The Sneeuberge or Sneeuberg mountain range was historically known as “Sneeuwbergen”, meaning ‘snow mountains’ in

Cape Dutch Cape Dutch, also commonly known as Cape Afrikaners, were a historic socioeconomic class of Afrikaners who lived in the Western Cape during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The terms have been evoked to describe an affluent, educated sect ...

, and refers to a significant portion of Southern Africa's Great Escarpment in the Cradock, Murraysburg, Richmond,

Graaff-Reinet Graaff-Reinet (; Xhosa: eRhafu) is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the oldest town in the province and the fourth oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, Paarl and Swellendam. The to ...

, Nieu-Bethesda and Middelburg districts of the Great Karoo, most of which are in the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

Province.Clark, VR, Barker NP and Mucina, L. 2009. The Sneeuberg: A new centre of floristic endemism on the Great Escarpment, South Africa. South African Journal of Botany. pp 196 – 238. They are geologically part of the Karoo System and fall within the

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

semi-arid climatic region. As their name suggests, the mountains have frigid winters, with occasional snowfalls during strong

cold front A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface Trough (meteorology), trough of Low-pressure area, low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropica ...

s. Summers are hot with some late afternoon

thunderstorms A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are som ...

. The highest peak, called Kompasberg (2502m) (

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

for Compass Mountain), is north of the small village of Nieu-Bethesda and dominates all surrounding areas with its prominent steep-sided height.

Geology

file:History of Africa south of the Zambesi - from the settlement of the Portuguese at Sofala in September 1505 to the conquest of the Cape Colony by the British in September 1795 (1916) (14761334056).jpg, Map of the Sneeuberge in the District of

, reflecting the political boundaries of 1795 The Sneeuberg's underlying rock consists mostly of dolerite Sill (geology), sill, Dike (geology), dyke, Structural basin, basin, laccolith and rock sheets that have intruded into the older Beaufort Group

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

of the Karoo Supergroup.

Metamorphic rock Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock ( protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, caus ...

made up of

hornfels Hornfels is the group name for a set of Metamorphism#Contact .28thermal.29, contact metamorphic rocks that have been baked and hardened by the heat of Intrusive rock, intrusive igneous masses and have been rendered massive, hard, splintery, and in ...

and

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that 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 tecton ...

are found along the contact zones between the sedimentary strata and the dolerite intrusions. Sneeuberg's four major peaks all stand as pyramids above the 2100 m plateau. The highest peaks are found in the Great Escarpment west of the Eastern Cape

Drakensberg The Drakensberg (Zulu language, Zulu: uKhahlamba, Sotho language, Sotho: Maloti, Afrikaans: Drakensberge) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, Southern Africa, Great Escarpment, which encloses the central South Africa#Geography, Sout ...

. The 2504 m high Compassberg is one of the highest free-standing peaks outside of the Drakensberg Massif and Lesotho Highlands in Southern Africa. The four peaks are all generally capped with angular boulders believed to have been formed by mechanical weathering from frost action. The range forms a mountain arc that stretches about 200 km in length. From west to east, it is made up of the Onder-Sneeuberg, Kamdebooberge, Meelberg, Koudeveldberge, Toorberg, Winterhoekberge, Compassberg, Lootsberg, Renosterberg, AgterRenosterberg, Wapadsberg, Nardousberg, Tandjiesberg, Coetzeesberg, Bankberg, Aasvoëlkrans, Groot Bruintjieshoogde and Boschberg. The mountain range is separated from the Nuweveldberge (the western Great Escarpment) by Nelspoort Interval formed by the Gouritz–Kariega drainage basin, and by the

Great Fish River The Great Fish River (called ''great'' to distinguish it from the Namibian Fish River) () is a river running through the South African province of the Eastern Cape. The coastal area between Port Elizabeth and the Fish River mouth is known as ...

valley from the Great Winterberg–Amatola mountains (the eastern Great Escarpment).

Vegetation

The area is a meeting place for several

biome A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Tansley added the ...

s because of the major climatic, topographic and geological changes. These are namely the

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

Nama Karoo Nama Karoo is a xeric shrubland ecoregion located on the central plateau of South Africa and Namibia. It occupies most of the interior of the western half of South Africa and extends into the southern interior of Namibia. Climate The climate o ...

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

, Albany thickets,

azonal In geography, azonal is an adjective that refers to processes or things that are not restricted to any climate zone. It can be used to describe soils, landforms, geomorphic processes or vegetation. Volcanism and mountain-related processes are exam ...

and

fynbos Fynbos (; , ) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate. The fynbos ...

biome. In 2008, Sneeuberge was home to 1195 flora species. 107 (9%) were alien species, 33 (2.8%) were endemic and 13 (1.1%) were near-endemic. Five species previously reported as

Alpine Centre pervasive plants are now known to occur in the Sneeuberg. Situated close to the

Cape Floristic Region The Cape Floral Region is a floristic region located near the southern tip of South Africa. It is the only floristic region of the Cape Floristic Kingdom, and includes only one floristic province, known as the Cape Floristic Province. The Cap ...

, a centre of endemism, Sneeuberge is a subcentre for

endemism Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

, featuring several pervasive plant species. The mountain's primary land-use was previously largely

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

because of its richness in grass species. The

s situated in higher

altitude Altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum (geodesy), datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context (e.g., aviation, geometr ...

s is used for

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

and the shrublands in lower altitudes are used for

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

and

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

s.Nordenstam, B, Clark, VR, Devos, N and Barker, NP. 2009. Two new species of Euryops (Asteraceae: Senecioneae) from the Sneeuberg, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. South African Journal of Botany. pp 145 – 152. Concentrated grazing and watering of livestock on local farms has resulted in the deterioration of the area's vegetation. What was once extensive

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

in lower altitudes has been eroded out and no longer functions as

farming Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

References

External links

Geography and geology of the surroundings of Nieu-BethesdaCamdeboo National Park DescriptionCompassberg
Panoramio
Gwema - Garden Route, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Marketing AssociationSupersport.com
*http://www.sabinet.co.za/abstracts/nfi_annalstm/nfi_annalstm_v44_a3.html {{Coord, 31.75, S, 24.6, E, display=title Karoo Mountain ranges of South Africa Mountain ranges of the Eastern Cape