The Vredefort Dome is a Whodunit at the centre of an astrophysical detective story. Is it the product of an asteroid impact or a volcanic explosion - a blast or a belch? For more than 100 years, geologists have puzzled over the strange curvature of the mountains and plains surrounding the towns of the Parys and Vredefort, with the somber Vaal River cutting its way through radial cracks in the structure.

The Vredefort Dome represents a unique opportunity to celebrate the history of our planet extending back thousands of millions of years and to marvel at the devastating forces that have shaped our world. Apart from the unusual rocks in the dome, the area also has inportant historical, cultural and archaeological sites recording human habitation over the past 2000 000 years, together with a rich scenic beauty.

In 2005 the Vredefort Dome was declared a World Heritage Site (WHS). The official area covers 30 000 hectares and lies mainly in the Bergland, situated along both banks of the Vaal River, a little over an hour's drive from Johannesburg.

The 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. It provides critical evidence of the earth's geological history and is crucial to our understanding of the evolution of the planet. 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.

The meteorite impact that happened in the Free State made a crater that was about 300 km wide (from Johannesburg to Welkom!). This is the biggest meteorite impact that geologists have yet found on Earth and it is nearly twice as big as the impact that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. This makes it a site of great importance for scientists. It is also the oldest impact crater that has been found on Earth. It is mainly for these reasons that it has been made a World Heritage Site.

Over many decades, geologists from South Africa and other parts of the world have been studying the broken and melted rocks around Parys and Vredefort to understand this Vredefort Impact Even. This is what they have found:

1. The meteorite impact happened about 2023 million years ago, at a time when there were no people or even animals of plants like we see today. The only living thing was a type of algae, like the green slime seen in dams today.

2. To make a crater 300 km wide, the meteorite must have been about 10 km across (as big as a mountain) and travelling at more than 10 km per second (36 000 km/h!).

3. The Vredefort Dome is only the central part of the impact crater. It is called a dome because the rock layers were bent into the shape of an upside-down bowl 90km across by the impact.

Shooting stars and meteorite impacts

If we look up into the sky on a dark night we often see "shooting stars". These are bright streaks of light that move very fast across the sky for only a few seconds before they disappear. They are not real stars - the streaks of light are caused by tine pieces of burning rock, flying faster than bullets that enter Earth's atmosphere from Outer Space. Because they are moving so fast (more than 10 km per second, which means they would take 30 seconds to fly from Parys to Bloemfontein!), when they enter the atmosphere they start to burn. (This burning is caused by friction with the air. When you rub your hands together very fast, they also get hot. To melt rock, though, the temperature must reach more than 1000 °C!)

There are many, many millions of such small pieces of rock in Outer Space, left over from when our Sun and the planets were formed. Thousands of them become shooting stars every day. But among them are also larger pieces of rock, ranging from football size to some up to many Kilometers across. These asteroids also sometimes fall into the Earth's atmosphere, but not as often as the smaller pieces. When they do, they are too big to burn up or slow down and so they hit the ground at very high speed. An asteroid that hits the Earth is called a meteorite. Thousands of small meteorites have already been found around the world.)

The damage caused when a meteorite collides with the Earth is massive. The speed of a meteorite is so high that is explodes when intense heat of many thousands of degrees Celsius that can even melt rock. In this way, the meteorite itself is completely destroyed. This is what happened in the Free State near Parys and Vredefort millions of years ago. The explosion was so great that it was many millions of times more powerful than the biggest atomic bomb ever built on Earth. If it happened today it would kill almost all living things on Earth, including most people.

Whether it is scientific curiosity, historical or cultural interest, ecotourism or adventure activities, the Vredefort Dome has somting special to offer each visitor. Welcome to our wonderland!