Granite landforms of the Central Namib

Abstract

The central Namib Desert in Namibia is an area of extreme aridity. It possesses a wide range of granite landforms, that include domes, boulders, pediments, caves, tafoni, alveoles, weathering pits and flakes. Many of these features are of exceptional size. The granites are of two main ages: those of around 500-600 million years old that are associated with the Damaran Orogeny and those that are of early Cretaceous age and are associated with the fragmentation of Gondwanaland and the opening of the South Atlantic. In spite of the steep climatic gradient from the coast to the Great Escarpment, the forms of the major granite landforms show little variation along this gradient. It is also unlikely that there has been deep weathering under prolonged humid conditions, as the area has a history of aridity that may date back to the early Cretaceous. The conclusion is therefore made that the prime control on the granite landforms of the area is lithostructural.