600 Mya
Malmesbury Group

The generally rather poorly exposed but extensive outcrops of Malmesbury rocks of the western and southern Cape were deposited and changed by heat and pressure (metamorphosed) during the Saldanhian Orogeny (Figure 1).

These rocks were deposited as a sequence of fine-grained marine mud and sand  and minor volcanic lava and tuff, in the Adamstor Ocean basin (Figure 2). 

This ocean basin formed and continental collision took place during a process known as ‘Plate Tectonics’, forming an extensive mountain belt during this orogenic (mountain building)  event (Pan-African Orogeny) ending approximately 550 million years ago. The roots of this orogeny have been exposed following millions of years of subsequent uplift and erosion, down to a “peneplain” upon which the Table Mountain Group sedimentary rocks  were deposited commencing about 500 million years ago (Figure 3).