Vredefort crater

With a diameter of 300 km it is the largest known impact crater on Earth. The age is estimated to be 2023 ± 4 million years. The crater is exposed to the surface.

The Vredefort Crater is one of the few multi-ringed craters on this planet. Multi-ringed craters are common on the Moon but are rare on Earth. This is because they have been destroyed by geological processes and most were formed near the beginning of the planets formation. It was orginally thought that the dome in the centre of the crater was formed by a volcanic explosion however in the mid 1990s, evidence revealed that it was the site of a huge meteorite crater. Shatter cones are often discovered in the bed of the nearby Vaal River. The meteorite that hit Vredefort has been found to have been one of the largest ever to have hit Earth at over 10km wide (6 miles).

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