Letters to the Editor Geovandalism

摘要

The following two articles and accompanying photos were sent to the editor, GB, to protest in the strongest terms the wanton defacement of our national geological heritage. The two letters, by Prof. Anhaeusser and Prof. Cairncross, were sent to the offices of the Mpumalanga Parks Board, to that of the GSSA President, and to the NRF, in the latter case. During the last week of June 2004, we took two groups of undergraduate students to examine the Onverwacht Group rocks exposed along the well-known Komati River gorge. This particular section of the Barberton Supergroup has been known for decades and is regarded as one of the classic exposures in Archaean geology: " The upper formations of the Onverwacht Group are especially well exposed in the classic section where the Komati River has eroded a gorge nearly 500 meters deep across rocks on the east limb of the Onverwacht anticline. This section includes some of the finest examples of a variety of important greenstone belt lithologies The excellent exposures here allow for a careful examination of the relationships of cherts to associated and altered volcanic rocks."