The Bellerberg Volcano (german: Bellerberg-Vulkan) is a

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the Crust (geology), crust of a Planet#Planetary-mass objects, planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and volcanic gas, gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Ear ...

group that was formed 200,000 years ago by a large number of individual

eruption Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava, tephra (ash, lapilli, volcanic bombs and volcanic blocks), and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often ...

Formation

The volcano complex lies in the

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

between the villages of Ettringen and

Kottenheim Kottenheim is a municipality in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany. References Municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate Mayen-Koblenz {{MayenKoblenz-geo-stub ...

and the town of

Mayen Mayen is a town in the 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, Hausen-Betzing, ...

on the edge of a

fault zone In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

of the

Middle Rhine Basin The Middle Rhine Basin (german: Mittelrheinische Becken) is the central landscape region of the Middle Rhine in Germany and, along with the Limburg Basin, forms one of the biggest intra-montane lowland regions within the Rhenish Massif. The basin i ...

. Violent movements caused disturbances in the bedrock, so that, along this fault,

magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...

rose from a chamber at a depth of 10-20 km. Volcanic activity began approximately 200,000 years ago in the eastern part of the Bellerberg Volcano. Gaseous, 1,100 °C hot magma reached the earth's surface at several eruption centres and formed smaller cinder cones. Huge quantities of lava fragments, which were thrown mainly in an easterly direction, formed the cinder ridge of the Kottenheimer Büden. Gradually, a crescent-shaped crater wall formed, which probably grew to more than 20 m high within a few days.Vulkanpark GmbH, Tafel 1 am Geopfad Ettringer Bellerberg In addition, longer fissures appeared, which produced large quantities of lava and thus gave rise to the Ettringer Bellerberg. At a later date, gas pressure from the magma chamber decreased and the explosive fountains dried up. Instead, three lava streams flowed out of the Bellerberg Volcano which, thousands of years later were to become the basis of the economy in the surrounding villages in the form of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an 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 surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

lava deposits: the Ettringer lava stream, the Mayen lava stream and the Winfeld lava stream. The Ettringen lava stream was the shortest, but most powerful of the three, and later formed the quarry area of the Ettringer Lay. The longest was the Mayen lava stream. Lava flowed more than 3 kilometres south into the valley of the

Nette Nette can refer to: Rivers * Nette (Innerste), a river in Lower Saxony, Germany, tributary to the Innerste * Nette (Hase), a river in Lower Saxony, Germany, tributary to the Hase * Nette (Middle Rhine), a river in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, tr ...

and was the basis for the quarries of the Mayener Grubenfeld. The northern stream, the Winfeld lava stream, became the quarry area of Kottenheimer Winfeld. * Angelika Hunold: ''Das Erbe des Vulkans. Eine Reise in die Erd- und Technikgeschichte zwischen Eifel und Rhein.'' Schnell + Steiner und Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, Regensburg/Mainz 2011,

References

{{Coordinate, NS=50.347334, EW=7.230359, type=landmark, region=DE-RP Volcanoes of Germany Geography of the Eifel Mayen-Koblenz