Page 30 - Intra Muros October Issue 2025

ESTATE NEWS

THE PHENOMENAL VREDEFORT DOME

Compiled by Corlia Mathews

I State provinces – near Parys, which is a Let me see if I can do justice to the
am a longtime homeowner and
mere 40km from Potchefstroom.
committee member here at Silver Lakes.
information I collected:
From time to time, I write not about our
estate but about an interesting place I have So, we chose to go on a tour of the The famous Vredefort Dome, which is a
seen and experienced in my travels as a Vredefort Dome. Why? My favourite UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located in
retiree. pastime as an ecologist is to study the the heart of South Africa, close to Pretoria.
environment around me. When we travel, It’s only a two-hour drive from Silver Lakes.
My husband, Eddie, and I had to visit I have books that explain the geology The dome marks the centre of the world’s
North-West University in Potchefstroom and geomorphology along any route we oldest and largest asteroid impact crater, so
a while ago. Before going on the trip, drive. That way, we can better understand big it can only be seen in its entirety from
we wondered what we could do in the the plains, valleys, mountains and other space.
province of North West. Research showed landscape features and the route becomes
that we could visit historical museums like intriguing rather than boring. Historical records
the President Pretorius Museum and Totius Until the 1960s this dome was believed
House Museum; explore nature at the OPM We booked a trip with Graeme Addison, to be the result of a volcanic explosion,
Prozesky Bird Sanctuary and the Boskop a professional Vredefort Dome guide. even though there was no visible evidence
Dam Nature Reserve; or check out Route Website searches took us to his site, Otter’s of volcanic activity. Hence, it was called a
96 Brewery or the Hartspad Adventure Haunt. What a treat – he is a fount of “hidden volcano” – despite geoscientists
Trails. If it was the right time of the year, knowledge when it comes to this attraction. having proposed in 1936 that this “non-
the Aardklop Festival would be another Another lucky find occurred when we volcano” might be a meteorite impact site.
attraction. browsed a second-hand bookshop in Parys. There was no proof of this claim either,
I found a 2018 dissertation by David P. so they proclaimed at the time that “one
Then I read about the Vredefort Dome, a Howcroft called Meteorites, Minerals and hardly knew which is better: a meteoritic
geomorphological phenomenon situated Merensky: The Real Story of the Vredefort hypothesis without a meteorite or a
on the borders of the North West and Free Impact Structure. volcanic hypothesis without volcanics”.

28 | INTRAMUROS OCTOBER 2025