A coastal outcrop of Peninsula Granite, Clifton Beach and the Twelve Apostles, Cape Town, South Africa
Some 630 million years ago, a huge mass or batholith of granite intruded the Malmesbury Group of very ancient rocks underlying the Cape Peninsula. The granite, exposed at the surface by prolonged erosion, became the basement upon which the younger sedimentary rocks of the Table Mountain Group were deposited some 450 million years ago. Cooling very slowly from a molten state, deep underground, the granite is coarse-grained, with 2-5 cm long white feldspar crystals, and smaller crystals of glassy brown quartz and black mica flakes.
Size: 5743px × 3846px
Location: Clifton Beach, Cape Town, Western Cape, Republic of South Africa
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: apostles, beach, blue, breaking, cape, cliff, clifton, coarse-grained, crystals, feldspar, geography, geology, hard, landscape, large, mountains, multiple, ocean, outcrop, peak, rock, scenery, tourism, town, twelve, view, waves, western, white
