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Cape Town Prehistory
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| Introduction |
The story
of Cape Town must begin with Table Mountain. The mountain creates a rain
shadow, providing rain and the streams that flow in its valleys. Small forests
grow in the ravines and the mountain provides shelter. Soil has developed on
the mountain slopes, in contrast to the sandy plains beyond. Without these
vital elements the area would would not have attracted human
settlement.
So our story of Cape Town begins by looking back in geological
time to understand the birth of Table Mountain. Only then can we turn to the
evolution of the Cape's fauna and flora and set the scene for the arrival of
man.
Table Mountain is one of the oldest mountains on earth, six
times older than the Himalayas and five times older than the Rockies. It's
story begins eight hundred million years ago when sandstone began to form
underwater.
Sandstone is a relatively soft rock but it was given strength
by magma rising from the earth's core. When magma reaches the surface it often
forms a volcano, but in this case it stopped underground, cooled and formed
hard granite. You can easily see granite rocks along the coast of the Cape
Peninsula today.
Around 300 million years ago the mountain was still at sea
level during an ice age and ice sheets flattened the layers of sandstone
creating the flat surface that today we call the 'Table Top'.
When the continents split apart, stresses and pressures built
up in the earth's crust. If the rocks of Table Mountain had been made only of
sandstone they would have folded under the pressure, but the granite gave it
strength, deflecting the forces down. Slowly this process forced the layers of
rock to rise, slowly becoming the kilometre high mountain we know
today.
Throughout its history, Table Mountain has been eroded by the
action of wind, fire, ice and water. The flat face of the mountain is a cliff
face, caused by the action of waves when the sea lapped against it. On the
mountain you can find strangely shaped rocks and deep ravines caused by
millions of years of erosion.
Over its long history Table Mountain would see great changes in
the plant and animal life around it, and we now turn to this. Click for
more on the geology of Table
Mountain. |
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Heritage Sections
· Culture ·
· Environment
·
History
· Society
Personalities ·
Areas
In this period of Cape History:
Overview
Table
Mountain
Plant and
Animal Evolution
Human Evolution
Bibliography
& Contacts
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