Gerhardminnebron is a natural

karst spring A karst spring or karstic spring is a spring (outflow of groundwater) that is part of a karst hydrological system. Description Because of their often conical or inverted bowl shape, karst springs are also known in German-speaking lands as a ''Top ...

located a few kilometers east of

Ventersdorp Ventersdorp is a town of 4,200 in Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, North West Province, South Africa. It was the seat of the defunct Ventersdorp Local Municipality until 2016. Ventersdorp is centrally located, making it easier to access m ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and draining into the Wonderfonteinspruit and Mooi River, which in turn flows into the Vaal River. It yields some 60 000 – 80 000 cubic meters of water per day, and is affected by exploitation and pollution by the gold mining industry in the region, deep–level gold mining having markedly impacted on the dolomitic aquifers. This spring is located in

dolomitic Dolomite () is an anhydrous carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate, ideally The term is also used for a sedimentary carbonate rock composed mostly of the mineral dolomite. An alternative name sometimes used for the dolomiti ...

rock that is part of the larger Boskop–Turffontein dolomite compartment in the

Transvaal Basin The Transvaal Basin is one of three basins of the Transvaal Supergroup on the Kaapvaal craton. The evolution of this 2.65–2.05 Ga Neoarchaean–Palaeoproterozoic basin is thought to have been derived largely from magmatism, palaeoclimate and e ...

. Dolomite is a sedimentary carbonate rock, a swath of which runs parallel to the Magaliesberg, and has a tendency to form large underground lakes and reservoirs.

Potchefstroom Potchefstroom (, colloquially known as Potch) is an academic city in the North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstroom is on the Mooi Rivier (Afrikaans for "pretty river" ...

is one of the largest towns in the area and was established in 1838. Water from the spring is used for the domestic needs of Potchefstroom, and is also utilised by local farmers. The farm on which the spring is located was known to the Voortrekkers and was first occupied by a certain Gerhard Breytenbach, also in 1838.

Emil Holub Emil Holub (7 October 1847 – 21 February 1902) was a Czech physician, explorer, cartographer, and ethnographer in Africa. Early life Holub was born in Holice in eastern Bohemia (then within the Austrian Empire, now the Czech Republic), to t ...

travelled through the region in 1873, and later described the natural springs he encountered in his boo
'Sieben Jahre in Süd Africa'
published in 1881. He also remarked on the funnel-shaped sinkholes he came across.

Sammy Marks Sammy is a nickname, frequently for people named Samuel, and also an English spelling of the Arabic name Sami. People Music *Sammy Adams (born 1987), American rapper and songwriter *Sammy Cahn (1913-1993), American songwriter *Sammy Davis Jr. (1 ...

, the pioneer industrialist of the Transvaal, bought the farm in the 1890s and constructed an irrigation canal to supply water for his crops. The contractor who built the canal was Pieter Bezuidenhout, who had in 1880 refused to hand over his wagon in lieu of unpaid taxes levied by the British authorities - this action led to the First Boer War.

Environmental issues

The strong discharge of groundwater from the spring has created an area of peatland or karst fen. The vast majority of peat is located in the high-rainfall regions of the northern hemisphere and its occurrence in South Africa is rare. The spring is fed by water issuing from a system of interlinked dolomitic aquifers or compartments. Four of the nine compartments which feed the Wonderfonteinspruit are affected by deep level gold mining. Large-scale pumping of water has led to a lowering of the groundwater table by up to 1000 metres, the trapping of uranium-bearing tailings in caves and sinkholes, the discharge of pollutants into the Wonderfonteinspruit, and seepage from tailings into the aquifer beneath.http://www.imwa.info/docs/imwa_2009/IMWA2009_Winde.pdf

External links

''Peatlands as Filters for Polluted Mine Water?—A Case Study from an Uranium-Contaminated Karst System in South Africa''

References

{{coord, 26, 28, 47, S, 27, 09, 06, E, type:landmark_region:ZA, display=title Springs of South Africa