The Giant's Playground, so called because of the way in
which the massive dolerite boulders have apparently been placed one
on top of another by some gigantic force, creating strange rock formations and a
series of mazes. You'll have to keep your bearings when exploring this maze
site. You can easily find yourself a few hundred meters from where you
thought you should be. The rock formations make for a couple of hours of
interesting hiking, plus you'll get some good photographs. Take some water
and wear sensible clothing.
Giant's Playground - The Formation:
About 180 million years ago
during the
Early Jurassic Epoch the
tectonic plate movements within
the great single land mass known a
Pangaea were
beginning to cause the super
continent to separate and divide into the continents of
Laurasia to
the North and Gondwana to the South. The earth's surface, in
many places, was subjected to enormous upheavals. In the area around Keetmanshoop molten magma pushed its way through long cracks in the
overlaying rock. Over tens of millions of years, the deep layers
of sedimentary rocks through which the dolerite had intruded were
eroded away exposing the harder rock that can, in many places, be
seen as the dark backbone like formation running along the top of a
row of hills. These are called dolerite dykes and are usually
between 3 - 10 meters in width and can run from a few hundred metres
to more than 20 km in length.
The dolerite dykes at the Giant's Playground and
surrounding area while at sub surface levels were subjected to 'spheroidal
weathering', caused by water flowing through the cracks and fissures
in the dykes. In later times when the rocks had been exposed they
further experienced millions of years of ongoing temperature
weathering that also caused the rocks to crack. Wind blown sand
erosion also helped to polish the surface of the rocks.
