Palala River
Encyclopedia
Waterberg
Waterberg can refer to two articles about an area in Namibia:* Waterberg Biosphere* Waterberg National Park...
area of Limpopo Province, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. This river's catchment basin is a sub-watershed of the Limpopo River
Limpopo River
The Limpopo River rises in central southern Africa, and flows generally eastwards to the Indian Ocean. It is around long, with a drainage basin in size. Its mean annual discharge is 170 m³/s at its mouth...
. The river drains much of the Lapalala Wilderness
Lapalala Wilderness
The Lapalala Wilderness is a wilderness area within the Waterberg Biosphere, Limpopo Province, South Africa. This 360 square kilometre nature reserve contains bushveld, grasslands, marsh and riparian habitats. In addition there are well preserved Stone Age rock paintings on bluffs above the...
area and considerable additional lands that are important habitat for native wildlife in a zone with considerable ongoing bushveld
Bushveld
The Bushveld is a sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa that encompasses most of Limpopo Province and a small part of the North West Province of South Africa, the Central and North-East Districts of Botswana and the Matabeleland South and part of th Matabeleland North provinces of...
restoration. The predominantly dry deciduous forest community of the upland portion of the Palala River watershed is home to many large African mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s including Blue Wildebeest
Blue Wildebeest
The Blue Wildebeest , also called the Common Wildebeest, is a large antelope and one of two species of wildebeest. It grows to 115–145 cm shoulder height and attains a body mass of 168–274 kg. They range the open plains, bushveld and dry woodlands of Southern and East Africa, living for...
, Giraffe
Giraffe
The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...
, White Rhino and numerous bovid
Bovid
A bovid is any of almost 140 species of cloven-hoofed ruminant mammal at least the males of which bear characteristic unbranching horns covered in a permanent sheath of keratin....
s.
The Palala River has been shown to exhibit high water quality
Water quality
Water quality is the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. It is a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and or to any human need or purpose. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which...
with very clear flowing waters, especially in the uppermost regions; correspondingly biotic health has been assessed as healthy using the North African catfish as a bio-marker. Interesting prehistoric
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
rock paintings exist on bluffs along the river in the Lapalala Wilderness area.
Palala is derived from Lephalale (Sotho
Northern Sotho language
Northern Sotho , also inaccurately known by the name of a major dialect, Pedi or sePedi, is one of the official languages of South Africa, and is spoken by 4,208,980 people — in the South African provinces of Gauteng,...
), which means "one that inundates". Thomas Baines
Thomas Baines
Thomas Baines was an English artist and explorer of British colonial southern Africa and Australia. Born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, Baines was apprenticed to a coach painter at an early age...
however called it the Rhooebok-river
Impala
An impala is a medium-sized African antelope. The name impala comes from the Zulu language meaning "gazelle"...
.
River biota
There are a variety of faunaFauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
that inhabit the Palala River including fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, Nile crocodile
Nile crocodile
The Nile crocodile or Common crocodile is an African crocodile which is common in Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Gabon, South Africa, Malawi, Sudan, Botswana, and Cameroon...
, African Rock Python and hippopotamus
Hippopotamus
The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
. In a 2004 study of the river's health, specimens of the North African catfish, Clarias
Clarias
Clarias is a genus of catfishes of the family Clariidae, the airbreathing catfishes. The name is derived from the Greek chlaros, which means lively, in reference to the ability of the fish to live for a long time out of water....
gariepinus, were captured within reaches of the Lapalala Wilderness. A healthy population of male and female fish was found in the river's upper reaches within the Lapalala Wilderness, manifesting normal body mass averaging approximately 1.1 kilograms; moreover, this fish population from the higher reaches of the Palala River was found to be free of parasites and also free of liver
Liver
The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
damage. The health of the upper reaches was such that the upper Lapala was used in subsequent studies as the healthy control group to compare to other South African rivers which were more polluted from discharge of untreated sewage
Sewage
Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...
and agricultural wastes within their watersheds.
Geology and hydrology
The underlying rock formation of the Palala River basin derives from the Kaapvaal cratonKaapvaal craton
The Kaapvaal craton , along with the Pilbara craton of Western Australia, are the only remaining areas of pristine 3.6-2.5 Ga crust on Earth...
, formed as a precursor island roughly 2.7 billion years ago. This crustal formation became the base of the Waterberg, which was further transformed by upward extrusion of igneous rocks. These extruded rocks, containing mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
s such as vanadium
Vanadium
Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery gray, ductile and malleable transition metal. The formation of an oxide layer stabilizes the metal against oxidation. The element is found only in chemically combined form in nature...
and platinum
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...
, are called the Bushveld igneous complex
Bushveld igneous complex
The Bushveld Igneous Complex is a large layered igneous intrusion within the Earth's crust which has been tilted and eroded and now outcrops around what appears to be the edge of a great geological basin, the Transvaal Basin. Located in South Africa, the BIC contains some of the richest ore...
, leading to the colourful bluff faces along much of the Palala River. The original extent of this rock upthrust involved about 250,000 square kilometers, and is sometimes called the Waterberg Supergroup
Geologic unit
A geological unit is a volume of rock or ice of identifiable origin and age range that is defined by the distinctive and dominant, easily mapped and recognizable petrographic, lithologic or paleontologic features that characterize it....
.
Sedimentary deposition from the Palala, Mokolo
Mokolo
Mokolo is the departmental capital and largest city of the Mayo-Tsanaga department, in the Far North Province of Cameroon. It is the fourth largest city in the Far North Province, after Maroua, Yagoua, and Kousséri...
River and other rivers cutting through Waterberg continued through the era of 2.5 billion to 250 million years ago. Around 250 million years ago the supercontinent Gondwana
Gondwana
In paleogeography, Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, was the southernmost of two supercontinents that later became parts of the Pangaea supercontinent. It existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago . Gondwana is believed to have sutured between ca. 570 and 510 Mya,...
split into its modern day continents. The Palala River catchment basin today contains swamps, bushveld, mesa
Mesa
A mesa or table mountain is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape....
s, and some kopje outcrops.
Prehistoric rock paintings
Cliff
In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...
s above the Palala River are some locations of significant prehistoric
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
Bushman
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
rock paintings dating to approximately 8000 BC. These paintings are produced on vertical rock faces, with the best specimens being protected by large rock overhangs. The works depict hunting scenes and various native game, especially antelope
Antelope
Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...
s. The media used are paint
Paint
Paint is any liquid, liquefiable, or mastic composition which after application to a substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film. One may also consider the digital mimicry thereof...
s produced with dye
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
s concocted from native plant
Native plant
Native plant is a term to describe plants endemic or naturalized to a given area in geologic time.This includes plants that have developed, occur naturally, or existed for many years in an area...
s and soil
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
minerals; the paints themselves have proved to be remarkably resistant to millennia of weathering.
These sites are very difficult to access, since there are no paved roads for access; in fact, even after a four-wheeled drive over deeply mudded and rutted bushveld roads, there is a considerable hike over swamp
Swamp
A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...
y terrain. Furthermore, these sites are appropriately not well marked or defined on park maps. After reaching the general area of the paintings, one must descend approximately halfway down the vertical bluffs along the Palala; assistance with a knowledgeable native guide is essential
Waterberg Massif
Much of the Palala River course is through the Waterberg BiosphereWaterberg Biosphere
The Waterberg Biosphere is a massif of approximately 15,000 square kilometers in north Limpopo Province, South Africa. Waterberg is the first region in the northern part of South Africa to be named as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. The extensive rock formation was shaped by hundreds of millions of...
, a massif
Massif
In geology, a massif is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole...
of approximately 15,000 square kilometers. Waterberg is the first region in the northern part of South Africa to be named as a Biosphere Reserve
Biosphere reserve
The Man and the Biosphere Programme of UNESCO was established in 1971 to promote interdisciplinary approaches to management, research and education in ecosystem conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.-Development:...
by UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
. The extensive rock formation was shaped by hundreds of millions of years of riverine erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
to yield diverse bluff and butte
Butte
A butte is a conspicuous isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; it is smaller than mesas, plateaus, and table landform tables. In some regions, such as the north central and northwestern United States, the word is used for any hill...
landform
Landform
A landform or physical feature in the earth sciences and geology sub-fields, comprises a geomorphological unit, and is largely defined by its surface form and location in the landscape, as part of the terrain, and as such, is typically an element of topography...
. The ecosystem can be characterised as a dry deciduous forest or Bushveld
Bushveld
The Bushveld is a sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa that encompasses most of Limpopo Province and a small part of the North West Province of South Africa, the Central and North-East Districts of Botswana and the Matabeleland South and part of th Matabeleland North provinces of...
. Within the Waterberg there are archaeological finds dating to the Stone Age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
, and nearby are early evolutionary finds related to the origin of human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
s.