Lebombo Mountains
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox mountain The Lebombo Mountains, also called Lubombo Mountains, Rivombo Mountains (Template:Langx), are an Template:Convert, narrow range of mountains in Southern Africa. They stretch from Hluhluwe in KwaZulu-Natal in the south to Punda Maria in the Limpopo Province in South Africa in the north. Parts of the mountain range are also found in Mozambique and Eswatini.
DescriptionEdit
Template:More citations needed Geologically, the range is considered a monocline; part of a rifted volcanic margin.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The Lebombo monocline was aligned with the Explora Escarpment off-shore Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, before the break-up of Gondwana.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The Lebombo monocline strikes N-S and dips to the east. It is composed of a sequence of Jurassic age volcanic rock, both basaltic lavas and rhyolitic flows and tuffs. The sequence rests on essentially horizontal Karoo Supergroup sedimentary rocks of the Kalahari Craton to the west and is overlain by Cretaceous to recent sediments to the east. The alternating resistant rhyolite and easily eroded basalts produce a series of parallel sharp cuesta ridges separated by savanna plains.<ref>Manninen, Tuomo, et al., The Karoo Volcanic Rocks and Related Intrusions in Southern and Central Mozambique, Geological Survey of Finland, 2008, Special Paper 48, pp. 211–250</ref>
The range is relatively low with heights between Template:Convert and less than Template:Convert. The highest peak is the Template:Convert Mount Mananga. The Template:Convert Longwe is the highest point in the Lebombo Range north of the Letaba River.<ref>Echo System</ref>
The mountains dominate Lubombo District in Eswatini. Towns in the area include Siteki in the centre, Lubhuku in the west and Mayaluka and Big Bend in the south with the Lusutfu River running past the southern region of the mountain range. At the north lie the towns of Simunye, Tambankulu and Namaacha, and the Mlawula Nature Reserve as well as the Mbuluzi River.
A number of rivers, including the Pongola, Mkuze, and Lusutfu, cross the mountains from west to east. The Lebombo Mountains are home to the Thonga people who are part of the Tsonga ethnic group, it straddles from North KwaZulu-Natal (Amathongaland) to Kruger National Park in Limpopo Province with the same name origin of the Lebombo/Rivombo clan.
Protected areasEdit
Kruger National Park and Phongolo Nature Reserve protect part of the range.
See alsoEdit
- Explora Escarpment – an escarpment off the coast of Antarctica which was aligned with the mountains before the breakup of Gondwana
- Lebombo bone
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
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