Delineating Hot Zone and Lineaments within Vredefort Crater in South Africa through Aeromagnetic Data Inversions
The Vredefort Dome has undergone some geologic processes that result in changes in the temperature of the rocks. This study contributes to the discussion on the thermal effect of the impact in the area on a regional scale and also delineates the linear structures around the Dome. The outcome show...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of Physics, Kaduna State University, Nigeria
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Physics Access |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://physicsaccess.com/articles/published/PA-JPET-Vol%205-Issue%201_198.pdf |
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| Summary: | The Vredefort Dome has undergone some geologic processes that result in changes in the
temperature of the rocks. This study contributes to the discussion on the thermal effect of the
impact in the area on a regional scale and also delineates the linear structures around the Dome.
The outcome shows that the center of the Dome is characterized by a low Curie point depth
(CPD), indicating a high-temperature status that agrees with previous temperature reports in
that area. The high-temperature tendency is observed to extend south of the Vredefort dome.
The center-south of the Vredefort structure has a high thermal gradient and heat flow. The
fractal distribution of the Vredefort structure correlates with the multi-ring structure around the
Dome, which is peculiar to a few impact structures on Earth. The trend of the Fractal exponent
contour around the center suggests that the contact of the meteoritic body at that region occurs
at an angle and then pushes southwards. The structural analysis results show linear structures
that are believed to be faults/fractures trending in North-NorthEast (NNE), NorthEast (NE),
EastWest (EW), and NorthSouth (NS) directions whose effects have been explained in previous
works in the area and were also identified on the ground. Some closures are observed at the
center of the multi-ring structure, indicating the melt-dykes around the Vredefort dome. The
Euler depth solutions cluster suggests the lineaments are about 7 km deep. |
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| ISSN: | 2714-500X 2756-3898 |