Kavish Daya

230772

1a) Land subsidence, sinkholes

b) The main reasons for this occurrence is that in West Rand, this municipality has been built over
the Transvaal supergroup, which this land predominately consists of dolomitic land. As a result, this
is known for the occurrences of sinkholes. The main reason for the formation of sinkholes is that
dolomite contains several discontinuities these discontinuities such as fractures and faults and joints
in the rocks triggers the formation of the sinkholes. While West Rand is in a mining area with large
amounts of water, the sinkhole formation is accelerated by the groundwater level seepign or
dewatering. As a result, the ground water levels will be drawn down. Next trigger is the ingress of
water, triggers the formation of smaller sinkholes. Lastly due to mining taking place in West Rand,
there is large open spaces underground that are not always structurally supported which can trigger
the formation of a sinkhole coupled with the rapid occurrence of subsidence will give way for
sinkholes.

For Tshwane once again due to this municipality built over dolomitic land, rainfall occurs which flows
over these rocks which increases the size of discontinuities and dissolving the rock due to the
carbonate formation making the rocks softer and subsidence will then occur. The next trigger,
dissolving the rocks decreases the strength and thickness causing large empty holes in the rocks
triggering the sinkhole formation. Lastly the ingress of water and lowering of the water table due to
groundwater not being absorbed as the ground is now insoluble will cause the formation of the
sinkholes.

c) The size distribution of each municipality is different/ variable because in West Rand it is covered
mostly by new deposits which means these rocks are not intact and the thickness are much thinner
as it exposed to more weathering as opposed to the other municipalities, as a result of this, the size
of the sinkholes are much larger and has larger depths. While Tshwane is the middle municipality as
not much ingress and lowering of the ground water table occurs over, as a result the depth and size
of these sinkholes are not as larger, also the deposits are older then West Rand as a result less
occurrences, with Ekurhuleni having the least occurrences and smallest sizes of the sinkholes is that
the ground it is laid upon is stronger then the rest, despite it known for its shallow dolomitic
bedrock, however in some areas in Ekurhuleni have larger and wide sinkholes due to dewatering.

2a) 1: North Arrow 2: Scale 3: Legend 4: Dolomite land 5: Igneous rocks 6: Limestone 7: Sand stones

b) Distribution of rock types and dolomitic land across Gauteng in different districts and
metropolitan municipalities.

c) Oldest to youngest is supergroup, group, formation and then member.

d) The chuniespoort group

e) The specific rock types found in Gauteng is Norite(expansive), Argillaceous(expansive), Felsic

Rocks(collapsible), Mafic Rocks(expansive), Tillite(expansive). The expansive rocks originate from
igneous rocks therefore, igneous rocks are formed from volcanoes when magma seeps from the
volcano as cools down it forms igneous rocks. While collapsible rocks are formed from the residual
hill wash aeolian.

f) By having a geological map on hand for a project manager (civil engineer) this is important
because before development takes place, this map will allow the engineer to see what rocks are
found in this land site area, this would enable certain precautions and measurement to be taken
place. It provides the engineer with characteristic of the soils found and its land behavior, such as
the occurrence of land subsidence or sinkholes, as well as faults, folds, and inclines in the different
soil layers.