What created the tswaing crater?
meteorite
The Tswaing Crater formed some 220,000 years ago when a giant meteorite slammed into the Earth, creating a half-mile-wide crater and destroying all vegetation within a 25-mile radius. Today, a blind salt lake lies at the bottom of the crater, and the area is surrounded by dense tree growth.
How big is the tswaing crater?
1.4 km
Some 220 000 years ago a blazing stony meteorite the size of half a football field slammed into the earth’s crust. The impact formed a huge crater, 1.4 km in diameter and 200 m deep.
Where is the largest impact crater on Earth?
Largest meteorite impact crater on Earth in 100,000 years found in China: media report – Global Times. Scientists have found a crescent-shaped meteorite impact crater in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, reportedly the largest meteorite impact crater on Earth in 100,000 years.
What is the best preserved crater on Earth?
Barringer Meteorite Crater
Located in the vast high plains of the northern Arizona desert, the Barringer Meteorite Crater is the largest meteor impact crater in the United States, and the best preserved on Earth.
What happened to tswaing?
The result was the Tswaing Meteorite Crater, just over one kilometre in diameter, now a spectacular natural wonder with a salt lake at its heart. A broader area of 1 000 square kilometres would have been flattened. A gigantic air blast of up to 1 000 kilometres per hour would have added to the destruction.
Where is the crater in South Africa?
Vredefort crater
| Impact crater/structure | |
|---|---|
| Country | South Africa |
| Province | Free State |
| Location of Vredefort crater | |
| UNESCO World Heritage Site |
How old is the tswaing crater?
Tswaing is an impact crater in South Africa that is accompanied by a museum. It is situated 40 km to the north-west of Pretoria. This astrobleme is 1.13 km in diameter and 100 m deep and the age is estimated to be 220,000 ± 52,000 years (Pleistocene).
What is the biggest asteroid that could hit Earth?
On average, an asteroid the size of Apophis (370 metres) is expected to impact Earth once in about 80,000 years….99942 Apophis.
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Semi-major axis | 0.9224 AU (137.99 Gm) |
| Eccentricity | 0.1915 |
| Orbital period | 0.89 yr (323.6 d) |
| Average orbital speed | 30.73 km/s |
Is there a crater from the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs?
Named after a nearby town, Chicxulub crater is located just offshore. New evidence confirms the site is almost undoubtedly the epicenter of the dinosaurs’ demise. The latest evidence comes from rock core samples plucked from Chicxulub Crater itself, which is buried beneath the seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico.
How old is tswaing crater?
220,000 ± 52,000 years
Tswaing is an impact crater in South Africa that is accompanied by a museum. It is situated 40 km to the north-west of Pretoria. This astrobleme is 1.13 km in diameter and 100 m deep and the age is estimated to be 220,000 ± 52,000 years (Pleistocene).
When did the star fall in South Africa?
Some 220 000 years ago a meteorite half a soccer field in diameter, travelling at 4 000 kilometres per hour, hit what is now the Gauteng province of South Africa, exploding with the impact of 100 atomic bombs.
How big is the crater in Tswaing South Africa?
Tswaing, or Soutpan (salt pan) as it’s also known, lies surrounded by a ring of hills – the walls of the impact left by an asteroid that hit here 200 000 years ago, leaving a crater 100 metres high and a kilometre in diameter.
Why was the Tswaing crater called the saltpan?
Before folks knew about the actual value of this meteor crash site, the lake was mined for some 44 years due to its high concentrations of salt and soda ash. The Setswana word ‘Tswaing’ translates to ‘the place of salt’ and the crater is alternatively known as the Saltpan (Soutpan).
Where does the name Soutpan Meteor Crater come from?
The photographs below show you what it looks like today. The crater is called Tswaing in seTswana, the local language of the area, or Soutpan in Afrikaans. Both names mean Salt Pan and this derives from the lake of salty water that fills the centre.
Where did the name Tswaing meteorite crater come from?
The name Tswaing means Place of Salt in Setswane, and refers to a saline lake that covers the crater floor. From 1912 to 1950 an industry producing soda ash and salt was based at the crater..