The Hatsalatladi ground fissures, also known as ground cracks were noticed in the Kweneng District after rains of October 2020. There has not been any major studies of similar phenomenon in Botswana, except for work commissioned by the local authority in Letlhakeng, a village some 60 km west of Hatsalatladi . The study was to establish the cause of cracks on infrastructure. These investigations focused mainly on the damaged engineering structures like roads and buildings with the aim of suggesting remediation measures in repairing and/or construction of such structures. There has only been one (1) attempt to establish the cause of these cracks through a regional geologic study using seismic and ground penetrating radar surveys. This latter study did also not address the causative mechanism to this ground fissures.

Since the morphology of the ground cracks is analogous to soil piping, study methothodology is proposed with aim of  charaterising the ground fissures, in terms of their distribution, trend, morphology, soil chemistry (Sodium Adsorption Ratio – SAR) and their relationship to geomorphic features. This methodology will produce results that shows linkage or relationship  of these ground cracks to the soil type in terms of texture and chemistry, and geomorphic featues, e.g. local and regional drainage systems. Understanding of these relationships is necessary in proposing mitigation methods