Volcano Type: Maars
Volcano Status: Radiocarbon
Last Known Eruption: 8300 BC ± 300 years
Summit Elevation: 600 m   1,968 feet
Latitude: 50.17°N *   50°10’0″N
Longitude: 6.85°E   6°51’0″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 above a mantle plume 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, many of which are occupied by lakes. 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.

Originally posted 2010-10-18 04:00:33.