Table Mountain

Nicci and her friend David took me for a gorgeous hike on Table Mountain on Sunday - In addition to the great views and beautiful flowers we had a great time. After a SERIOUS climb up Constantia Nec we came out on the top of Table Mountain, which is actually not as flat in this area. There are a series of dams built to provide water to the wine farms on the eastern flanks and to the villages on the western coast. These are still in use and actually quite beautiful. Some of the natural drainages are said to run along faults.



These are some of the old cabins up top - they belong to the park now - and you can rent them! Check out this view! This is looking SSE toward the Cape Peninsula and False Bay.



Ah, in a drainage, way out of place... the mysterious folds in the otherwise pretty much undeformed Peninsula Fm. sandstone (Table Mountain Group). These are supposedly found at the top of the formation (which is overlain by the Pakuis Tillite). So some have suggested glaciotectonic origin. BUT as I understand it the Pakuis is pretty much a periglacial marine debris flow? Or a silty diamictite anyway? Not ground moraine? Time will tell.


Across False Bay at Cape Hangklip is another outcrop of the upper Peninsula Fm. and overlying Pakuis Fm. One of the honors students I am working with here will be looking at a mysterious diamictite (Hangklip Member) which occurs within the upper part of the sandstone - is it indicative of earlier onset glaciation? Is it indicative of thrusting and repetition of the Peninsula/Pakuis contact? or is it just a debris flow onto a sandy shelf, with material derived from distant glaciers? We'll go across on Saturday to start looking for the contact. Secretly I hope it is a thrust fault (NOT SO SECRETLY!) but this is a great field project anyway, it is coastline and roadcut exposures only so I am familiar with that kind of field work.