South Africa's largest crater

1999/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Geologia

Scientists have rediscovered in Vredefort, the South African province of Free State, the world's largest crater of extraterrestrial origin. Until now scientists believed it was a volcano, but new studies confirm the extraterrestrial origin of the crater.

The crater is between 250 and 300 km in diameter and is larger than the Canadian crater Sudbury or the Yukatan Chicxulub. The hole was created 2.1 billion years ago as a result of the shock of a body coming from space. The body that created such a large crater required a diameter of 10 km and collided with speeds of between 40,000 and 250,000 km/h. Scientists believe that ash from the collision turned the earth's atmosphere into opaque, causing a major catastrophe that altered the Earth's climate and living conditions.