Brukkaros Mountain is a mountain

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

 in Karas Region

Karas Region

The Karas Region is the southernmost region of Namibia. The name assigned to the region reflects the prominence of the Karas mountain range in its southern part...

, Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

. Measuring 1,590 metres at its peak, Brukarros is located about 15 kilometres northeast of the primarily Nama community of Berseba

Berseba

Berseba is a village in the Karas Region of southern Namibia and the district capital of the Berseba electoral constituency...

. It is over 600 metres taller than the surrounding area.

The mountain superficially resembles a large extinct volcano

Volcano

2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...

, in the form of a ring mountain with a diameter of about 4 km. but has been formed by an explosion when rising magma

Magma

Magma is a mixture of molten rock, volatiles and solids that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and is expected to exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and dissolved gas and sometimes also gas bubbles. Magma often collects in...

 met ground water and superheated it. It is formed of an indistinctly bedded red-brown microbreccia, composed of finely fragmented rocks of the Nama System that were blown out of a volcanic vent about 80 million years ago. The breccia

Breccia

Breccia is a rock composed of broken fragments of minerals or rock cemented together by a fine-grained matrix, that can be either similar to or different from the composition of the fragments....

 layers slope inwards (unlike the slope around a volcanic crater), and removal of the softer upper layers by erosion

Erosion

Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...

 has created the central hollow. The hollow is drained by a stream which runs southwards through the ring mountain in a narrow valley. The route into the interior of the mountain is along this valley. At its head is a dry waterfall, over which the stream plunges down some 45 m after rain, and the river bed directly below the fall is the principal source of water.

History

From 1926-1931, the National Geographic Society

National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...

, in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

, ran the Brukkaros Mountain Solar Observatory on the mountain to measure daily solar radiation.