Country:

Germany

Subregion Name:

Rheinland-Pfalz

Volcano Type:

Maars

Volcano Status:

Radiocarbon

Last Known Eruption:

7050 BC ± 1000 years

Summit Elevation:

600 m

Latitude:

50.17°N *

Longitude:

6.85°E

The West Eifel volcanic field in the Rhineland district of western Germany SW of the city of Bonn is a dominantly Pleistocene group of 240 scoria cones, maars, and small stratovolcanoes covering an area of about 600 sq km. The West Eifel volcanic field lies about 40 km SW of the smaller, but better known East Eifel volcanic field. Individual vents, most of which cover a broad NW-SE-trending area extending about 50 km from the towns of Ormont on the NW to Bad Bertrich on the SE, were erupted through Devonian sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. Scoria cones, about half of which have produced lava flows, form two-thirds of the volcanic centers, and about 30% are maars or tuff rings. About 230 eruptions have occurred during the past 730,000 years. The latest eruptions formed the Ulmener, Pulvermaar, and Strohn maars around the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene.