An Associate Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of the Free State (UFS), Prof. Marian Tredoux (pictured), delivered a paper at a recent four-day conference at the Sunwa River Lodge, near Parys in the Free State. Prof Tredoux’s paper was about the global mass extinction which happened 65 million years ago (in which the dinosaurs were eliminated) and which is ascribed to the Chicxulub impact in Mexico. The conference focused on large meteorite impacts throughout the solar system and included discussion on the large ones that happened on Earth, such as at Vredefort (Free State), Morokweng (Northern Cape), Sudbury (Canada) and Chicxulub. It was organised by the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, USA, and attended by about 100 delegates from around the world, of which only five were from South African universities. The South African Mint produced a limited issue gold coin to commemorate the conference and the Vredefort World Heritage Site.
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe