The Vredefort Dome, one of South Africa's World Heritage Sites, located in the Free State province, is the oldest well-preserved meteor impact site on earth.
Believe it or not...
Once upon a time, approximately 2000 million years ago, a 20 kilometer wide, Table Mountain-sized asteroid slammed into the Earth in the area now known as Vredefort in the Free State province. 70km's of rock was liquidised in the process, as well as any residents that may or may not have been there at the time.
Of world-wide quakes
The blow, equal to 1 million tons of TNT, released enough energy to favour the development of multi-cellular life, an impact of power historically reminiscent of the famous Mexico meteor speculated to have wiped out the dinosaurs. To date, the Vredefort Dome is the best-preserved among ancient brother and sister sites which are no longer as clearly visible. Time, the tectonic processes of the earth and erosion has covered a great deal of the original 20km high impact point uplift.
No substantiation of Kryptonite
Evidence suggests the area to be a rather popular site for congregating meteorites, with geological remnants of no less than four other surrounding impacts dating back approximately 3.3 billion years. One of which is the best preserved crater site at Tswaing (1, 4 km in diameter) northwest of Pretoria in Soutpan (Place of Salt).
Breathaking scenic tours of The Dome's 250 - 380km wide site reveal remarkable geo-concentric circles and exposed layers of the earth's crust from vapourisation, hence this Heritage area's invaluable contribution to geological research.
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