Karoo Supergroup of the country, and in the Lebombo mountains along the Mozambique border. Once the layer of hard lava was eroded away, the softer Karoo sediments over the rest of the basin eroded even faster. However, the dolerite sills resisted erosion, protecting the softer Beaufort and Ecca shales beneath them. This created numerous and widespread flat topped hills, known as Karoo Koppies ("koppie" being the Afrikaans term for hill), which are iconic of the Karoo, and, by extension, the South African landscape. The dykes, or vertical fissures which brought the lava to the surface stand out today as linear ridges extending
Hydraulic fracturing in South Africa reserve in the world. These figures, however, were based on desktop research and would only be refined through an extensive exploration programme In the present day, the Karoo is a semi-desert stretching over 400,000 square kilometers and home to a population of around 1 million people. The Karoo is divided into two regions: the Little Karoo, which is wet, and the Great Karoo, which is mainly desert. Because of certain exclusions, including topography and townships, around 28% of the Karoo has been estimated to be accessible to commercial development. Unique to the Karoo shale reserves is the presence of dolerite