Vredefort crater, South Africa

Sentinel-1 CSAR IW acquired on 05 July 2017 at 16:46:28 UTC
Sentinel-2 MSI acquired on 31 December 2017 at 08:03:31 UTC
Sentinel-2 MSI acquired on 02 January 2018 at 07:53:19 UTC
Author(s): Sentinel Vision team, VisioTerra, France - svp@visioterra.fr
Keyword(s): Impact crater, asteroid, erosion, craton, rings, UNESCO World Heritage, South Africa, RSA
Fig. 1 - Sentinel-2 (31.12.2017 & 02.01.2018) - 4,3,2 natural colour - Circular features around Vredefort dome.
2D view
Following Asteroid day last Saturday, this story highlights Vredefort crater in South Africa, the largest verified impact crater on Earth.
Fig. 2 - Sentinel-1 (05.07.2017) - vv,vh,ndi(vh,vv) colour composite - Two billion years ago, it was 300km wide; most since eroded.
3D view 2D view
Fig. 3 - 11,8,2 colour composite, relief x10 - The Kalahari craton is old enough to bear this ancient scar to this day.
3D view 2D view
Fig. 4 - 12,11,2 colour composite - The 70km-wide concentric ring remnants are shown in the foreground.
3D view 2D view
The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency or the European Union.
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2024, processed by VisioTerra.
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