Wednesday Rocks: #5

I've been in the lab so today's Wednesday Rocks is a teaser. The first photo is of the of the Brandberg, Namibia's highest mountain. The second photo is one of the perks of pottering around looking at rocks in Namibia, Desert Elephants. 

Brandberg granite.

Desert Elephants, Ugab River.

Wednesday Rocks: #4

The petrified forest in Namibia's Erongo Region is the result of glacial outwash at the end of a Carboniferous-Permian, Gondwana wide glaciation. The trees are Dadoxylon Arber, an extinct conifer and reach lengths of about 45m (Wikipedia). They are preserved in a palaeo-river channel and recent erosion has uncovered many of the fossilised conifers (Wikipedia). This is evident in the multitude of handwritten 'Petrified Forest' signs along the road from Twyfelfontein to Khorixas. The official park employs people from the area as guides who explain a bit about the geology and botany as you wonder through the silicified trees. The photos below are from the official forest park.

 

Petrified Forest - Wikipedia  

All Photos were taken by Sameer Morar.

This fragment is about 15cm across

Michael, our guide, and I for scale. I'm 1.69m

The knot Michael was pointing at with his stick