The Volcanic Eifel or Vulkan Eifel () consists of three areas of

volcanic activity Volcanism, vulcanism, volcanicity, or volcanic activity is the phenomenon where solids, liquids, gases, and their mixtures erupt to the surface of a solid-surface astronomical body such as a planet or a moon. It is caused by the presence of a he ...

, known as the West Eifel, High Eifel, and East Eifel

volcanic field A volcanic field is an area of Earth's Earth's crust, crust that is prone to localized volcano, volcanic activity. The type and number of volcanoes required to be called a "field" is not well-defined. Volcanic fields usually consist of clusters ...

s. Volcanic Eifel is a region in the

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

Mountains in Germany that is defined to a large extent by its

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

geological history. Characteristic of the volcanic fields are their typical explosion crater lakes or

maar A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption (an explosion which occurs when groundwater comes into contact with hot lava or magma). A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow ...

s, and numerous other signs of volcanic activity such as volcanic

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a Natural satellite, moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a Fissure vent, fractu ...

streams and

volcanic crater A volcanic crater is an approximately circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity. It is typically a bowl-shaped feature containing one or more vents. During volcanic eruptions, molten magma and volcanic gases rise from an ...

s, for example the

Laacher See Laacher See (), also known as Lake Laach or Laach Lake, is a volcanic Volcanic crater lake, caldera lake with a diameter of in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, about northwest of Koblenz, south of Bonn, and west of Andernach. It is in the Eifel ...

. The Volcanic Eifel is still volcanically active today. One sign of this activity is the escaping gases in the Laacher See.

Geographical location

The Volcanic Eifel stretches from the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

to the Wittlich Depression. It is bordered in the south and southwest by the South Eifel, in the west by Luxembourg and Belgian

Ardennes The Ardennes ( ; ; ; ; ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, extending into Germany and France. Geological ...

and in the north by the North Eifel including the Hohes Venn. To the east the Rhine forms its geographical boundary, with no volcanicity immediately beyond it. The Volcanic Eifel is divided into three natural regions: * Volcanic West Eifel (West Eifel Volcanic Field): Manderscheid, Daun,

Gerolstein Gerolstein () is a town in the Vulkaneifel district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Gerolstein is a local municipality of the ''Verbandsgemeinde Gerolstein''. It has been approved as a ''Luftkurort'' (spa town). History As early as the Stone ...

Obere Kyll Obere Kyll is a former ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") in the district Vulkaneifel, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It was situated on the upper course of the river Kyll, approx. 55 km south-west of Bonn. The seat of the ''Verban ...

Hillesheim Hillesheim () is the third largest town in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It was the seat of the former ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Hillesheim. Geography Location The town lies almost in the middle, halfway between C ...

(within the parish of

Nohn Nohn is an ''Ortsgemeinde (Germany), Ortsgemeinde'' – a Municipalities of Germany, municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland-Palatinate, ...

) * Volcanic High Eifel (High Eifel Volcanic Field): ( Adenau,

Kelberg Kelberg is an ''Ortsgemeinde (Germany), Ortsgemeinde'' – a Municipalities of Germany, municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland-Palat ...

, Ulmen and Nohn) * Volcanic East Eifel (East Eifel Volcanic Field): ( Brohltal,

Vordereifel Vordereifel is a ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") in the district of Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the eastern edge of the Eifel, west of Mayen Mayen () is a town in the Mayen-Koblenz, Mayen-Ko ...

, Mendig, Pellenz) The centre of the Volcanic Eifel is the region around Daun and Manderscheid and the areas within the Mayen-Koblenz district. The landscape of the Volcanic Eifel is dominated by recent volcanism. Volcanic craters, thick

pumice Pumice (), called pumicite in its powdered or dust form, is a volcanic rock that consists of extremely vesicular rough-textured volcanic glass, which may or may not contain crystals. It is typically light-colored. Scoria is another vesicula ...

and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

layers and maars create a diverse landscape that clearly witnesses to very recent events in geological terms. The entire Volcanic Eifel covers an area of about and has a population of about 200,000.

Volcanoes

The following volcanoes belong to the Eifel, sorted by height in metres (m) above sea level ( Normalhöhennull, NHN): * Ernstberg (also: Erresberg), , county of Vulkaneifel – west *

Scharteberg The Scharteberg is a mountain, high, near Kirchweiler in the district of Vulkaneifel and is one of the highest peaks in the Eifel region of Germany. On the summit is the Eifel Transmitter which belongs to SWR and is used for FM radio and telev ...

, , county of Vulkaneifel; with the

Eifel Transmitter The Eifel Transmitter () is an FM and TV transmission facility for the German broadcasting company of Südwestrundfunk, SWR and is located on the Scharteberg near Kirchweiler, Germany. Until 1985, the Scharteberg transmitter used a 160 metre tal ...

(SWR) – west * Prümscheid, , county of Vulkaneifel – not volcanic (eponymous quartzite ridge; other summits being the Scharteberg and Dietzenley) * Hochkelberg, , county of Vulkaneifel; with a transmission mast on its south summit – Tertiary * Nerother Kopf, , county of Vulkaneifel; with the castle ruins of the Freudenkoppe – west * Dietzenley, , county of Vulkaneifel; with a wooden observation tower – west * Arensberg, approximately , county of Vulkaneifel – Tertiary * Hochsimmer, , county of Mayen-Koblenz – east * Gänsehals, , county of Mayen-Koblenz – east * Engelner Kopf, , county of Ahrweiler (near Kempenich-Engeln) – east * Hochstein, , county of Mayen-Koblenz – east * Steineberger Ley, , county of Vulkaneifel; with a ''Volcano Information Platform'' (observation tower) – Tertiary * Rockeskyller Kopf, , county of Vulkaneifel – west * Hoher List, , county of Vulkaneifel; with the Hoher List Observatory – west * Wartgesberg, approximately , county of Vulkaneifel (near Strohn) – west * Veitskopf, , county of Ahrweiler; near Laacher See; with an observation tower, the Lydia Tower – east * Ettringer Bellberg, , county of Mayen-Koblenz (south of Ettringen) – east * Karmelenberg, , county of Mayen-Koblenz – east * Mayener Bellberg, , county of Mayen-Koblenz (north of

Mayen Mayen () is a town in the Mayen-Koblenz, Mayen-Koblenz District of the Rhineland-Palatinate Federal State of Germany, in the eastern part of the Volcanic Eifel Region. As well as the main town, additional settlements include Alzheim, Kürrenberg, ...

) – east * Korretsberg, , county of Mayen-Koblenz (near Kruft) – east

Laacher See

Of particular note is the volcanic caldera known as

, the site of an eruption around 12,900 years ago that had an estimated VEI of 6.

Geopark and museums

* Vulkanland Eifel National Geopark * Volcano Museum, Daun * Volcano House, Strohn * German Volcano Museum, Mendig

Geology

The tephras deposited by past eruptions of the Volcanic Eifel are lithological deposits that are radiometrically dateable via argon-argon dating of K-feldspar grains. These have in turn been utilised to ascertain the ages of climatic changes such as transitions from

glacial A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

interglacial An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene i ...

states during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

Future activity

There is thought that future eruptions may occur in the Eifel, because: *Each year the Eifel rises by about a millimetre. *Geophysicists found that crust under the Eifel is thinner than most continental crust, suggesting that under the Eifel is a hot zone where magma is rising. *Persistent small earthquakes and underground heating. *Map of flood lake that may happen if the Rhine is blocked by a voluminous eruption in the Eifel In 2020, Professor Kreemer noted that Eifel was the only region within an area of Europe studied where

ground motion Ground motion is the movement of the Earth’s surface from earthquakes or explosions. Ground motion is produced by seismic waves that are generated by sudden slip on a fault or sudden pressure at the explosive source and travel through the Eart ...

happened at significantly higher levels than expected. It is possible that such movements originate from a rising magma plume. This activity does not imply an immediate eruptive danger, but might suggest an increase in volcanic and seismic activity in the region.

References

External links

Homepage of Vulkaneifel district

German Volcanological Society
* * {{Authority control Landscapes of Rhineland-Palatinate Pleistocene volcanism Holocene volcanism Volcanism of Germany Regions of the Eifel Global Geoparks Network members