Geomorphology of the upper Mkhomazi River basin, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, with emphasis on late Pleistocene colluvial deposits

Alberto Bosino, Alice Bernini, Greg A. Botha, Greta Bonacina, Luisa Pellegrini, Adel Omran, Volker Hochschild, Christian Sommer and Michael Maerker

Journal of Maps, 2021, vol. 17, issue 3, 5-16

Abstract: We present a 1:50 000 scale geomorphological map of the upper Mkhomazi River basin, located in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. The sub-horizontal strata of the Permo-Triassic Beaufort Group forms plateau interfluves with a concave valley slope morphology. Locally, thick sequences of late Pleistocene colluvial deposits and associated buried paleosols (Masotcheni Formation) infill first-order tributary stream valleys and extend across the adjacent lower slopes. Surface runoff processes preferentially incise into the poorly consolidated, highly erodible sediments causing severe gully erosion that is responsible for widespread land degradation and desertification phenomena. The main purpose of this work is to derive a geomorphological map of the study area focussing on the erosional landforms to understand their spatial distribution and their relation to the colluvial deposits. Finally, a local and regional stratigraphic correlation of colluvial deposits and associated buried palaeosol profiles is proposed.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17445647.2020.1790435 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tjomxx:v:17:y:2021:i:3:p:5-16

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tjom20

DOI: 10.1080/17445647.2020.1790435

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Maps is currently edited by Dr Mike Smith, Dr Jeremy Porter and Dr Dick Berg

More articles in Journal of Maps from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().