Karoo

Common card · No. 223339

The Karoo ( kə-ROO-ə; likely from Khoikhoi (also known as Khoekhoegowab/Namagowab) word Karo (Korana for 'hard, dry, desert')) is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is also not precisely defined. The Karoo is partly defined by its topography, geology and climate, and above all, its low rainfall, arid air, cloudless skies, and extremes of heat and cold. The Karoo is also known for the exposure of fossiliferous rocks of the Karoo Supergroup, which record in detail ecological changes in the region when it formed part of southern Pangaea from the Middle Permian to the Early Jurassic, around 270 to 200 million years ago. The Karoo formed an almost impenetrable barrier to the interior from Cape Town, and early adventurers, explorers, hunters, and travelers on the way to the Highveld unanimously denounced it as a frightening place of great heat, great frosts, great floods, and great droughts. Today, it is still...

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