Cape Fold Belt

The Cape Fold Belt is a fold and thrust belt of late Paleozoic age, which affected the sequence of sedimentary rock layers of the Cape Supergroup in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It was originally continuous with the Ventana Mountains near Bahía Blanca in Argentina and other fold and thrust belts in Antarctica and eastern Australia. The rocks involved are generally sandstones and shales, with the shales (Bokkeveld group) persisting in the valley floors and the erosion resistant sandstones forming the parallel ranges, the Cape Fold Mountains, which reach a maximum height of 2325 m at Seweweekspoortpiek (‘Seven Weeks Defile Peak’ in Afrikaans).

The Cape Fold Mountains form a series of parallel ranges that run along the south-western and southern coastlines of South Africa for 1000 km from the Cederberg 300 km to the north of the Cape Peninsula, and then along the south coast as far as Port Elizabeth, 700 km to the east (see the maps on the right and left).

Geological origin