The pre-Karroo Landscape of the Lake Nyasa Region, and a Comparison of the Karroo Structural Directions with those of the Rift Valley

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Abstract
In the course of an examination of part of the upper Luangwa Valley of north-eastern Rhodesia (Dixey 1937a) some features of unusual interest were observed in the relation of the Karroo sediments to the land surface of that time, and it was found that certain elements of that old surface still play an important part in the modern landscape. An extension of these observations into northern Nyasaland has yielded similar results, which, with those from the Luangwa Valley, are described in the following pages. With the exception of the Livingstone Mountains (8000–9000 feet), overlooking the opposite shores of Lake Nyasa, and the neighbouring Rungwe group (10,400 feet), northern Nyasaland includes the highest and the most striking uplands throughout this part of central Africa. The nearest highlands of equal or greater height are the Mlanje Mountains (8000–10,000 feet), 400 miles to the south by east, the highlands around the northern end of Lake Tanganyika and around Lake Kivu (9000–14,000 feet) 600 miles to the north-north-west, and the highland masses of northern Tanganyika Territory (9000–19,000 feet) 600 miles to the north-north-east. The Mlanje Mountains consist of syenite, in all probability of late Karroo or early post-Karroo age; Rungwe and the highest mountains of northern Tanganyika Territory consist of volcanic rocks, principally of Tertiary and later age; with these exceptions the highlands named, including North Nyasa, consist mainly of Muva-Ankole, Basement Complex, and other pre-Karroo formations. The highlands of northern Nyasaland (Pl. V) comprise principally the Nyika plateau (6000–8000 feet), with five similar

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