Kopje in Oklahoma

Kopje is a Dutch word meaning roughly "Cap". All across the Serengeti there are kopjes, the result of millions of years of volcanic dust and ash filling in the valleys between the hills and mountains. These "Caps" have all weathered into smooth, rounded boulders and hills of granite, intrusive igneous rock. In SW Oklahoma lies an ancient mountain range of granite which has been exposed to weathering for eons and has taken on the look of the Serengeti kopjes. I was amazed to see such similarities between the terrain in Oklahoma and what I had seen in Tanzania. I kept looking for the herds of wildebeest and zebra and the stalking lions on top of the kopjes. The shot above is a granite hill in the middle of a farmers field near Quartz Mountain State Park in Oklahoma.