Showing papers by "Pascal Vittoz published in 2022"

6 Landscapes and Landforms of the Chobe Enclave, Northern Botswana

Abstract: The northern part of the Chobe Enclave (an administrative district of northern Botswana) is an agricultural area situated between relatively pristine national parks situated in the Middle Kalahari Basin. It belongs to the Linyanti-Chobe structural basin and constitutes a syntectonic depocenter formed within a large structural depression, known as the Okavango Graben, a tectonic structure of a likely trans-tensional nature. The landscape includes fossil landforms, such as sand dunes, pans, sand ridges, and carbonate islands resulting from palaeo-environmental and palaeo-drainage changes through the Quaternary and associated to (neo)tectonic processes. In addition to river-and wind-reworked Kalahari sands, the sediments include diatomites and carbonate deposits, forming inverted reliefs and originating from palustrine palaeo-environments. The Linyanti-Chobe basin is at the convergence of several ecoregions from tropical and subtropical grasslands to savannas and shrubland biomes. The hydrological cycle in the northern Chobe Enclave is governed by a complex interplay between the Okavango, Kwando, and Upper Zambezi drainage basins, which originate from tropical watersheds of the Angolan highlands. Finally, the widespread development of termite mounds impacts the diversity of soils and sediments of the northern Chobe Enclave, which is also re fl ected in the vegetation.