Table Mountain - Cape Town EarthCache
Table Mountain - Cape Town
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This earthcache is very fascinated natural baeuty scenery. Situated
at the south-western tip of Africa, the Table Mountain National
Park encompasses the incredibly scenic Table Mountain Chain
stretching from Signal Hill in the north to Cape Point in S.
Table Mountain for many years and centuries a landmark for
seafarers and voyagers rises to a height of 1086 m above sea level
and is visible from as much as 60 km offshore. The striking
horizontal edge of the summit plateau runs above two kilometres
from east to west. Planked by Windberg and Lion´s Head the mountain
forms a magnificent amphiteatre around the central city Groote
Shuur Estate and Kirstenbosch lie at the foot of the eastern
sloops. The Western front of the mountain were known in the past
time (during Van Riebeek) as the Gevelbergen „Gabled
Peaks“. The flat summit was formed through the virtually
total erosion of the friable tillites of the Pakhuis formation and
the shales of the Cederberg formation (two subdivisions of the
Table Mountain series). Some tillite remnans are still ro be found
at M.B. the true summit. The mountain consists mainly of coarse
grained sandstone of the Table Mountain series, deposited in
shallow seas during the Ordovician period (XXX - YYY mill. years
ago). The strata rose and were incised by erosion along seams
running north westerly and north easterly, so that Windberg and LH
were separated from Table Mountain proper. The precipitous faces
and deep clefts such as Platteklip Ravine were also produced by
these seams. For many years the Varsrivier (Fresh River) which
rises in Platteklip Ravine supplied water to visiting ships and
this led directly to the founding of the settlement at the Cape in
1652. An avarage annual rain tall of 1600mm makes the summit
plateau an ideal catchment area for the five reservoirs, on top of
the mountain, which for many years provided Cape Town´s main water
supplies. The mountain´s famous „Table Cloth“ (the
French called it a „wig“) is caused by the southeaster
and deposits a good deal of moisture on the mountain, even in the
dry summer month´s. Numerous fossil traces of Arthropeda from the
Silurian period (cca ZZZ years ago) which are to by found in the
paving stones at the Upper Cable Way Station, testify to a rich
concentartion of fauna in the mountain´s geological past.
Questions:
1. What is the real name of Windberg today?
2. What is the name of the highest
point of Table Mountain?
3. What is the real name of Gevelbergen?
4. XXX - YYY = ? and ZZZ = ?
5. If you stay on the plateu (see the photo) and look down to the
sea, which important peak you can
see on your left hand and which important island?
6. Make a picture of yourself with the GPS on the place with plateu
(coordinates) see the photo hint! The logs without answers or
without a photo will be deleted!
The park is open everyday from 8 am until 5 pm. Entrance fee (Cable
way) is 120 ZAR for adults. You cand also climb to the top…
:)
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)