There are millions of craters formed daily in each and every galaxy of the entire universe. But we all belong to planet earth, therefore we will only talk about our planet earth. Since the beginning of creation, our planet Earth has suffered from many impact craters. There are many impact craters have been reported on earth. But the name of the largest known impact crater on earth is Vredefort crater. Before proceeding, let's understand first what actually is impact crater means? An impact crater can be defined as a circular depression in the surface of a planet, moon, or other solid body in the Solar System or elsewhere, formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller body.
The Vredefort crater is the largest verified impact crater on Earth. Vredefort crater has an estimated radius of 118 miles, making it the world's largest known impact structure. When it was formed, It was more than 300 km across. What remains of it is located in the present-day Free State Province of South Africa and named after the town of Vredefort, which is situated near its center. The remaining geological structures at its center are known as the Vredefort Dome or Vredefort impact structure. This crater was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. The crater is estimated to be 2.023 billion years old with impact being in the Paleoproterozoic Era (Spanning the time period from 2,500 to 1,600 million years ago). It is the second-oldest known crater on Earth.
There are also some kind of craters which are formed by volcanic eruption, known as volcanic craters. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse. It is a roughly circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity.
The asteroid that hit Vredefort is estimated to have been one of the largest ever to strike Earth, thought to have been approximately 10–15 km in diameter. The original crater was estimated to have a diameter of roughly 300 km, although this has been eroded away. It would have been larger than the 250 km Sudbury Basin and the 180 km Chicxulub Crater. The remaining structure, the Vredefort Dome, consists of a partial ring of hills 70 km in diameter. The dome in the center of the crater was originally thought to have been formed by a volcanic explosion, but in the mid-1990s, evidence revealed it was the site of a huge bolide impact. The Vredefort Dome in the center of the crater is home to four towns, namely Parys, Vredefort, Koppies and Venterskroon. Parys is the largest and a tourist hub, both Vredefort and Koppies mainly depend on an agricultural economy.
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| Vredefort Dome, seen from space |
There are also some kind of craters which are formed by volcanic eruption, known as volcanic craters. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse. It is a roughly circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity.
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| Volcanic Smoking Crater |
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