My Personal Field Trip to the Maar-Diatreme Volcanoes of the Eifel Volcanic Field (DE)

The now beautiful Holzmaar erupted 25 000 years ago. Sediment drill cores from here are used in comparative studies in both the Greenland Ice Sheet and Ice Core projects. (Photo: geopark-vulkaneifel.de)

A maar is a hole in the ground, of volcanic origin… what else?… caused by interaction with water… That was about all I knew about maars when I prepared for this year’s holiday, in the German Eifel maars area (Vulkaneifel, Rheinland-Pfalz district). I did not expect to find a great lot of evidence for former volcanic activity. Probably all covered by sediments or eroded, mined away or grown over – that’s what I thought. Mind you, it was not the famous Laacher See caldera I visited which had produced a VEI 6 eruption some 13 000 years ago.

Advertisement

Another Hot Spot: Mt. KARTHALA, Comoros

The pit crater Changouméni (created 1918?) in the northern lobe of the Karthala caldera is filled to the brim with new lava. 17/01/2007. (© OVK)