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This occurred about million years ago, when huge volumes of lava were extruded over most of Southern Africa and adjoining regions of Gondwana, both on the surface and deep below the surface between the sedimentary strata. Since this massive extrusion of lava, Southern Africa has undergone a prolonged period of erosion, exposing the older, softer rocks, except where they were protected by a cap of dolerite.
The genera present include:. The lava outpourings that ended the Karoo deposition of rocks, not only covered the African surface, and other parts of Gondwana with a 1. The long vertical fissures through which the lava welled up solidified into dikes which resemble the Great Wall of China from the air. This exposed the dolerite sills, which were more resistant to erosion than the Karoo sediments, forming one of the most characteristic features of the Karoo landscape, namely the flat topped hills, called "Karoo Koppies".
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The geology of the region bears no resemblance to that of the Great Karoo see the diagram on the left, of a NS geological cross-section through the Little and Great Karoos. The valley floor is covered, in the main, by the next younger layer of the Supergroup, namely the much softer Bokkeveld shales. The Little Karoo contains two other geological features that give the landscape a special character. These "Enon Conglomerates ", as they are known, were deposited by high energy, fast flowing rivers, [14] and are found between Calitzdorp and Oudtshoorn, where they form the strikingly red "Redstone Hills".
The second special geological feature that marks the Little Karoo is the km-long fault line along the southern edge of the Swartberg Mountains. The Swartberg Mountains were lifted up along this fault, to such an extent that in the Oudtshoorn region, the rocks that form the base of the Cape Supergroup are exposed. These are locally known as the Cango Group, but are probably continuous with the Malmesbury Group that forms the base of Table Mountain on the Cape Peninsula , and similar outcrops in the Western Cape.
None of these regions is ever referred to, either geographically or locally, as "Karoo".
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From here, it continues eastwards into the western half of the Little Karoo. The succulent Karoo biome is dominated by dwarf, leafy-succulent shrubs, and annuals, predominantly Asteraceae , popularly known as Namaqualand daisies, which put on spectacular flower displays covering vast stretches of the landscape in the southern spring-time August—September after good rains in the winter. Grasses are uncommon, making most of the biome unsuitable for grazing. The low rainfall, in fact, discourages most forms of agriculture.
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An exception is the thriving ostrich-farming industry in the Little Karoo, which is heavily dependent on supplementary feeding with lucerne. Overgrazing exacerbates the erosion caused by the violent thunderstorms that occur, infrequently, in the summer. It also promotes the replacement of the grasses by shrubs, especially the less edible varieties such as the threethorn Rhigozum trichotomum , bitterbos Chrysocoma ciliata , and sweet thorn Acacia karroo.
The Great Karoo used to support a large variety of antelope particularly the springbok , the quagga , and other large game, especially on the grassy flats in the east. Francois Le Vaillant , the famous French explorer, naturalist, and ornithologist, who traveled through the Great Karoo in the s, killed a hippopotamus in the Great Fish River in the Karoo and ate its foot for breakfast. He also recorded that he saw the spoor of a rhinoceros near Cranemere, in the Camdeboo Plains eastern Lower Karoo.
Elephant tusks have been found by farmers in the Camdeboo district, but no records exist of any having been seen alive in that region. A pair of quagga was used to draw a horse carriage through London, more for curiosity than for any superiority the quagga might have had over a horse. They were consequently also easy prey for hunters, who hunted them for sport rather than their meat. Probably the strangest and most puzzling zoological phenomenon in the Great Karoo was the periodic, unpredictable appearance of massive springbok migrations. These vast herds moved steadily and inexorably across the plains, trampling all before them, including their own kind.
Le Vaillant gave the first eyewitness account of such a migration in In , a massive herd of springbok, amongst which were intermingled wildebeest, blesbok , quagga, and eland , moved through Beaufort West. Early one morning, the town was awakened to a sound like that of a strong wind, and suddenly the town was filled with animals. They devoured every sprig of foliage in the town and surrounding countryside. The last of the continuously moving herd left the town 3 days later, to disappear towards the west.
The Karoo looked as if a fire had swept through it.
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During these migrations, the plains and hillsides on every side were thickly covered by one vast mass of springbok, packed like sheep in a fold. As far as the eye could see, the landscape was alive with them. During these migrations, the springbok never ran or trotted. On the whole, they were silent, except for the shudder of their stamping hoofs. Nothing could divert them, and hunters could ride amongst them, shooting them at random, without apparently causing alarm. People could move amongst them and kill them with sticks, or cripple them by seizing a leg and breaking it.
Not only people followed these herds for the easy meat they provided, but also lions , leopards , cheetahs , African wild dogs , hyenas , and jackals preyed on them. No one knew how, why, or where these migrations started, nor where they ended, nor did anyone know if these animals ever returned to where they had started. The migrations were always unidirectional, from north of the Great Karoo. Great locust swarms also frequently invaded or arose in the Great Karoo, and still occur from time to time today. The riverine rabbit , a critically endangered animal, lives exclusively in seasonal river basins and a very particular set of scrubland in the central semiarid region in the Karoo.
As in the Great Karoo, antelope and other big game inhabited the Little Karoo in the past.
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However, the dominant zebra was not the quagga, but the Cape mountain zebra , Equus zebra zebra which is adapted for life on rugged, mountainous terrain. The quagga is closely related to Burchell's zebra, and appears also to have been confined to the plains. The mountain zebra occurred in the mountain regions of the Cape Fold Belt and along the southern portion of the Great Escarpment.
Thus, they were endemic to, amongst others, the western Lower Karoo and the Little Karoo.
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However, they were hunted to near extinction, leaving fewer than individuals by the s. Conservation efforts since then brought their numbers up to by , mainly by concentrating these zebra in nature reserves and protected areas, the most well-known of these being the Mountain Zebra National Park near Cradock in the Great Karoo.
Cape mountain zebras are still found in protected areas managed by Cape Nature, including the Kamanassie and Gamkaberg Nature Reserves. The ostrich is found throughout Africa, but the most handsome specimens came from the Little Karoo, where the dry weather, but plentiful water in the streams formed an ideal habitat for these large, flightless birds.
The First World War brought about a slump in the ostrich feather market, but the industry recovered in later years, when not only the feathers were sought after, but also ostrich leather, and its meat, which is very tasty, and a major export item. Today, several farms can be visited by tourists, near Oudtshoorn, the center of the ostrich industry.
The first European settlers landed in the Cape of Good Hope in , and between and , made several unsuccessful attempts to penetrate the Great Karoo from the south-west. Ui -speaking peoples, who lived in small family groups and, it is believed, remained largely in their own "territories", killing their own game, and gathering bulbs and roots and drinking from a spring or other water source within their territory.
Their only domestic animals were dogs. It was perfected in , and soon South Africa and elsewhere produced them in large numbers. These windpumps transformed the Great Karoo, making permanent settlement and stock farming predominantly sheep [5] possible over large parts of the Karoo for the first time.
Sheep farming and the fencing off of the land have meant that antelope numbers have dwindled significantly, and with them, the big carnivores. Leopards still occur in the mountains, but lions now only occur in nature reserves, where they have been recently reintroduced into the Great Karoo.
In , construction was started to connect the Cape Colony 's coastal railway system with the diamond fields in Kimberley , [44] [45] The new line started in Worcester and entered the Lower Karoo through the Hex River valley , where it followed a course almost midway between the Swartberg Mountains to the south and the Great Escarpment to the north.
Along the way, it passed through the quaint Victorian village of Matjiesfontein , with the historic Lord Milner Hotel, which is still operational today. The railway reached this point in , before proceeding to Beaufort West at the foot of the Great Escarpment. From there, it reached the top of the African Plateau near Three Sisters along a valley with such a low gradient that passengers were and still are hardly aware that they were ascending the Great Escarpment. The Orange River, at this point, forms the local unofficial boundary between the Great Karoo and the Highveld.
The line reached Kimberley in , and has since been extended via Botswana then Bechuanaland to reach Zimbabwe and Zambia when they were still known as South and North Rhodesia , and branch lines have been constructed to Namibia and Port Elizabeth through a hub at De Aar, in the Great Karoo. Further branch lines were later built from points further north to Bloemfontein , Durban , and, of course, to Johannesburg.
During the Second Anglo-Boer War of —, three Republican commando units, reinforced by the sympathizers "rebels" from the Cape Colony , conducted widespread operations throughout the Karoo. Countless skirmishes took place in the region, with the Calvinia magisterial district, in particular, contributing a significant number of fighters to the Republican cause.