The Sterkfontein Caves: Geomorphology and Hominin-Bearing Deposits

The Sterkfontein Caves, located in the south-west of the Cradle of Humankind in Gauteng is the world’s richest Australopithecus -bearing locality. The fossil-bearing cave deposits represent a more recent instalment of a history spanning 2.6 Ga, from the deposition of the karst -hosting dolomite s, to the commercial exploitation of the caves by lime miners in the early twentieth century. The location and morphology of the caves is a result of lithological variation within the two host dolomite formations, multiple and complex phases of karstification and infilling of the resultant solution cavities over the two billion years since the dolomite deposition, and consistently active local tensional joint and fault systems. Where vadose collapse has opened the caves to the landscape, a broad range of geomorphological processes has created dynamic sedimentary environments with complex stratigraphic histories.