Volcanic Eifel

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Region of volcanic craters in Germany

title: "Volcanic Eifel" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["landscapes-of-rhineland-palatinate", "pleistocene-volcanism", "holocene-volcanism", "volcanism-of-germany", "regions-of-the-eifel", "global-geoparks-network-members", "volcanic-fields-of-europe"] description: "Region of volcanic craters in Germany" topic_path: "geography/germany" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_Eifel" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Region of volcanic craters in Germany ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Laacher_See_-_Luftaufnahme.jpg" caption="The [[Laacher See]], the largest [[volcanic crater lake]] in Central Europe near [[Andernach"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Dauner_Maar.jpg" caption="Daun"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/WeibernV.JPG" caption="Brohl]] Valley"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Laacher_See,_Mofetten.jpg" caption="[[Mofetta]]s on the southeastern shore of the Laacher See"] ::

The Volcanic Eifel or Vulkan Eifel () consists of three areas of volcanic activity, known as the West Eifel, High Eifel, and East Eifel volcanic fields. Volcanic Eifel is a region in the Eifel Mountains in Germany that is defined to a large extent by its volcanic geological history. Characteristic of the volcanic fields are their typical explosion crater lakes or maars, and numerous other signs of volcanic activity such as volcanic tuffs, lava streams and volcanic craters, for example the Laacher See. The Volcanic Eifel is still volcanically active today. One sign of this activity is the escaping gases in the Laacher See.

Geographical location

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Wingertsbergwand_Laacher_See_2010.jpg" caption="The Wingertsbergwand gives an idea of the amount of volcanic ash ejected during the eruption of the Laacher See volcano."] ::

The Volcanic Eifel stretches from the Rhine to the Wittlich Depression. It is bordered in the south and southwest by the South Eifel, in the west by Luxembourg and Belgian Ardennes 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:

The landscape of the Volcanic Eifel is dominated by recent volcanism. Volcanic craters, thick pumice and basalt 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 2000 km2 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):

Laacher See

Of particular note is the volcanic caldera known as Laacher See, the site of an eruption around 12,900 years ago that had an estimated VEI of 6.

Geopark and museums

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 to interglacial states during the Pleistocene.

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 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

References

  1. van den Bogaard, P.. (30 November 1989). "Precise single-grain 40Ar/39 Ar dating of a cold to warm climate transition in Central Europe". [[Nature (journal).
  2. [https://www.geopark-vulkaneifel.de/en/geo-area/faq/583-still-volcanic-activity.html Is there still volcanic activity in the Eifel?]
  3. [http://www.q-mag.org/germany-a-danger-of-volcanic-eruptions.html Germany: a danger of volcanic eruptions?]
  4. "Eifel flood danger map".
  5. (11 June 2020). "Volcano warning: 'Something is brewing under Europe' Geologists make incredible discovery". Express.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

landscapes-of-rhineland-palatinatepleistocene-volcanismholocene-volcanismvolcanism-of-germanyregions-of-the-eifelglobal-geoparks-network-membersvolcanic-fields-of-europe