Meerfelder Maar
The Meerfelder Maar is a maar by the village of Meerfeld not far from the town of Manderscheid in the Eifel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Formation The maar is at least 30,000 years old and, according to the more recent information, is probably even 40,000 years old. In 1978 the lake deposits were investigated in order to determine its exact age. Numerous borings have been carried out in the Meerfelder Maar right up to the present day. It was formed by a huge underground phreatomagmatic explosion that happened when hot magma rose and struck a water-laden layer of rock. The explosive evaporation of the water crushed the surrounding rock and threw some of it upwards. The resulting hollow filled up again with rock and a funnel-shaped sink-hole formed at the surface. The magma chamber, from which the magma rose, lies about 2,000 to 6,000 metres below the Meerfelder Maar. Structure The whole crater has a diameter of 1,400 metres from east to west and ...
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