South African geologists

For a geologist, South Africa is a classic country of the ancient moraine. In 1905 there took place the meeting the British Association for the Advancement of Science, to which he was invited a German researcher glaciations A. Penck in Berlin. No one so well known young glaciers of the Alps, as he is, a few years later came out he wrote together with E. Bruckner underlying three-volume monograph "The Alps in the Ice Age." A. Penck, took part in the big Tours, held during the meeting, and was struck by the extraordinary resemblance permokarbonovyh glacial deposits with very young glacial sediments of the Alps. In September 1906 op reported it in Stuttgart at a meeting of the Society of German naturalists and physicians, and proposed to call these ancient glacial deposits stsentirovappye tillitami (for Scottish designation boulder clay, that is, young moraine formations "Till"). Since that time the name "tillity" universally used in the sense which it has invested A. Penck. Study permokarbonovogo glaciation in South Africa (and other continents of the Southern Hemisphere) in the future successfully continued. Were drawn accurate maps of the spread of glaciers and the direction of their movement. Recently in South - West Africa, also found the ancient glacial trough - curves (U - shaped) valley. All of these ice formations are the main argument in the hypothesis of continental drift. On this long said the very creator of the hypothesis, to date, causing heated debates, and A. Wegener (born in 1880 in Berlin, died the death of a researcher in 1930 in the ice of Greenland). Frequently cited in the literature Gond - vanadium sverhkontinent, consisting of South America, South Africa, Indian subcontinent, Australia and Antarctica, was characterized by, among other things, these permokarbonovymi glaciations. South Pole at that time was, obviously, in the middle of Gondwana, and its ice is a giant in coal Sverhkoptpnent Gopdvana time representations Wegener. In his view, the current fragmented continents are kept together and were covered by giant ice the polar cap (a common glaciers shown on the latest data). Other researchers have proposed a different picture of the structure of Gondwana. Polar Ice Sheet (the word "Gondwana" put the Austrian geologist Eduard Suess in 1883, though for reasons having nothing to do with the glaciation, it means "Land of the Gonds, Gonds, Indian tribe). Later Gondwana continent broke up into the modern continents of the southern hemisphere, on presentation of Wegener. due to the fact that they are gradually moving (drifting) in different directions. Given such clear evidence of the existence in South Africa (and other continents of the Southern Hemisphere) of continental glaciers, it is not surprising that one of the most passionate defenders of Wegener's ideas became a major South African geologist Alexander Du Toyt. Thus, under the hot sun of Africa in Noytgedahte we face many literally incredible world problems, the key to the solution of which is, as rightly pointed Du Toyt this continent. Unfortunately, the environment Noytgedahta, this magnificent monument to nature adjusts to the sad mood: destruction of farms, and piles of debris, a few ugly fences made of wire, designed to protect the unique area with glacial hatching modern "petroglyphs" tourists. One can only hope that a rich country with such wonderful conservation areas like the Kruger park, pay a little more attention to these eloquent witnesses of the past.