GEOLOGY FIELD EXCURSIONS by Emeritus Professor John Compton
- Geology walk from Rhodes Memorial to King’s Blockhouse
Dates: 01 November
Time: 08:00 to 12:00
Fee: R375 per person
Maximum: 20 participants
Bookings are through Webtickets: https://bit.ly/4mXQdZK
The scenic and beautifully exposed rocks and mountains of Cape Town provide the perfect place to explore and learn about geology. This walking tour commences at the Rhodes Memorial with an introduction to its scenic vistas.
We proceed on foot up to the King’s Blockhouse, with several stops to catch our breath, looking at the views and the contact between the highly deformed Malmesbury bedrock and the overlying horizontal Table Mountain Group sandstone beds. From the King’s Blockhouse we traverse the contour trail to exposures of the maroon muddy sandstone beds of the Graafwater Formation and a recent rock fall from the nearby cliffs of Peninsula Formation sandstone. We then walk back along the same route to Rhodes Memorial.
Participants need to be fit enough to go on a 4 hour hike up steep slopes (you should be able to climb 6 flights of stairs in 20 minutes, repeated 4 times). If you are unable to do the King’s Blockhouse walking tour, you can consider the Sea Point Contact or Tafelberg Road walking tours or the Cape Point or West Coast bus tours.
All participants will receive a copy of Compton’s The Rocks & Mountains of Cape Town as a field guide (if you already own a copy you can use the R150 credit toward another of Compton’s books).
Participants need to wear appropriate foot gear and clothing for the weather conditions and they need to bring a minimum of a litre of water.
- Geology walk along the Sea Point Promenade
Dates: 06 November
Time: 10:00 to 13:00
Fee: R350 per person
Maximum: 20 participants
Bookings are through Webtickets: https://bit.ly/47yrAxT
The scenic and beautifully exposed rocks and mountains of Cape Town provide the perfect place to explore and learn about the local geology. This walking tour commences at the Sea Point Contact along the Atlantic seashore, which Charles Darwin visited in 1836. We will examine the spectacular exposures of where the hot Cape Granite intruding into the Malmesbury shale 545 million years ago. We will then walk north along the promenade to the beach just beyond the Sea Point swimming pool to examine the Malmesbury Group rocks exposed along the coast in tidal outcrops. We will look from the beach at the scenic vistas of Lion’s Head and the cableway station on top of Table Mountain and discuss various aspects of the local geology and landscape evolution.
Participants need to be fit enough to go for a 3 hour walk on mostly level ground, some stairs, beach sand, uneven, rocky surfaces.
- Geology Full-day bus trip of the West Coast
Dates: 15 November
Time: 08:00 to 16:30
Fee: R1500 per person
Maximum: 28 participants
Bookings are through Webtickets: https://bit.ly/3JX3J0W
We will travel 100 km north of Cape Town to explore the many different coastal environments along the West Coast of South Africa, visiting Langebaan Lagoon in the West Coast National Park and the phosphatic Pliocene fossil beds of the West Coast Fossil Park. We will see modern beach, rocky headland, salt marsh, lagoon and sand dune environments and compare them with older (Pleistocene) deposits, including aeolianite and calcrete. The depositional environments will be discussed in terms of palaeoclimate and sea-level fluctuations on Holocene and glacial/interglacial timescales.
All participants will receive a copy of Compton’s West Coast, A Natural History as a field guide (if you already own a copy you can use the R250 credit toward another of Compton’s books)
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Fieldtrip includes: entrance fee to the West Coast National Park and the West Coast Fossil Park; luxury bus coach transport with microphone.
Participants need to wear appropriate gear and clothing for the weather conditions and they need to bring what they want to eat and a minimum of a litre of water.
- Geology walk along Tafelberg Road
Dates: 19 November
Time: 10:00 to 13:00
Fee: R350 per person
Maximum: 20 participants
Bookings are through Webtickets: https://bit.ly/4nswfpO
The scenic and beautifully exposed rocks and mountains of Cape Town provide the perfect place to explore and learn about the local geology. This walking tour commences at the end of Tafelberg Road beyond the Cableway. We will walk along the section of Tafelberg Road that is now closed to vehicular traffic to examine the spectacular exposures of maroon muddy sandstone of the Graafwater Formation exposed in road cuts. We will look from the road at the scenic vistas of Table Mountain, the City Bowl, the harbour and Lion’s Head and discuss aspects of the geology, erosion (rockfalls), and landscape evolution.
Participants need to be fit enough to go for a 3 hour walk on mostly level to slightly undulating tarmac.
All participants will receive a copy of Compton’s The Rocks & Mountains of Cape Town as a field guide (if you already own a copy you can use the R150 credit toward another of Compton’s books).
Participants need to wear appropriate foot gear and clothing for the weather conditions and they need to bring a minimum of a litre of water.