Eifel

The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of Belgium.

The Eifel is part of the Rhenish Massif; within its northern portions lies the Eifel National Park.

Geography

Location

The Eifel lies between the cities of Aachen to the north, Trier to the south and Koblenz to the east. It descends in the northeast along a line from Aachen via Düren to Bonn into the Lower Rhine Bay. In the east and south it is bounded by the valleys of the Rhine and the Moselle. To the west it transitions in Belgium and Luxembourg into the geologically related Ardennes and the Luxembourg Ösling. In the north it is limited by the Jülich-Zülpicher Börde. Within Germany it lies within the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia; in the Benelux the area of Eupen, St. Vith and Luxembourg. Its highest point is the volcanic cone of the Hohe Acht (746.9 m). Originally the Carolingian Eifelgau only covered the smaller region roughly around the sources of the rivers Ahr, Kyll, Urft and Erft. Its name was more recently transferred to the entire region.

Topography

The Eifel belongs to that part of the Rhenish Massif whose rolling plateau is categorised as peneplain highland (''Rumpfhochland''), which was formed by the erosion of the ancient mountains of the Variscan mountain building phase and subsequent further uplifting. Individual mountain chains, up to 700 m, such as the Schneifel and High Fens, run through the western part of the plateau. In the eastern part, in the High Eifel and Volcanic Eifel, individual cinder cones and basalt '' kuppen'', like the Hohe Acht and the Ernstberg, emerged as a result of volcanicity in the Tertiary and Quaternary periods and rise above the undulating countryside.

The rivers draining into the Moselle, Rhine and Meuse, such as the Our, Kyll, Ahr, Brohlbach and Rur, have cut deep into the edge of the Eifel and formed larger valleys.

The Eifel covers an area of 5,300 km² and is geographically divided into the North and South Eifel. It is further divided into several natural regional landscapes, some with further subdivisions.

National and nature parks

Since 2004, part of the North Eifel has been designated as the Eifel National Park. From north to the south, there are also four nature parks in the Eifel: Rhineland, High Fens-Eifel, Volcanic Eifel, South Eifel, although the first-named park only extends into the northern foothills of the Eifel.

Divisions

Overview

There are several distinct chains within the Eifel.

* The northernmost parts are called North Eifel ("Nordeifel") including Rur Eifel the origin of the river Rur, High Fens ("Hohes Venn") and the Limestone Eifel (''Kalkeifel'').
* The northeastern part is called Ahr HillsElkins, T.H. (1972). ''Germany'' (3rd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus, 1972. . (german: Ahrgebirge) and rise north of the Ahr river in the district of Ahrweiler.
* South of the Ahr is the High Eifel (''Hohe Eifel''), with the Hohe Acht (747 m) being the highest mountain of the Eifel.
* In the west, on the Belgian border, the hills are known as Schneifel (part of the ''Schnee-Eifel'' or "Snowy Eifel"), rising up to 698 m. Also in the west, by the Belgian and Luxembourg border, the region is known as Islek (Aquilania).
* The southern half of the Eifel is lower. It is cut by several rivers running north-south towards the Moselle. The largest of these is the Kyll, and the hills on either side of this river are called the Kyllwald.
* In the south the Eifel is concluded by the Voreifel above the Moselle.

Since 2004, about 110 km² of the Eifel within the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have been protected as the Eifel National Park nature reserve.

Natural regional divisions

Up to 1960, the German part of the Eifel, which belonged to the natural region of the Rhenish Massif, was, according to the Handbook of the Natural Region Divisions of Germany, divided into three major unit (i.e. two-digit) groups and these were subdivided into (three-digit) major natural units.E. Meynen, J. Schmithüsen et al.: ''Handbook of the Natural Region Divisions of Germany'' Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Remagen/Bad Godesberg, 1953–1962 (9 issued in 8 books, 1:1,000,000 scale map with major units, 1960). These divisions were subsequently refined in the ''individual map sheets'' ''Trier/Mettendorf'', ''Cochem'' (both 1974) and ''Cologne/Aachen'' (1978) as follows;Ewald Glässer: ''Geographische Landesaufnahme: the natural regional units on map sheet 122/123 Cologne/Aachen.'' Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Bad Godesberg, 1978. →&nbs
online map
(pdf; 8.7 MB)Heinz Fischer, Richard Graafen: ''Geographische Landesaufnahme: the natural regional units on map sheet 136/137 Cochem.'' Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Bad Godesberg, 1974. →&nbs
online map
(pdf; 5.6 MB)Otmar Werle: ''Geographische Landesaufnahme: the natural regional units on map sheet 148/149 Trier/Mettendorf.'' Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Bad Godesberg, 1974. →&nbs
online map
(pdf; 4.5 MB) for the most detailed natural region divisions in Rhineland-Palatinate, fact files were produced by the state information system of the conservation administration (LANDIS):

The BfN groups the 3 (two-digit) major unit groups under the combined group designated ''D45''.

Mountains and hills

Apart from its valleys, the Eifel is a gently rolling plateau from which elongated mountain ridges and individual mountains rise. The majority of these summits do not attain a great height above the surrounding terrain. Several, however, like the Schwarzer Mann in the Schnee-Eifel, stand out from a long way off as long, forested ridges or clearly isolated mountaintops.

The highest mountain in the whole Eifel is the Hohe Acht at 746.9 m. It is the only Eifel summit above 700 m. However, many peaks, mountain ridges and large regions, such as the ''Zitterwald'' reach heights of over 600 m. These include two dozen peaks with good all-round views, of which many have an observation tower. From north to south they are: the Michelsberg, Häuschen and Teufelsley in the north; the Adert, Hohe Acht and Raßberg in the northeast; the Hochkel, Nerotherkopf, Dietzenley and ruins of the Kasselburg in the central area; the Prümer Kalvarienberg, Hartkopf and Prümer Kopf in the east, the Steineberg and Mäuseberg near Daun, the Hochsimmer and Scheidkopf near Mayen; the Eickelslay and Absberg in the southeast; and the Krautscheid and Hohe Kuppe in the southwest.

The mountains and hills of the Eifel include the following (in order of height in metres above sea level):

For a list of these and other Eifel mountains and hills see the List of mountains and hills of the Eifel.

Many of these prominent points are linked by the Eifel-Ardennes Green Route, which crosses the east and south of the region, the German Volcano Route, the German Wildlife Route and the South Eifel Holiday Route.

Water bodies

Due to its moist and mild Atlantic climate, the Eifel is bisected by numerous streams and small rivers. Impoundment of these streams, especially in the North Eifel has led to the creation of very large reservoir, such as the Rursee, which is the second largest in Germany by volume, and the Urftsee.

A feature of the Eifel are its natural lakes of volcanic origin. The largest, the Laacher See, is a collapsed, water-filled caldera, whilst the many maars are water-filled volcanic eruption bowls. The largest maar lake is the Pulvermaar. The Meerfelder Maar has an even bigger basin, but three-quarters of it has silted up.

Rivers and streams

The many rivers and streams of the Eifel drain into the North Sea via the great rivers outside of the Eifel: the Rhine (and its tributary, the Moselle) and the Meuse (with its tributaries, the Rur and Ourthe). The rivers and streams within the mountain range, together with their larger tributaries, are as follows:

Lakes and reservoirs

Reservoirs

* Bitburg Reservoir
* Weilerbach Reservoir ( Freilinger See)
* Kronenburg Reservoir ( Kronenburger See)
* Olef Reservoir
* Gileppe Reservoir
* Rur Reservoir
* Urft Reservoir
* Wehebach Reservoir
* Weser Reservoir (Weser, near Eupen)
* Dreilägerbach Reservoir
* Perlenbach Reservoir
* Kall Reservoir
* Lake Bütgenbach
* Lake Robertville
* Madbach Reservoir
* Steinbach Reservoir

Volcanic lakes

* Laacher See
* Pulvermaar
* Schalkenmehrener Maar
* Gemündener Maar
* Holzmaar
* Meerfelder Maar
* Weinfelder Maar or Totenmaar
* Ulmener Maar
* Eichholzmaar
* Windsborn Crater Lake

Geology

Despite the interesting geology of the Eifel region, only three comprehensive geological accounts have been produced. In 1822, Johann Steiniger published the first geological map of the area and, in 1853, the ''Geognostische Beschreibung der Eifel''. In 1915 Otto Follmann published a new account, adding to the extent of scientific understanding at that time, the ''Abriss der Geologie der Eifel'' ("Abstract of the geology of the Eifel region". In 1986, Wilhelm Meyer finally published the volume, ''Geologie der Eifel'' ("Geology of the Eifel"), whose fourth, revised, edition is now regarded as the standard work on the geology of the Eifel.

The Eifel and its western continuation into Belgium, the Ardennes, are the remains of a Variscan truncated upland, much of it 400 million years old, that is part of the Rhenish Massif (''Rheinisches Schiefergebirge''). In the area of the Stavelot-Venn Saddle ( Hohes Venn) are the oldest layers of rock, which originate from the Cambrian and are around 550 million years old. The Eifel is one of the few volcanically active areas of Germany, as is evinced by numerous discharges of carbonic acid, for example into the Laacher See. The last eruptions, which gave rise to the most recent maars, occurred about 11,000  years ago.

Basement

The basement in the Eifel, as in the other regions of the Rhenish Massif, consists mainly of Devonian slates, sandstones and limestones, laid down in an ocean south of the Old Red Continent and folded and overthrust in the Variscan orogeny. Only on the northern edge of the Eifel, in the High Fens and its environs, do older rocks from the Cambrian and Ordovician outcrop. Rocks of the Carboniferous, which followed the Devonian, do not occur in the Eifel itself, but lie along its northern boundary in the region of Aachen.

The Devonian rocks were deposited in an oceanic basin, in which erosion debris was washed in from the north from the great north continent of Euramerica (''Laurussia'' or the ''Old Red Continent'') which was formed by Caledonian mountain building during the Silurian. From the end of the Lower Carboniferous the sea basin was caught up in the Variscan mountain building process, pushed together and uplifted, and thus formed part of the Variscan mountain system that, in the Upper Carboniferous and early Permian, covered large areas of Europe.

The Eifel geological structures like main folds and overthrusts can be traced in a SW-NE direction far beyond the Rhine valley.

Platform

Since that folding, the Eifel has largely remained part of the mainland. During the Permian, after the end of the uplifting, the Variscan mountains were heavily eroded, leaving only a relatively flat, truncated upland. For a short time, and only partially, this was later flooded by the sea.

Depositions from the Triassic and Jurassic periods have survived in the so-called Eifel North-South Zone. This is a region of subsidence, which runs from the Trier Bay in the south to the Lower Rhine Bay in the north. Through this zone existed at one time a sea link between north and south Central Europe. The remains of the sediments laid down at this time have survived to a greater extent in the ''Maubach-Mechernich Triassic Triangle'' in the north and in the ''Oberbettingen Triassic Graben'' in the area around Hillesheim and Oberbettingen.

In the Upper Cretaceous and during the Tertiary, the Eifel was inundated mainly from the north. Remains of Cretaceous rocks were discovered on the High Fens. Scattered patches of Oligocene deposits can be found there and in the Western Eifel.

From the Pliocene

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