|
Kafue National Park
Kafue National Park is the largest national park in Zambia, covering an area of about 22,400 km² (similar in size to Wales or Massachusetts). It is one of the largest parks in Africa and is home to 152 different species of mammals. The park is named for the Kafue River. It stretches over three provinces: North Western, Central and Southern. The main access is via the Lusaka–Mongu Road from Lusaka to Mongu which crosses the park north of its centre. Seasonal dirt roads also link from Kalomo and Namwala in the south and south-east, and Kasempa in the north. History Kafue National Park was established in the 1950s by Norman Carr, an influential British-Rhodesian conservationist. Establishment may have been possible after the British colonial government moved the traditional owners of the area, the Nkoya people of (King) Mwene Kabulwebulwe, from their traditional hunting grounds into the Mumbwa District to the east in 1924. Dissatisfaction with the pace of development in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the northeast, Malawi to the east, Mozambique to the southeast, Zimbabwe and Botswana to the south, Namibia to the southwest, and Angola to the west. The capital city of Zambia is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of Zambia. The nation's population of around 19.5 million is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the north, the core economic hubs of the country. Originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region was affected by the Bantu expansion of the thirteenth century. Following the arrival of European exploration of Africa, European explorers in the eighteenth century, the British colonised the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nkoya
The Nkoya (also Shinkoya) people are a Bantu people native to Zambia, living mostly in the Western and Southern provinces and the Mankoya area. As of 2006, they were estimated to number 146,000 people. Besides Nkoya proper, Nkoya dialects include Mbowela (Mbwela, Mbwera, Shimbwera), Lushangi, Shasha, Lukolwe, Mashasha. References *SIL Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ... (2009)nka External links Kazanga Cultural Association(youtube.com) J.M. Shimunika, W.M.J. van Binsbergen, ''Likota lya bankoya'', Leiden, African Studies Centre, 1988 {{authority control Ethnic groups in Zambia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lufilian Arc
The Lufilian Arc (or Lufilian Belt) is part of a system of orogenic belts in southern Africa formed during the Pan-African orogeny, a stage in the formation of the Gondwana supercontinent. It extends across eastern Angola, the Katanga Province of the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the northwest of Zambia. The arc is about long. It has global economic importance owing to its rich deposits of copper and cobalt. Evolution The Katanga Supergroup of Neoproterozoic sediments rests on a basement formed in the Paleoproterozoic or Mesoproterozoic eras. The lower basement is made of granites, gneisses and schists formed during the Eburnean age, about 2100–2000 Ma. The upper basement extends under part of the arc in Zambia and is mostly made of schists, quartzites and quartz-muscovite schists. The Kibaran orogeny deformed and metamorphosed the upper basement between 1350 Ma and 1100 Ma. The Katanga supergroup sediments are from to thick. Rifting between the Congo and Ka ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms when these minerals precipitate out of water containing dissolved calcium. This can take place through both biological and nonbiological processes, though biological processes, such as the accumulation of corals and shells in the sea, have likely been more important for the last 540 million years. Limestone often contains fossils which provide scientists with information on ancient environments and on the evolution of life. About 20% to 25% of sedimentary rock is carbonate rock, and most of this is limestone. The remaining carbonate rock is mostly dolomite, a closely related rock, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, . ''Magnesian limestone'' is an obsolete and poorly-defined term used variously for dolomite, for limes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to grey, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink and red due to varying amounts of hematite. Other colors, such as yellow, green, blue and orange, are due to other minerals. The term ''quartzite'' is also sometimes used for very hard but unmetamorphosed sandstones that are composed of quartz grains thoroughly cemented with additional quartz. Such sedimentary rock has come to be described as orthoquartzite to distinguish it from metamorphic quartzite, which is sometimes called metaquartzite to emphasize its metamorphic origins. Quartzite is very resistant to chemical weathering and often forms ridges and resistant hilltops. The nearly pure silica conte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gneiss
Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures and pressures than schist. Gneiss nearly always shows a banded texture characterized by alternating darker and lighter colored bands and without a distinct cleavage. Gneisses are common in the ancient crust of continental shields. Some of the oldest rocks on Earth are gneisses, such as the Acasta Gneiss. Description Orthogneiss from the Czech Republic In traditional English and North American usage, a gneiss is a coarse-grained metamorphic rock showing compositional banding (gneissic banding) but poorly developed schistosity and indistinct cleavage. In other words, it is a metamorphic rock composed of mineral grains easily seen with the unaided eye, which form obvious compositional layers, but which has only a weak tendency to fracture ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schist
Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes or plates. This texture (geology), texture reflects a high content of platy minerals, such as micas, talc, chlorite group, chlorite, or graphite. These are often interleaved with more granular minerals, such as feldspar or quartz. Schist typically forms during regional metamorphism accompanying the process of mountain building (orogeny) and usually reflects a medium Metamorphism#Metamorphic grades, grade of metamorphism. Schist can form from many different kinds of rocks, including sedimentary rocks such as mudstones and igneous rocks such as tuffs. Schist metamorphosed from mudstone is particularly common and is often very rich in mica (a ''mica schist''). Where the type of the original rock (the protolith) is discernible, the schist is us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hook Granite Massif
The Hook granite massif is a large formation in central Zambia formed around 550 million years ago during the Pan-African orogeny. It lies in the inner part of the Lufilian arc. Today, the south-western extension of the massif lies under the Kafue National Park. Formation Field studies and U-Pb (uranium-lead) dating show that the massif is a large composite batholith that has intruded into the upper Katangan (Kundelungu) strata of sediments in the Lufilian arc during or after tectonic activity. Sample U-Pb dates for syntectonic granite in the massif are 559±18 and 566±5 Ma, and for post-tectonic granite 533±3 Ma. These show that the Kundelungu sediments date to before 570 Ma; the deformation of the inner Lufilian arc and voluminous syntectonic granite plutonism took place around 560–570 Ma; and the major tectonic activity had ended by around 530–540 Ma. The Hook massif is bounded to the south by the Mwembeshi dislocation, a Pan-African transcurrent shear zone. Syntectoni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underground. It is common in the continental crust of Earth, where it is found in igneous intrusions. These range in size from dikes only a few centimeters across to batholiths exposed over hundreds of square kilometers. Granite is typical of a larger family of ''granitic rocks'', or ''granitoids'', that are composed mostly of coarse-grained quartz and feldspars in varying proportions. These rocks are classified by the relative percentages of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase (the QAPF classification), with true granite representing granitic rocks rich in quartz and alkali feldspar. Most granitic rocks also contain mica or amphibole minerals, though a few (known as leucogranites) contain almost no dark minerals. Granite is nearly alway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) because they are the most resistant minerals to weathering processes at the Earth's surface. Like uncemented sand, sandstone may be any color due to impurities within the minerals, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been strongly identified with certain regions. Rock formations that are primarily composed of sandstone usually allow the percolation of water and other fluids and are porous enough to store large quantities, making them valuable aquifers and petroleum reservoirs. Quartz-bearing sandstone can be changed into quartzite through metamorphism, usually related to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ngoma, Zambia
Ngoma, Zambia is the only settlement in the south of Kafue National Park. It is a short way south of Itezhi-Tezhi Dam. Ngoma is the home of the head warden for the south half of the park, and for around 200 game wardens and their families employed by ZAWA (Zambian Wildlife Authority). There is a small information centre about the local wildlife, and in the village is Ngoma Basic School. Ngoma lodge shut down many years ago, when poaching killed most of the animals in the area. The numbers of animals are now at least stable, if not increasing, thanks to the efforts of the underpaid game wardens, and the lodge may one day re-open. Ngoma has a limited electricity supply. This electricity is hooked up to some homes, but the main use is to power the water pump. Ngoma has a borehole so the water does not need boiling or purifying. It can be obtained by a manual pump at any time or by taps spaced around the village when the electricity is working. The roads to Ngoma and Itezhi-Tez ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saunders_Quarry-1.jpg "Click for more on -> Sandstone")