Pseudotachylitic breccia and microfracture networks in Archean gneiss of the central uplift of the Vredefort Impact Structure, South Africa

Since 1916 the Vredefort Dome, the erosional remnant of the central uplift of the Vredefort Impact Structure, has been known as the type locality for what has been known as “pseudotachylite”, which can be investigated in this structure at various scales and in a range of different host lithologies. Pseudotachylite sensu stricto is generally regarded as the product of friction melting. The formation of such (or similar) melt breccias in impact …