At the bottom of the Indian Ocean, scientists discovered a giant crater with a depth of more than 80 kilometers, which was formed as a result of the fall of the largest asteroid several million years ago. The dimensions of that catastrophe are even hard to imagine: the seas were splashing out of their shores, the sky was drawn into a gray veil of ash, and powerful eruptions turned the earth into a scorched desert. Experts say that for about 10 centuries, our planet could not calm down.
"Scar" left by a huge meteorite
Since then, a lot of time has passed, however, modern people are not in vain afraid of collisions of space objects with the Earth, since such attacks will cause destruction comparable to those that occur when using nuclear weapons. In South Africa, the Wredefort Crater is the largest in the world. Its age exceeds two billion years, and it was created by a meteorite hit. The car was more than 10 kilometers long, and it was the largest celestial body ever falling to the surface of the earth.
The space alien, which left a destructive mark, fell at a time when life on the planet still consisted of microscopic plant forms. He completely changed the evolution of unicellular organisms.
Changed the landscape of South Africa
The Wredefort Impact Crater is located 120 kilometers from Johannesburg. Named after a small town nearby, Vredefort Crater is a UNESCO protected property. A meteorite that crashed into our land during the Paleoproterozoic era radically changed its landscape: the earth’s crust melted, a burning lake of enormous size, consisting of boiling magma, appeared on the site of the impact, and all layers of rock were shifted.
Later, the cooled mass penetrated the rocks of the Earth’s upper shell and seemed to clog the funnel, and the crust arched with a dome. And now in the very center of the Wredefort crater, whose photos resemble the works of Van Gogh, who adored mixing colors, there is a raised section. To preserve the dome, a so-called buffer zone has recently been created around it, in which local residents are allowed to engage only in agriculture.
"Star wound" of the planet
The impact force produced by a space body is almost 10 times greater than the explosion of a nuclear bomb. Such consequences from the collision are explained by the incredible speed of the meteorite (25 kilometers per second). Hard rock instantly turned into dust, and their traces were found in a radius of more than two kilometers from the center. It is no coincidence that impact craters have another name - astroblems, which translates from the ancient Greek language as "star wound".
New discoveries just around the corner
The resulting Wredefort crater has a diameter of 300 kilometers, which makes it the largest on the planet. However, recent studies by specialists in Antarctica make us say that under the ice sheet is hidden geological formation, which will take first place on the podium. According to scientists, the diameter of Wilkes Crater exceeds 500 kilometers. However, it has practically not been studied, and while the attraction of South Africa rests on its laurels.
Unique natural site
The initial version of the appearance of the Wredefort crater is the strongest eruption of a stratovolcano, but after numerous studies, experts in 1990 established that the origin of the giant natural monument is extraterrestrial.
Surprisingly, its structure - annular (multi-ring) - is rare on Earth. There are no similar formations left in the world, since most of them have been destroyed by the tectonic processes that took place in the lithosphere and erosion over millions of years. Most often, such craters are found on the celestial bodies of the solar system. Therefore, the miraculous monument, perfectly preserved to our time, is very popular among foreign tourists and is an object of study for scientists.
