Bellerberg volcano
The Bellerberg volcano is a group of volcanoes that was formed from a large number of individual eruptions 200,000 years ago.
Emergence
The volcanic complex is located in the East Eifel between the towns of Ettringen and Kottenheim and the town of Mayen on the edge of a fracture zone in the Middle Rhine basin. Vigorous movements caused disturbances in the basement so that magma could rise from a chamber to a depth of 10–20 km along this disturbance. The volcanic activity began about 200,000 years ago in the eastern area of the Bellerberg volcano. Gas-rich magma with a temperature of 1100 ° C reached the surface of the earth at several eruption centers and formed smaller cinder cones. Huge amounts of lava fragments, which were mainly hurled in an easterly direction, formed the cinder wall of the Kottenheimer Büden . Little by little, a crescent-shaped crater flank built up, which within a few days should have been more than 20 m high. In addition, longer crevices opened up, which produced abundant lava and thus gave rise to the Ettringer Bellerberg .
At a later time, the gas pressure from the magma chamber decreased and the explosive fountains dried up. Instead, three lava flows flowed out of the Bellerberg volcano, which thousands of years later in the form of basalt lava deposits were to form the basis of the economic power of the surrounding villages: the Ettringer lava flow, the Mayener lava flow and the Winfeld lava flow. The Ettringer lava flow was the shortest, but the most powerful of the three lava flows. It later formed the quarry area of the Ettringer Lay . The longest lava flow was the Mayener lava flow. The lava flowed more than 3 kilometers south to the valley of the Nette and was the basis for the quarries of the Mayen mine field . The lava flow from the north, the Winfeld lava flow, became the Kottenheimer Winfeld quarry area .
literature
- Angelika Hunold: The legacy of the volcano. A journey into the history of the earth and technology between the Eifel and the Rhine. Schnell + Steiner and publishing house of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum , Regensburg / Mainz 2011, ISBN 978-3-7954-2439-8
Individual evidence
- ^ Vulkanpark GmbH, panel 1 on the Ettringer Bellerberg geoppath
Coordinates: 50 ° 20 '50.4 " N , 7 ° 13' 49.3" E