I am wondering if the Witwatersrand, which means "White Waters Ridge", might have formed by a sliding tectonic collision between continental land masses, in a way similar to the Appalachians in North America that we saw in "All About The Appalachians", April 2024. Or if the plateau was already there and additional land, between the Witwatersrand and the sea, was left behind following the collision, in the same way that the U.S., east of the Appalachians, was once part of what is now Africa.
All images are from Google Earth.
The ridge is indicated by the red dot, near Johannesburg and Pretoria. There is a well known university named for it.
The ridge is indicated by the red line. Notice how the island of Madagascar seems to have been separated from southern Africa, as indicated by the two red dots.
It is widely believed that India was once joined to Madagascar. The red dots show how the west coast of India matches the east coast of Madagascar. The eventual tectonic collision of India with Asia is what formed the Himalayas. The Himalayas are the highest mountains in the world because the part of Asia that India collided with was high in elevation already.
It is also interesting how perfectly the east coast of India matches the west coast of Australia. The islands of Indonesia are not included in this collision and separation scenario because they are of volcanic origin, rather than being part of a continental land mass.
No comments:
Post a Comment