Madikwe Geology & Landforms

The bones of the reserve: the Dwarsberg, the Tshwene-Tshwene hills, the Tweedepoort escarpment and the rocks beneath them.

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	Common name	Notes
Landforms
	Abjaterskop	The landmark hill visible on the approach from the west, outside the reserve boundary.
	Dwarsberg	The range forming the southern boundary, running roughly east to west, with Branwacht peak at 1 228 m. Its cliffs hold Verreaux's eagle, black stork and mocking cliff chat.
	Inselbergs	Isolated koppies standing above the plains — erosional remnants of harder rock, and reliable places to look for klipspringer, dassie and flat lizards.
	Lotteringskop	A prominent hill near the Molatedi Gate in the east.
	Marico River	The Madikwe, which gives the reserve its name. A perennial river along the eastern boundary supporting riverine forest, hippo, crocodile and African finfoot.
	Seasonal pans & wetlands	Fill after summer rain and drive the amphibian and waterbird calendar; most are dry by mid-winter.
	Tshwene-Tshwene Hills	The jumbled hills at the centre of the reserve, rising to 1 328 m — the highest point in Madikwe. Tshwene is the Setswana word for baboon.
	Tweedepoort Escarpment	Where the undulating plateau breaks and drops away to the lower savanna plains, creating the reserve's most dramatic viewpoints.
Bedrock & rock types
	Archaean granite-gneiss basement	The ancient Kaapvaal Craton floor, older than three billion years, on which everything else was laid down.
	Bushveld Igneous Complex	The western limb of the world's largest layered igneous intrusion, emplaced roughly 2 060 million years ago, underlies much of the region.
	Chuniespoort Group dolomite	Dolomitic bedrock, karst-weathered and free-draining. It supports a distinctive vegetation and gives its name to the Madikwe Dolomite Bushveld vegetation type.
	Diabase & dolerite dykes	Later intrusions cutting the older rocks; they often weather into linear depressions or low walls.
	Lebowa Granite Suite	The coarse pink Nebo granite that forms the felsic upper part of the Bushveld Complex.
	Rashoop Granophyre Suite	Fine-grained granophyre associated with the roof of the Bushveld Complex.
	Rooiberg Group felsite	Resistant volcanic felsite and rhyolite, the rock that holds up the Dwarsberg ridge line.
	Rustenburg Layered Suite	The mafic layered rocks of the Bushveld Complex — norite, gabbro and pyroxenite. They weather to the dark, clay-rich turf soils that carry the turf thornveld.
	Transvaal Supergroup quartzite	Hard, resistant quartzite forming ridges and the shallow, stony soils on top of them.
Soils & surface deposits
	Alluvium	River-borne sands and silts along the Marico, supporting the tallest riverine trees in the reserve.
	Calcrete	Surface limestone hardpan formed by evaporating groundwater; shallow and free-draining, and the substrate that trumpet thorn favours.
	Kalahari Group sands	Deep wind-blown red sands blanketing the north-west of the reserve — the Kalahari bushveld, and the reason gemsbok and camel thorn occur here.
	Skeletal mountain soils	Thin, stony soils on the Dwarsberg and Tshwene-Tshwene slopes, carrying the mountain bushveld.
	Turf (vertic clay) soils	Black, cracking clays weathered from mafic Bushveld rocks. They carry the turf thornveld, dominated by thorn trees and sweet grazing grasses.