Page 80 - You - South Africa (February 2020)

TheTswaingcraterisanimportantprehistoriclandmarkinwhat’snowGauteng

COMPILEDBYCOLIN HENDRICKS INFOGRAPHIC: MICHAEL DE LUCCHI

BOUT40kmnorthwestof
Pretoria lies the Tswaing HILL
crater,oneoffourimpact The crater is surrounded by a
craters in South Africa. circular hill covered in rock
It’s the second-largest fragments and thick bushveld. 60m
aftertheVredefortDome, This rim was formed when a
andtheothertwoarethe giant meteorite collided with
AMorokweng crater in the Earth, and the impact violently
Kalahari Desert and the Kalkkop crater displaced materials.
in the Eastern Cape.
This remarkable natural wonder con-
tains a salt lake. Hence the name:
“tswaing” is Tswana for “place of salt”.

METEORITE

The meteorite that created Tswaing weighed
300 000 tons (equal to 3 750 Boeing 737
p g p
passenger planes).

At 50m in
diameter, the
meteorite
was the size
of half a soc- SALT DEPOSITS
cer pitch. Because of water evaporation, salt de-

posits (of which some are black because
of dirt) were left behind. The water in the
pan is either absorbed in the soil or evap-
planet
s
About 220 000 years ago it hit the planet’s orates, leaving behind salt crystals.
surface at 16km/s (57 600km/h) and explod-
ed within a 100th of a second – you could
describe it as being vaporised.

TOURISM
Tswaing attracts
about 14 000 visitors a
year. There’s a 7,2km
path leading to the crater.
Tourists can walk unguid-
The power of the ed or pay for a guided tour.
impact equalled The walk takes about
that of 100 of the three hours.
type of atomic Go to ditsong.org.za.
bombs that were
dropped on
Hiroshima in
World War 2.

78 | 6 FEBRUARY 2020 you.co.za