Meteorite Impact! (eBook)
XI, 342 Seiten
Springer Berlin (Verlag)
978-3-642-10464-0 (ISBN)
Contents
6
Foreword
10
Part I 13
Chapter 1: The early history of Earth 15
Introduction
16
Geological change
18
Man on the Moon
24
Back to the beginning
29
Impact
31
The oldest rocks
32
Time to cool
35
Old crust in the Vredefort Dome
37
Rifting, oceans, volcanism
38
Mountains, fire and ice
44
The unique Bushveld magmatic event
46
Chapter 2: Chaos and
49
Introduction
50
Extinction or survival
53
Meteorite-impact catastrophes
67
Normal (background) versus mass extinctions
72
The Smoking gun!
74
Vredefort
75
A brief look at the impact record in the Solar System
76
How did impact science getstarted? 76
Craters on the Moon 82
From the Moon to the Earth-Moon system 82
The
83
The
86
What are the projectiles capable of causing an impact catastrophe?
87
Meteors and meteorites
87
Large asteroids and comets 89
What is an impact crater?
90
How can we identify impact structures?
92
Shock metamorphism
97
Chapter 3: The impact heritage of southern
101
Tswaing meteorite crater
102
Solving the riddle of the origin of Tswaing 103
The
105
What do we know about the landscape in the Tswaing area prior to the impact? 105
What would the catastrophe have been like? 106
Were there any witnesses of the catastrophic impact at Tswaing? 107
Does Tswaing have a twin?
108
South Africa's other giant impact
109
Our southern African neighbours
111
Testimony of earlier impact catastrophes
113
Traces of catastrophe in the Karoo?
115
Chapter 4: Vredefort: the largest and oldest impact structure in the World
117
The Vredefort Structure revealed
118
Getting to know the giant
120
Traversing the outer parts of the Vredefort Dome
125
The Geology of the Vredefort Dome
130
The unique rock formations and deformation in the Vredefort Dome
134
The findings of the early Vredefort gealogists
138
The second phase
141
Craters and breccias 144
Shock meta
145
The vredefort structure in the 1970s and 1980s
148
What do dead elephants in Leningrad have to do with the Vredefort Structure? 151
The third phase
153
Shocked zircon and a precise agefor the impact event 155
How big is 'big'? 157
Vredefort research in the 21st century
159
Vredefort
161
Chapter 5: The recent history of the Vredefort
163
Section 1: Travelling through time
164
Introduction 164
Stone Age Vredefort Dome 165
The Iron Age 168
Archaeological research on the Askoppies Late Iron Age site 170
Archaeology of the historical period on the dome 175
Section 2: Beyond the frontier history of the Vredefort Dome area
179
The geographic setting 181
Development of towns 183
Treading on territorial toes 185
Mineral resources 187
The Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) 189
After the war 195
20th Century developmentand growth 196
Development of infrastructure 198
Development of tourism 199
Workers and forced removals 199
Section 3: Flora and fauna of the Vredefort dome
201
The Vredefort Dome plants (flora) in a geographical context 201
The composition of the flora 201
Which biome occurs on the VredefortDome? 203
Veld types on the Vredefort Dome 203
Factors that affect the vegetation 205
The habitats on the Vredefort Dome 207
The effect of geology on the vegetation of the Vredefort Dome 207
Recent changes in habitats on the Vredefort Dome 208
Woody vegetation in the Vredefort Dome 210
Fauna in the Vredefort Dome 210
Chapter 6: Frequently asked questions 215
Frequently asked questions about the Vredefort impact event
216
Where is the projectile responsible for the Vredefort impact? 216
Do we know from which direction the Vredefort bolide came? 216
Do we know how large the bolide was that caused the Vredefort catastrophe? 218
Could any life forms have perished in this catastrophe? 219
Would this impact have influenced further development of life? 219
Can there be other impact structures of the size of Vredefort, not yet discovered on Earth? 219
Major diamond, gold and platinum resources lie close to the Vredefort Dome. Why have no major ore deposits been found in the dome itself? 220
Is Vredefort truly unique? 221
Is the Cradle of Humankind related to the impact structure? 222
Chapter 7: What does the future hold for humankind? 225
What does the future hold for humankind?
226
Chapter 8:
233
Outlook
234
The
236
Part II
241
Tour guide through the Vredefort Dome
242
Stops 1–9: the core of the vredefort dome
244
Stop 1: Vredefort Dome World Heritage Site
244
Stop 2: Inlandsee pan and the centre of the
246
Stop 3: Ancient oceanic crust at Greenlands 247
Stop 4:
249
Stop 5: Steynskraal pelitic granulites — a thermal
251
Stop 6:
252
Stop 7: Pseudotachylitic breccia and gneisses in
252
Stop 8: Vredefort Granophyre and Bushman
257
Stop 9: Vredefort Granophyre and Dominion
258
Stops 10-22:
262
Stop 10: Rocks and metamorphism of the Central Rand Group (Witwatersrand Supergroup),
262
Stop 11:
265
Stop 12: Gold mining in the Venterskroon area
266
Stop 13: Shatter cones in the Booysens Formation, Rooderand 267
Stop 14: Amazon gold reef, Rooderand 270
Stop 15: Ventersdorp lavas, Askoppies Iron Age settlement and Anglo-Boer War sites on Tygerfontein farm 271
Stop 16: Stromatolites and cave in Transvaal rocks of the western collar 272
Stop 17: Schoemansdrift Bridge shatter cones 273
Stop 18: Dwarsberg (Steenkampsberg) view site 274
Stop 19: Rocks and metamorphism of the lower Witwatersrand Supergroup, Kommandonek Nature Reserve 274
Stop 20: Impact-induced fold and view site, Parson’s Rus 275
Stop 21: Coesite-stishovite-bearing quartzite, Kromellenboog Stream 276
Stop 22: Witwatersrand Supergroup quartzite, impact fault and Bobbejaanrant viewpoint, Smilin' Thru Resort 277
Acknowledgements 278
Bibliography 279
Glossary 288
Appendices 305
Appendix 1
305
Appendix 2 311
Appendix 3
319
Index
324
Erscheint lt. Verlag | 2.6.2010 |
---|---|
Reihe/Serie | Geoparks of the World | Geoparks of the World |
Zusatzinfo | XI, 342 p. 300 illus. in color. |
Verlagsort | Berlin |
Sprache | englisch |
Themenwelt | Naturwissenschaften ► Geowissenschaften ► Geologie |
Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik | |
Technik | |
Schlagworte | biodiversity • Chicxulub • Environment • Impact Craters • Planet • Vredefort Dome • Wind |
ISBN-10 | 3-642-10464-9 / 3642104649 |
ISBN-13 | 978-3-642-10464-0 / 9783642104640 |
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