Rock and Sky Geomorphology Course

Do you know that you live in a geomorphological and geological hotspot?  It was Professor Lester King, recognised as one of the most influential geomorphologists of the 20^th Century,  who said that the African continent is: "superlatively rich in certain types of landform,’ and ‘it yielded to the early masters of geomorphology, W.M. Davis, and S. Passarge, information and instances of primary value. From South Africa, inselbergs were first described; its interior plateau early excited wonder as an example of planation by the elements; its dongas were among the first such features recorded; and all have remained wonders ever since…....it has revealed an astonishing erosional history without known parallel in any other continent.”

Don't make the mistake

And the wonderful thing is that you get to teach in this wonderful environment, with a slew of amazing and world class examples to draw on whilst you do so.  Don’t make the mistake of the teachers who taught us our school geography, by firstly not capitalising on what lies right on your doorstep, and secondly by not inviting professional earth scientists to assist you in your teaching endeavours.  

Coax them down from their ivory towers

For example, we learned about the landforms of glaciation year in year out when it was still part of the school curriculum.  It was only when I signed up for a degree in geology that I found out that there were 290-million-year-old glacial deposits a mere 4.1 km from our school gate.  I also found out that one of the most influential geomorphologists of the 20^th Century, Lester King, whom we have already met, was the Emeritus Professor of geology at the University of Natal, Durban .  He may have been coaxed down from his ivory tower to tell us about pediplanation if someone had thought to ask him. Missed opportunities everywhere, but there is now no reason for these kinds of things to happen again.

To reiterate King’s words, the African continent is superlatively rich in certain types of landforms, and where better a place to study landforms than on your own doorstep? Anyone who has ever looked out across the deeply incised and aptly-named Valley of 1000 Hills will, if they have any powers of observation, be struck by the accordant heights of the plateaux on the opposite rim of the valley - the remnants of an ancient erosion surface. King must have looked across that deep gouge in the Earth’s crust and wondered what was going on. The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful and the valley is a treasure trove of wonders from a geological and geomorphological point of view.

Further inland lie the towering buttresses of the Drakensberg which mark the edge of the Great Escarpment that separates the elevated hinterland of Southern Africa from the coastal plains that girdle the subcontinent. Uplift, erosion, deeply incised gorges, bornhardts, inselbergs, Jurassic-age erosion surfaces, and the likes of the Tugela and Victoria Falls. The Tugela Falls by the way is the second highest waterfall on Earth. The Victoria Falls needs no introduction.

We live in a geomorphological wonderland

Fortunately for us all, we live in this geomorphological wonderland.  Rock and Sky has access to many of these features that King and subsequent researchers have studied. If you are in South Africa, you are certainly blessed from a geomorphological point of view. But if not, that is no problem either for world class examples lie scattered across the African landscape and are as applicable in Europe, Australia, or the Americas. Rock and Sky’s mission is to take you on a grand journey through these amazing landscapes.  We are here to open your eyes to this treasure trove, and at the same time to make geography exciting, compelling and full of adventure.

Which are now reduced to rubble, nay a detritus, of apparently dull terms

It makes my blood boil when I look at the badly drawn, cursory diagrams that are presented in some of the text books to illustrate the formation of some of the most amazing landscapes on Earth. And somehow the message isn’t coming through that we live in an amazing place.  The towering buttresses of the Great Escarpment as defined by the Drakensberg have no equal.  Neither does the immense, spiky pinnacles of granite that pierce the blue Mozambican skies – which are now reduced to a rubble, nay a detritus - of apparently dull terms like bornhardt and inselberg with some dismal photograph to illustrate the sad erosion of any faint residue of love that a young heart might have had for this wonderful subject.

Let us speak of sunlit uplands

But let us speak of sunlit uplands and remind ourselves that we live in an amazing place, with its own geomorphological and geological history, and it is up to us as geography teachers to bring these wonderful things to the attention of your class.

Be remembered as the teacher who brought the world into the classroom

Don’t be remembered as the geography teacher who couldn’t be bothered to phone the local professor, or couldn’t be bothered to take the kids on a field trip, or who didn’t take the kids out onto the sports field to see the scudding clouds which heralded the approach of a frontal system. Rather be remembered as the teacher who brought the world into the classroom, who made the special effort, who found wonderful people to come, to talk, to show, and more importantly to enthuse the kids.  And if we do our job properly Rock and Sky can fulfill the role of wonderful people. 

Don't miss out on this Rock and Sky adventure

And on that note, leave us your email address so that we can keep you informed on when we launch our Rocks and Weathering course and our Landscape Evolution course.  We are pushing to have these done by early 2022.

So looking forward to adventuring with you.