Vredefort Dome | Attraction

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Vredefort Dome, approximately 120km south west of Johannesburg, is a representative part of a larger meteorite impact structure, or astrobleme and has been declared South Africa’s seventh World Heritage Site (2005).

Dating back 2,023 million years, it is the oldest astrobleme found on earth so far, with a radius of 190km, it is also the largest and the most deeply eroded.

Vredefort Dome bears witness to the world’s greatest known single energy release event, which caused devastating global change, including, according to some scientists, major evolutionary changes. The Vredefort Dome, a World Heritage Site, is the oldest and largest meteorite impact site in the world.

Formed an estimated 2000 million years ago when a gigantic meteorite (asteroid) hit the earth.Despite their importance to the planet’s history, geological activity on the earth’s surface has led to the disappearance of evidence from most impact sites and Vredefort is the only example on earth to provide a full geological profile of an astrobleme below the crater floor.

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