The Hitsche Maar lies in the Eifel Mountains between Bitburg and Ulmen. The maar has a diameter of 60 metres and a crater depth of 5 metres. Known as the "smallest maar in the Eifel", the Hitsche has silted up to form a

sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus '' Carex'' ...

marsh.

Name

The name of the maar, which is often shortened to ''Die Hitsche'' but also called the ''Hetsche'', ''Hättsche'', or ''Hütsche'', probably derives from the local dialect word for "toad".

Formation

The Hitsche Maar is a dry maar and lies west of the Alf valley in a group of volcanoes and two other maars: the

Holzmaar The Holzmaar lies in the Volcanic Eifel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate almost halfway between Gillenfeld (2.5 km away to the southwest) and Eckfeld. The maar has an area of about , a diameter of and a depth of and lies withi ...

and the Dürres Maar. Like the other two, it lies along the geological fault line running from northwest to southeast caused by volcanic activity during the

Weichselian glaciation The Weichselian glaciation was the last glacial period and its associated glaciation in northern parts of Europe. In the Alpine region it corresponds to the Würm glaciation. It was characterized by a large ice sheet (the Fenno-Scandian ice sheet) ...

and, with an age of over 20,000 years, is the oldest of these maars. The

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...

s of the Hitsche Maar were covered by the tuffs from the Dürres Maar. ''Holzmaar, Dürre Maar, Hitsche Maar''
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References

{{Coordinate , NS=50.124437 , EW=6.870327 , type=landmark , region=DE-RP Maars of the Eifel Vulkaneifel