Karoo

The Karoo (a Khoisan word of uncertain etymology) is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. Its inland section, the Nama Karoo, has two main sub-regions - the Great Karoo in the north and the Little Karoo in the south. The western section is the Succulent Karoo, situated in a winter rainfall region near the Atlantic coast.

In geological terms the Karoo Supergroup refers to an extensive and geologically recent (100 to 260 million years old) sequence of sedimentary and igneous rocks, which is flanked to the south by the Cape Supergroup, and to the north by the more ancient Witwatersrand Supergroup. It covers two-thirds of South Africa and extends in places to 8,000 m below the land surface, constituting an immense volume of rocks which was formed, geologically speaking, in a short period of time.