Weiselberg
| Weiselberg | ||
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 The Weiselberg, seen from the Oberkirchen viaduct |
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| height | 569.5 m above sea level NHN | |
| location | near Oberkirchen ; District of St. Wendel , Saarland ( Germany ) | |
| Mountains | North Palatinate Uplands | |
| Coordinates | 49 ° 31 '21 " N , 7 ° 14' 37" E | |
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| Type | Chimney filling | |
| rock | Dazit | |
| Age of the rock | 280 million years | |
The Weiselberg is 569.5 m above sea level. NHN high mountain in the North Palatinate mountains near Oberkirchen in the Saarland district of St. Wendel .
The Weiselberg is forested throughout, especially in its high elevations, and is a location for rare plant species. It was placed under nature protection in 1950.
geography
location
The Weiselberg rises in the southeast part of the Saar-Hunsrück Nature Park, directly west of Oberkirchen, a district of the municipality of Freisen, through which the Oster river flows from the Blies tributary to the north-northwest of the mountain . The Leichweilerbach, the left source brook of the Betzelbach, rises to the west-northwest . To the south lies the Weiseler Born , the source of the Wilmesbach tributary to Easter . The northern foothills of the Weiselberg is the approximately 520 m high Mittelberg, the landscape of which leads north-east to the Hochrech.
Natural allocation
The Weiselberg lies in the natural spatial main unit group Saar-Nahe-Bergland (No. 19) on the border of the main units North Palatinate Bergland ( Glan-Alsenz-Berg- und Hügelland ; 193) with the sub-unit Kuseler Bergland (193.3) in the east and Prims-Nahe -Bergland ( Upper Naheband ; 194) with the subunit Hirsteiner Bergland (194.2) in the west.
geology
Geologically speaking, the Weiselberg belongs to the North Palatinate Uplands . Its mountain top consists of about 280 million years old volcanic rock ( volcanite ) of the Permian ( Rotliegend ).
A volcanite is formed when magma rises in the earth's crust and comes to the surface. Weathering removes the soft surrounding rock and leaves the hard volcanic rock behind.
The mountain has a rock that is typical for it, which has been named after it: Weiselbergite ( type locality ), which was first described by Karl Heinrich Rosenbusch in 1887 . It is a deep black and slightly bluish igneous rock with punctiform feldspar parts that are reminiscent of the starry sky. According to Tröger, it is a Dacitic vulcanite with about 66% glass. Agates are embedded in the rock . Agates were already being dug on the mountain surface in Roman times. From the 15th century, during an agate boom, the greenish rock was mined in tunnels.
The Weiselberg is an igneous hardship . Its most striking formation is the stone cabinet , a broad rock wall that is reminiscent of a large cabinet.
On the southern slope of the Weiselberg there is a block field made of basalt stone , the Stone Sea . Originally magma pushed up from the earth's interior. It gradually solidified to form mostly pentagonal columnar formations below the earth's surface, which is typical of slowly cooling basalt rock. Their shape was caused by the shrinkage of the magma as it cooled, similar to drying cracks in drying mud in a puddle. Over millions of years, the surrounding softer sedimentary rock was eroded away. The block field visible today was created in the Ice Age around 10,000 years ago through solifluction of the weathered rock columns.
Our own mappings from 1982 showed that the rock pillars in the area of the hilltop show what is known as a milestone . This is usually caused by the fact that a lava lake in the crater of a volcano solidifies relatively quickly. The high proportion of glass in the rock also indicates a very near-surface and rapid cooling of the original magma. The pillars then formed perpendicular to the crater walls.
Protected areas
The Weisselberg nature reserve ( CDDA no. 82884; designated 1950; 74.2 ha in size), the Weisselberg fauna-flora-habitat area (FFH no. 6409-305; 78 ha) and the bird sanctuary are located on most of the Weiselberg Weisselberg (VSG No. 6409-305; 78 ha). On the mountain there are parts of the landscape protection area in the district of St. Wendel - in the municipality of Freisen (CDDA no. 390232; 1976; 11.4797 km² ).
history
On the top of the mountain there are remains of a Celtic rampart.
Digging sites can be found in many places on the mountain, here precious stones have been searched for for centuries, and agates were particularly popular . They were already known among the Romans ; They were systematically dismantled from the 15th century to 1950. Some finds are exhibited in the mineralogical museum in Oberkirchen.
There has been an interest in the pitch-black, hard Weiselbergite since the 1930s.
The designation of the Weiselberg as a nature reserve stopped mining in 1950. The forest on the Weiselberg has also not been used for forestry since then. After reforestation of the mining areas with fast-growing spruce, Douglas fir and larch, the forest was left to its own devices.
The name Weiselberg is derived from the Celtic word "uesu" for noble.
Myths and legends
11 Myths and legends are entwined around a castle on the Weiselberg with a righteous king who was insidiously murdered in his bed by sinister journeymen who lived in a castle on the southern slope.
According to the documentation boards of the municipality of Freisen, the Königskeller could mean an agate tunnel. There is no evidence of development on the Weiselberg; rather, the Stone Sea is a natural geological formation. Haunted stories of the feeble hunter and mad light are presumably explained by the remoteness of the region in the Middle Ages.
Infrastructure
Several hiking trails run over and around the Weiselberg. A circular route of 4 km is laid out as a geological educational trail. An entrance from the Bosenborn leads to the stone cabinet .
The Weiselberg summit tour , which also includes Oberkirchen with its former Westrichbahn viaduct (1934–1936) , is laid out over 14.9 km (in an extended version of 17.6 km) ; this route in turn is part of the 24 km long Fritz Wunderlich bike and hiking trail .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
- ^ Otmar Werle: Geographical land survey: The natural space units on sheet 148/149 Trier / Mettendorf. Federal Institute for Regional Studies, Bad Godesberg 1974. → Online map (PDF; 4.5 MB)
- ^ WE Tröger: Special petrography of igneous rocks , Verlag Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 1935
- ↑ a b Weiselberg summit tour in Oberkirchen , accessed on October 11, 2015, at bostalsee.de
literature
- Friedrich Eduard Reusch and Gerhard vom Rath : About iridescent quartz from the Weisselberge near Obernkirchen [!] Not far from St. Wendel. Johann Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig 1873 ( online at Google Books ).
- WE Tröger: Special petrography of igneous rocks , Verlag Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 1935
- The great ADAC nature guide , ADAC Verlag, Munich, 1991, ISBN 3-87003-390-8
- Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise, éditions errance, Paris 2003
Web links
- Weiselberg summit tour , on wanderbaren-saarland.de
- Weiselberg nature reserve , on agrarkulturerbe.de