian Ocean. The semi-arid, succulent-rich vegetation of the Great Karoo ecoregion predominates in the area. Molteno has a subtropical highland climate (""Cwb"", according to the Köppen climate classification), with warm summers and chilly, dry winters, with occasional snowfalls. It borders on a semi-arid"
"Group. In the Mana Pools and Cabora Bassa Basins, the Kondo Pools Formation is overlain by the Mkanga Formation sandstone and mudstones. Lower Karoo Group The Lower Karoo Group is a sequence of late Carboniferous and Permian sandstone sedimentary rocks of the Karoo Supergroup, found in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. The Lower Karoo corresponds to the lower portion of the Karoo Supergroup sequence. The basal unit comprises glacial tillites, being the Dwyka Formation in the Mid-Zambezi Basin, Basal Beds in the Limpopo basins and Kondo Pools Formation in the Mana Pools and Cabora Bassa Basins. These are overlain in"
"the parallel mountains ranges consist of fertile soils composed of weathered mudstones belonging to the Bokkeveld Group of the Cape Supergroup, as opposed to the nutrient-poor, sandy soils on the quartzitic sandstone mountains, on either side of the valleys. However, the rainfall is, in general, low, bordering on the semiarid (or frankly semiarid in, for instance, the Little Karoo). Agriculture, which includes viniculture and fruit-growing, therefore depends on irrigation from rivers with sources in the mountains, which are frequently covered in snow during winter. The Little Karoo is famous for its ostrich farming, initially, in the late 1800s, for their"
"which only grows on the granite and clay soils of the Cape Peninsula, open fynbos is generally treeless except in the wetter mountain ravines where patches of Afromontane forest persist. The arid interior is dominated by Karoo drought-resistant shrubbery. The West Coast and Little Karoo are semi-arid regions and are typified by many species of succulents and drought-resistant shrubs and acacia trees. The Garden Route on the south coast (between the Outeniqua Mountains and the Southern Indian Ocean) is extremely lush, with temperate rainforest (or Afromontane Forest) covering many areas adjacent to the coast, in the deep river valleys and"
"the Karoo. There is winter frost and very little rainfall (annual average: ), the mean medial temperature lies between 12 and 15 degrees. Warmbad was first named in 1760 by scout Jacobus Coetzee, the first documented European to cross the Oranje River into the South West African territory that today forms the state of Namibia. At that time it served as stop-over for traders, adventurers and large game hunters from the South African Cape Colony. In 1805 two missionaries from the London Missionary Society, Abraham and Christian Albrecht, initiated the erection of a church and a pastor's house, thereby establishing"
"in southern Africa deposited in the rift. In Zambia, the Karoo Supergroup is represented by outcrops in major rift block valleys, in the east and south, such as the Luangwa, Lukusashi, Lunsemfwa, Rufunsa and mid-Zambezi rivers. Because glaciations continued throughout much of the Paleozoic, into the Permian, in Gondwana, the bottom sequence of Karoo Supergroup rocks is a tillite that appears to be glacially produced. Ascending units includes sandstones and the Gwembe Coal Formation, mudstones and additional sandstones. Deposition of the Karoo Supergroup continued into the Mesozoic, with the sequence capped by basalt lava flows from the Jurassic. Today, the"
"10–20 km from the foot of the Swartberg mountains is least karoo-like, in that it is a well-watered area both from the rain and the many streams that cascade down the mountain, or through narrow defiles in the Swartberg from the Great Karoo. The main towns of the region are situated along this northern strip of the Little Karoo: Montagu, Barrydale, Ladismith, Calitzdorp, Oudtshoorn, and De Rust, as well as such well-known mission stations such as Zoar, Amalienstein, and Dysselsdorp. The southern 30– to 50-km-wide strip, north of the Langeberg range, is as arid as the western Lower Karoo, except"
"red, to turquoise. Individuals can also be spotted. The Karoo girdled lizard is a common species, distributed throughout the Southern part of Africa. Specifically, it occurs in South Namibia, and most of South Africa. Specimens have also been recorded in other nearby areas, but these have not been confirmed. It covers an area of roughly almost 150,000 kilometers in total. The Karoo girdled lizard almost always dwells in rocky areas - besides that, their habitat varies somewhat. It occurs at lower elevations - specimens have been found mostly in lowland areas as well as on the lower slopes of mountains."
"Karoo paleontologically famous. Their fossils have been found all over the Karoo. Some of these fossils are on display in the Park, though none of them have been found there. About 60 million years after the Beaufort sediments had been laid down and topped with a thick layer of desert sands, there was an outpouring of lava on to Southern Africa on a titanic scale. The entire area was covered within a very short space of time with a 1.5 km thick layer of lava, the remnants of which form the Drakensberg. In addition to flooding the African surface with"
"north of the Great Karoo. Great locust swarms also frequently invaded or arose in the Great Karoo, and still occur from time to time today. The riverine rabbit, a critically endangered animal, lives exclusively in seasonal river basins and a very particular set of scrubland in the central semiarid region in the Karoo. It is hunted by falconiformes and Verreaux's eagles. Its numbers have been consistently lowering due to destruction of its habitat. They are unique relative to similar species through how they are polygamous and how each female can only produce one or two offspring per year. The introduction"