Kalahari Craton Kalahari Craton The Kalahari Craton is a craton, an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, that occupies large portions of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. It consists of two cratons separated by the Limpopo Belt: the larger Kaapvaal Craton to the south and the smaller Zimbabwe Craton to the north. The Namaqua Belt is the southern margin of the Kaapvaal Craton. Parts of the Kalahari Craton are now located in East (the Grunehogna Craton) and West Antarctica (Haag Nunataks) and the Falkland Islands. The name was first introduced by . Following a terminology introduced in 2008, the
South Africa stretch is known as the Drakensberg. The south and south-western parts of the plateau (at approximately 11001800m above sea level), and the adjoining plain below (at approximately 700800m above sea levelsee map on the right) is known as the Great Karoo, which consists of sparsely populated scrubland. To the north the Great Karoo fades into the even drier and more arid Bushmanland, which eventually becomes the Kalahari desert in the very north-west of the country. The mid-eastern, and highest part of the plateau is known as the Highveld. This relatively well-watered area is home to a great proportion of the