What can you do at Vredefort Dome?
What can you do at Vredefort Dome?
TThis UNESCO World Heritage Site is located near the town of Parys, and is known as the world’s oldest meteorite impact site. Guided walks are on offer, along with other outdoor activities like quad biking, rock climbing and mountain biking.
Is Vredefort Dome a World Heritage Site?
The Vredefort Dome is one of the most unique sites on the World Heritage List. It covers a representative part of what is the largest meteorite impact structure on earth. This also makes it the oldest WHS in our Timeline.
Why is Vredefort Dome a heritage site?
Dating back 2,023 million years, it is the oldest astrobleme yet found on Earth. With a radius of 190 km, it is also the largest and the most deeply eroded. It provides critical evidence of the Earth’s geological history and is crucial to understanding of the evolution of the planet.
How much is the area covered by Vredefort Dome?
The Vredefort crater /ˈfrɪərdəfɔːrt/ is the largest verified impact crater on Earth. It was 160–300 km (99–186 mi) across when it was formed; what remains of it is in the present-day Free State province of South Africa….Vredefort crater.
| Impact crater/structure | |
|---|---|
| Area | 30,000 ha (120 sq mi) |
Can you visit Vredefort crater?
The Vredefort structure is currently regarded the biggest and oldest clearly visible impact structure on Earth. The force of the impact opened up a crater, which is still visible, and is about 40km in diameter. When visiting the area you will notice small hills in a large dome shape with beautiful valleys between them.
How big was the Vredefort meteorite?
300 kilometres
The Vredefort crater, with an estimated diameter of 300 kilometres, is the world’s largest known impact structure. It was created when an asteroid measuring at least 10 kilometres landed on Earth an estimated 2 billion years ago.
What is vredefort?
Vredefort is a small farming town in the Free State province of South Africa with cattle, peanuts, sorghum, sunflowers and maize being farmed. It was this approximately 10-kilometre (6.2 mi) wide bolide that led to the preservation of the gold-bearing reefs of the Free State some 2.02 billion years ago.
Can you see the Vredefort crater?
Vredefort Dome, which measures about 90 kilometers across, was observed on June 27, 2018, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. Notice that only part of the ring is visible. Visitors to the impact site today can witness geologic time by traversing just 50 kilometers from Potchefstroom toward Vredefort.
Is the Vredefort crater visible?
With an estimated original diameter of 300 kilometers, the Vredefort Impact Crater is the largest asteroid impact structure that still has visible evidence at Earth’s surface. It is also the second-oldest impact structure with visible evidence at Earth’s surface. Only the Suavjärvi Crater in Russia is older.
How was Vredefort Dome created?
The Vredefort Impact Crater was formed when an asteroid struck Earth about two billion years ago in an area that is now the country of South Africa. Since then, the crater and its ejecta have been removed by weathering and erosion.
What happened to the Vredefort meteorite?
The impact occurred southwest of what is now Johannesburg, South Africa, and temporarily made a 40-kilometer-deep and 100-kilometer-wide dent in the surface. Almost immediately after impact, the crater widened and shallowed as the rock below started to rebound and the walls collapsed.
In which province is vredefort?
Free State
The town was established in 1876 on a farm called Visgat, on the Vredefort crater, the largest and oldest visible bolide impact crater in the world (with a diameter of 300 kilometres (190 mi))….
| Vredefort | |
|---|---|
| Country | South Africa |
| Province | Free State |
| District | Fezile Dabi |
| Municipality | Ngwathe |
