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Rock Weathering on the Eastern Mountains of Southern Africa: Review and Insights from Case Studies

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Rock Weathering on the Eastern Mountains of Southern Africa: Review and Insights from Case Studies ARTICLE IN PRESS Journal of African Earth Sciences xxx (2009) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of African Earth Sciences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jafrearsci Rock weathering on the eastern mountains of southern Africa: Review and insights from case studies P.D. Sumner a,*, K.J. Hall a,b, J.L. van Rooy c, K.I. Meiklejohn a a Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa b Geography Program, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC, Canada V2N 4Z9 c Department of Geology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa article info abstract Article history: The mountains in the eastern region of southern Africa are of significant regional importance, providing Received 7 November 2008 for a diverse range of land use including conservation, tourism and subsistence agriculture. The higher Received in revised form 15 April 2009 regions are comprised of flood basalts and are immediately underlain by predominantly aeolian-origin Accepted 28 April 2009 sandstones. Our understanding of the weathering of these basalts and sandstones is reviewed here, with Available online xxxx particular focus on the insights gained from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and an ongoing study into the deterioration of rock art. While the chemical weathering attributes of the basalts have been sub- Keywords: stantially investigated, it is evident that the environmental surface conditions of rock moisture and tem- Weathering perature, as affecting weathering processes, remain largely unknown. Within the sandstones, studies Lesotho Drakensberg pertaining to rock art deterioration present insights into the potential surface weathering processes Rock art and highlight the need for detailed field monitoring. Outside of these site-specific studies, however, little Lesotho Highlands Water Project is understood of how weathering impacts on landscape development; notably absent, are detail on weathering rates, and potential effects of biological weathering. Some palaeoenvironmental inferences have also been made from weathering products, both within the basalts and the sandstones, but aspects of these remain controversial and further detailed research can still be undertaken. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction on the South African province of KwaZulu–Natal has recently been declared a Transfrontier National Park and is thus of considerable The eastern escarpment region of southern Africa is the highest environmental and cultural importance. While the significance of mountain range south of the central African Kilimanjaro massif. the mountains from a climatological, hydrological and ecological Called the Maloti mountains or Lesotho highlands in the west, perspective is generally appreciated, comparatively little is known and Ukhahlamba–Drakensberg in South Africa in the east, the of the area from a geomorphological viewpoint and few studies de- highest summit Thabana Ntlenyana reaches 3482 m a.s.l. (Fig. 1). scribe weathering processes within the region. Two focus areas, the The landlocked Kingdom of Lesotho is bordered entirely by South study of rock art deterioration and the engineering feats of the Africa, and Lesotho’s eastern international boundary is delineated Lesotho Highlands Water Project, have provided insights into by the watershed which approximates the position of the moun- weathering processes, while other studies draw palaeoenviron- tain range escarpment. Late Triassic to early Cretaceous flood bas- mental conclusions from weathering products. alts comprise the area above approximately 1900 a.s.l., underlain San rock art, painted onto sandstone, is a major tourism and by Karoo sediments the uppermost sequence of which is known as cultural heritage attraction. Interpretation of rock art has drawn the Clarens Formation (Fig. 2). Above 3000 m the climate supports much attention from archaeologists and anthropologists but geo- marginal periglacial conditions with a mean annual air tempera- morphological studies have also contributed through an ongoing ture in the region of 5 °C and precipitation less than 1000 mm analysis of rock art deterioration by weathering (Hall et al., p.a. (Nel and Sumner, 2008). Temperatures are warmer in the foot- 2007a). Recent studies utilize new techniques and have improved hills in the east where fluvially incised valleys expose the sand- our understanding of, and asked new questions pertaining to, the stones and precipitation increases to around 1200 mm p.a. weathering of sandstone. At higher altitudes the hydrological (Sumner and Nel, 2006). Much of the mountain area bordering importance of the mountains is best illustrated by the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP). The LHWP transfers water from the highlands across catchments to the central industrial region * Corresponding author. Tel.: +27 12 420 2881; fax: +27 86 699 2661. of South Africa and was considered one of the largest civil engi- E-mail address: [email protected] (P.D. Sumner). neering projects then undertaken in the world (Waites, 2000). 1464-343X/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2009.04.010 Please cite this article in press as: Sumner, P.D., et al. Rock weathering on the eastern mountains of southern Africa: Review and insights from case studies. J. Afr. Earth Sci. (2009), doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2009.04.010 ARTICLE IN PRESS 2 P.D. Sumner et al. / Journal of African Earth Sciences xxx (2009) xxx–xxx Fig. 1. Location of basalts and underlying sandstones in eastern southern Africa. See Waites (2000) for further detail on the transfer dam and tunnel locations of the LHWP. Water transfer tunnels drilled through basalt, as well as the studies. Comments are also made on the palaeoenvironmental requirements for construction aggregate, prompted studies into inferences derived from weathering products. basalt weathering and durability and much was learned from prob- lems encountered with the project. Both the rock art study and the 2. Weathering of the basalts water transfer project have thus contributed significantly to a rel- atively small but important body of literature on rock weathering 2.1. Composition and alteration of the basalts processes in the region. This paper reviews our current under- standing of basalt and sandstone weathering in the mountains Volcanic eruptions heralded the splitting up of the super and elaborates on the insights gained from the above two case continent Gondwana and created a lava pile with an original Please cite this article in press as: Sumner, P.D., et al. Rock weathering on the eastern mountains of southern Africa: Review and insights from case studies. J. Afr. Earth Sci. (2009), doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2009.04.010 ARTICLE IN PRESS P.D. Sumner et al. / Journal of African Earth Sciences xxx (2009) xxx–xxx 3 Fig. 2. Typical geological succession (after Eriksson, 1983) on an east–west transect through the escarpment, such as at Giant’s Castle in Fig. 1. thickness of approximately 1400 m (Duncan and Marsh, 2006). Mineralogical composition is important when considering Individual lava flows vary from less than 1 m thick to more than chemical weathering of the basalts. Primary minerals crystallized 50 m, with an average flow thickness of 6 m in the northern directly from the molten lava due to lowering in temperature parts of Lesotho. Flow contacts are generally welded and tight, and pressure either in the upper levels of a feeder channel or fis- indicating a relatively quick succession of lava outpourings that sure, or on extrusion at the surface. A distinct order of crystalliza- lack weathered flow contacts. The lower occurrences in the lava tion occurred, with olivine, where present, crystallizing first, pile contain some volcanic clastics and tuffs with volcanic brec- followed by plagioclase feldspar, then clinopyroxene. Solidification cias. These rock types are an indication of early explosive volca- took place in most of the lavas after the crystallization of the nic activity although the extent of the lava flows suggests that pyroxene, presumably as a result of extrusion. Residual liquid the lava poured out from fissures as low viscosity flood basalts. trapped in the interstices between crystalline phases underwent Typical of the basalts are the abundance of amygdales filled with rapid supercooling and solidified as glass, trapping within it incip- various secondary minerals. Thin flows are amygdaloidal ient crystals of opaque iron oxide magnetite or the iron–titanium throughout the flow thickness while thicker flows exhibit a dis- oxide ilmenite (van Rooy, 1992). Augite is the dominant pyroxene tinct zoning (from top to bottom) within the flow. The top layer with plagioclase the most abundant mineral of the rocks. Glass is is fine-grained, highly amygdaloidal and glassy as a result of the relatively abundant in most rocks and may reach 25% by volume sudden temperature drop and pressure decrease. Due to the ra- and much of the glass is altered to a variety of radiating micaceous pid outpouring of one flow on top of the other the upper parts of mineraloids. Zeolites are widespread in amygdales in areas of some flows also exhibit autobrecciation. The central part of the hydrothermal alteration and may exhibit a well-defined zonation thick flows is massive with only scattered amygdales while the (Hay, 1978). Clinoptilolite or mordenite characterizes the shallow- basal part is again fine-grained and contains numerous amyg- est and coolest zones, and progressively deeper zones commonly dales, some of which are typical pipe amygdales orientated per- contain analcime or heulandite, laumontite, and wairakite. The pendicular to the flow contacts. On both sides of the flow typical gas vug infill in Lesotho can be summarised as quartz contacts, thin zones occur where the basalt is usually very (agate) and calcite in the basal 170 m of the lava pile and zeolite fine-grained and more brittle than the adjacent rock further in the upper 1230 m. The zeolite zone is further defined by a lower away from the contact zone (Bell and Haskins, 1997).
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