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This volume contains 22 chapters introducing a wide range of semi-arid and geologic landscapes. Botswana, a thinly populated nation, the size of France, is a Southern African keystone country at the heart of the Kalahari, sharing some of the major sub-continental drainage basins such as the Limpopo, Zambezi, Orange, and Okavango with its neighbouring countries. The extensive Kalahari Sand surface has been sculptured by numerous past processes which have produced subtle but regional landforms consisting of extensive dunes and shorelines. Incipient rifting has created the dynamic Okavango and Makgadikgadi fan-basin systems which produce iconic wetlands with a world heritage status. Geological outcrops in particular to the east expose highly denuded basement lithologies that produce numerous inselbergs that are home to a rich archaeological heritage. The book also examines the geomorphology of mineral and water resources that sustain the economy and population and also features dedicated chapters that cover diamondiferous kimberlites, caves, pans, dams, duricrusts and wildlife.
Foreword - Otlogetswe Totolo
Dedication to Marty McFarlane
Preface by Series Editor - Piotr Migon
Preface by Editor - Frank Eckardt
Author Biographies
Chapter 1. Introduction to the Landscape and Landforms of Botswana / Julius Atlhopheng and Read B. M. Mapeo
Chapter 2. The Angolan catchments of northern Botswana's major rivers: the Cubango, Cuito, Cuando and Zambezi rivers / John Mendelsohn
Chapter 3. The Okavango Delta Peatlands / William Ellery and Karen Ellery
Chapter 4. Landscape evolution of the Lake Ngami and Mababe Depressions within the Okavango Rift Zone, north-central Botswana / Susan Ringrose
Chapter 5. The Makgadikgadi Basin / Sallie L. Burrough
Chapter 6. Landscapes and landforms of the Chobe Enclave, Northern Botswana / Thuto Mokatse, Nathalie Diaz, Elisha Shemang, John Van Thuyne, Pascal Vittoz, Torsten Vennemann and Eric P. Verrecchia
Chapter 7. The Chobe-Zambezi channel-floodplain system: anatomy of a wetland in a dryland / S. Tooth, M. Vandewalle, Douglas Goodin, Kathleen A. Alexander
Chapter 8. Dunes of the southern Kalahari / David S.G. Thomas and Giles F.S. Wiggs
Chapter 9. Dunes of the northern Kalahari / David S.G. Thomas
Chapter 10. Kalahari Pans: Quaternary Evolution and Processes of Ephemeral Lakes / Irka Schuller, Lukas Belz, Heinz Wilkes and Achim Wehrmann
Chapter 11. Dry valleys (mekgacha) / David J. Nash
Chapter 12. Landscape evolution of the Stampriet Transboundary Basin and relation to the groundwater system / Abi Stone
Chapter 13. Calcretes, silcretes and intergrade duricrusts / David J. Nash
Chapter 14. Geodiversity of Caves and Rockshelters in Botswana / Mark Stephens, Mike de Wit and Maipelo S. Isaacs
Chapter 15. Kimberlites, kimberlite exploration, and the geomorphic evolution of Botswana / Andy Moore and Mike Roberts
Chapter 16. Geomorphology and landscapes of the Limpopo River system / Jasper Knight
Chapter 17. Dams in Botswana: Drying times ahead / Jeremy S. Perkins and Bhagabat P. Parida
Chapter 18. Gorges of eastern Botswana / Mark Stephens
Chapter 19. Soil Development in the Eastern Hardveld / Peter N. Eze
Chapter 20. The Tsodilo Hills: a multifaceted World Heritage Site / Marek Wendorff
Chapter 21. Geoconservation in Botswana / Maipelo S. Isaacs and Mark Stephens
Chapter 22. Zoogeomorphology of Botswana / Jeremy S. Perkins
Obituary Marty McFarlane
Frank Eckardt is a geomorphologist who has been working at the University of Cape Town (UCT) since 2005. Originally from Germany, raised in various European countries and educated in the UK, Eckardt obtained a BSc in Geography at Kings College London, an MSc in applied remote sensing from Silsoe (Cranfield) and a DPhil from the School of Geography in Oxford.
After working as an undergraduate on glacial forelands in Norway and coastal marine habitats in Belize during his masters, he shifted to southern African drylands while conducting his PhD fieldwork in Namibia. Prior to coming to UCT, Frank Eckardt was teaching physical geography and remote sensing at the University of Botswana and acted as a remote sensing consultant on a variety of projects. He currently teaches global physical geography to first-years and focuses on earth observation as well as contemporary polar, tropical and arid land surface dynamics in the second year. In their final year, students are exposed to Southern Africa's Geomorphology, which among other things includes topics such as landscape evolution, weathering, soils, duricrusts, as well as contemporary mineral dust production. Frank Eckardt is currently president of the International Society for Aeolian Research (ISAR) and Head of Department at the Environmental and Geographical Sciences at UCT.
