A maar is a broad, low-

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

volcanic crater A volcanic crater is an approximately circular depression in the ground caused by Volcano, volcanic activity. It is typically a bowl-shaped feature containing one or more vents. During Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruptions, molten magm ...

caused by a

phreatomagmatic eruption Phreatomagmatic eruptions are volcanic eruptions resulting from interaction between magma and water. They differ from exclusively magmatic eruptions and phreatic eruptions. Unlike phreatic eruptions, the products of phreatomagmatic eruptions conta ...

(an explosion which occurs when

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

comes into contact with hot

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

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 ...

). A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow

crater lake Crater Lake (Klamath language, Klamath: ''Giiwas'') is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The ...

which may also be called a maar. The name comes from a

Moselle Franconian __NOTOC__ Moselle Franconian (german: Moselfränkisch, lb, Muselfränkesch) is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian dialects, Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish. It is spoken in the southe ...

dialect word used for the circular lakes of the

Daun Daun is a town in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the district seat and also the seat of the ' of Daun. Geography Location The town lies in the , a part of the Eifel known for its volcanic history, geogra ...

area of Germany. Notes: * According to German Wikipedia's ''"Maar"'' article, in 1544 in his book ''Cosmographia'',

Sebastian Münster Sebastian Münster (20 January 1488 – 26 May 1552) was a German cartographer and cosmographer. He also was a Christian Hebraist scholar who taught as a professor at the University of Basel. His well-known work, the highly accurate world map, '' ...

(1488–1552) first applied the word "maar" (as ''Marh'') to the

Ulmener Maar The Ulmener Maar is a maar in the Eifel mountains of Germany in the immediate vicinity of the town of Ulmen (Eifel), Ulmen in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The lake is up to 37 metres deep and is surrounded by an embankment of tuff with an av ...

and the

Laacher See Laacher See (), also known as Lake Laach or Laach Lake, is a volcanic caldera lake with a diameter of in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, about northwest of Koblenz, south of Bonn, and west of Andernach. It is in the Eifel mountain range, and i ...

. See: Sebastian Münster, ''Cosmographia'' (Basel, Switzerland: Heinrich Petri, 1544)
p. 341.
From p. 341: ''"Item zwen namhafftiger seen seind in der Eyfel / einer bey de schloß Ulmen / und ein ander bey dem Closter züm Laich / die seind sere tieff / habe kein ynflüß aber vil außflüß / die nennet man Marh unnd seind fischreich."'' (Also two noteworthy lakes are in the Eifel, one by the Ulmen castle, and another by the monastery at Laich ; they are very deep ;

hey Hey or Hey! may refer to: Music * Hey (band), a Polish rock band Albums * ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014 * ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980 * ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...

have no streams flowing in but many flowing out ; one calls them "maars" and

are rich in fish.) * In 1819, Johann Steininger (1794–1874), a secondary-school teacher from Trier, coined the term "maar" in its modern sense. See: Steininger, J., ''Geognostische Studien am Mittelrhein'' eological studies on the middle Rhein(Mainz, (Germany): Kupferberg, 1819). * In 1825,

George Julius Poulett Scrope George Julius Poulett Scrope FRS (10 March 1797 – 19 January 1876) was an English geologist and political economist as well as a Member of Parliament and magistrate for Stroud in Gloucestershire. While an undergraduate at Cambridge, th ...

(1797–1876) introduced the term "maar" into English. See: Scrope, G.P., ''Considerations on Volcanoes'' (London, England: Philipps, 1825)
p. 166.
* Prof. Horst Noll, a geologist at the University of Köln (Cologne), Germany, said that the local term ''maar'' might even have derived from the Latin word ''mare'' (i.e. sea) and been introduced into local language during the Roman occupation of the West Eifel. See: Noll, H. (1967) "Maare und Maar-ähnliche Explosionskrater in Island. Ein Vergleich mit dem Maar-Vulkanismus der Eifel" (Maars and maar-like explosion craters in Iceland. A comparison with the maar-volcanism of the Eifel.), Special publication of the Geological Institute of the University of Köln, p. 1. * Wilhelm Meyer, ''Geologie der Eifel'' eology of the Eifel(Stuttgart, Germany: Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1986), p. 311. * Herbert Lutz and Volker Lorenz (2013
"Early volcanological research in the Vulkaneifel, Germany, the classic region of maar–diatreme volcanoes: the years 1774–1865."
On-line publication of Springer International Publishing, Berlin, Germany. *

states that the word "maar" derives from the Latin ''mare'' (sea), as does the German languag
Universal Lexikon
Maars range in size from across and from deep. Most maars fill with water to form natural lakes. Most maars have low rims composed of a mixture of loose fragments of

volcanic rock Volcanic rock (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) is a rock formed from lava erupted from a volcano. In other words, it differs from other igneous rock by being of volcanic origin. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic r ...

s and rocks torn from the walls of the diatreme.

Etymology

Maar lakes and dry maars

''Maar lakes'', also referred to simply as ''maars'', occur when

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

fills the funnel-shaped and usually round hollow of the maar depression formed by volcanic explosions. Examples of these types of maar are the three maars at Daun in the

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 ...

mountains of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. A ''dry maar'' results when a maar lake dries out, becomes

aggraded Aggradation (or alluviation) is the term used in geology for the increase in land elevation, typically in a river system, due to the deposition (geology), deposition of sediment. Aggradation occurs in areas in which the supply of sediment is grea ...

silted up Sedimentation is the deposition of sediments. It takes place when particles in suspension settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to the ...

. An example of the latter is the

Eckfelder Maar The Eckfelder Maar is a former volcanic lake, that was formed during the Middle Eocene around 44.3 million years ago and is thus the oldest known maar. It lies in the southwestern Eifel mountains near Manderscheid in Germany.

. Near

Steffeln Steffeln is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Gerolstein, whose ...

is the

Eichholzmaar The Eichholzmaar is one of the smaller maars in the Volcanic Eifel and lies on the ''Landstraße'' between Steffeln and Duppach. It has a diameter of c. 120 metres. Its greatest depth is 3 metres. The circular shape of the bowl of the maar can ...

(also called the ''Gussweiher'') which has dried out during the last century and is being renaturalised into a maar. In some cases the underlying rock is so porous that maar lakes are unable to form. After winters of heavy snow and rainfall many dry maars fill partially and temporarily with water; others contain small

bogs A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main Wetland#Types, types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, ...

or often artificial ponds that, however, only occupy part of the hollow.

Distribution

The largest known maars are found at Espenberg on the

Seward Peninsula The Seward Peninsula is a large peninsula on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska whose westernmost point is Cape Prince of Wales. The peninsula projects about into the Bering Sea between Norton Sound, the Bering Strait, the Chukchi S ...

in northwest Alaska. These maars range in size from in diameter and a depth up to . These eruptions occurred in a period of about 100,000 years, with the youngest (the Devil Mountain Maar) occurring about 17,500 years ago. Their large size is due to the explosive reaction that occurs when

comes into contact with

permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...

. Hydromagmatic eruptions are increasingly explosive when the ratio of water to magma is low. Since permafrost melts slowly, it provides a steady source of water to the eruption while keeping the water to magma ratio low. This produces the prolonged, explosive eruptions that created these large maars. Examples of the Seward Peninsula maars include North Killeak Maar, South Killeak Maar, Devil Mountain Maar and Whitefish Maar. Maars occur in western North America,

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and gl ...

in South America, the

region of

(where they were originally described), and in other geologically young volcanic regions of Earth. Elsewhere in Europe, La Vestide du Pal in the

Ardèche Ardèche (; oc, Ardecha; frp, Ardecha) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.Kilbourne Hole Kilbourne Hole is a maar volcanic crater, located west of the Franklin Mountains of El Paso, Texas, in the Potrillo volcanic field of Doña Ana County, New Mexico. Another maar, Hunt's Hole, lies just two miles south of Kilbourne Hole. Kilbour ...

and

Hunt's Hole Kilbourne Hole is a maar volcanic crater, located west of the Franklin Mountains of El Paso, Texas, in the Potrillo volcanic field of Doña Ana County, New Mexico. Another maar, Hunt's Hole, lies just two miles south of Kilbourne Hole. Kilbou ...

, in southern

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

near

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

, are maars. The Crocodile Lake in Los Baños in the Philippines was originally thought of as a volcanic crater is also a maar. The notorious,

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

-saturated

Lake Nyos Lake Nyos ( ) is a crater lake in the Region of Cameroon, located about northwest of Yaoundé, the capital. Nyos is a deep lake high on the flank of an inactive volcano in the Oku volcanic plain along the Cameroon line of volcanic activity ...

in northwestern

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

is another example. An excellent example of a maar is

Zuñi Salt Lake Zuñi Salt Lake, also Zuni Salt Lake is a rare high desert lake, and a classic maar, located in Catron County, New Mexico, United States, about south of the Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. Description Zuñi Salt Lake is extremely shallow, with a d ...

, a shallow

saline lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre). ...

that occupies a flat-floored crater about across and deep. Its low rim is composed of loose pieces of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, 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 planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

ic lava and

wall rock Wall rock is the rock that constitutes the wall of an area undergoing geologic activity. Examples are the rock along the neck of a volcano, on the edge of a pluton that is being emplaced, along a fault plane, enclosing a mineral deposit, or where a ...

s (

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

) of the underlying

diatreme A diatreme, sometimes known as a maar-diatreme volcano, is a volcanic pipe formed by a gaseous explosion. When magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the ...

, as well as random chunks of ancient

crystalline A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macrosc ...

rocks blasted upward from great depths. Maars in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

are found in the

Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field The Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field, also called the Clearwater Cone Group, is a potentially active monogenetic volcanic field in east-central British Columbia, Canada, located approximately north of Kamloops. It is situated in the Cariboo ...

of east-central

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

and in

kimberlite Kimberlite is an igneous rock and a rare variant of peridotite. It is most commonly known to be the main host matrix for diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an diamond called the Star of ...

fields throughout Canada. A notable field of maars is found in the

Pali-Aike Volcanic Field The Pali-Aike volcanic field is a volcanic field along the Argentina–Chile border. It is part of a family of back-arc volcanoes in Patagonia, which formed from processes involving the collision of the Chile Ridge with the Peru–Chile Trench. ...

, South America. and in the Sudanese Bayuda Volcanic Field. The

Auckland volcanic field The Auckland volcanic field is an area of monogenetic volcanoes covered by much of the metropolitan area of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, located in the North Island. The approximately 53 volcanoes in the field have produced a diverse a ...

in the urban area of

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand has several maars, including the readily accessible

Lake Pupuke Lake Pupuke (traditionally known in Māori as Pupukemoana) is a heart-shaped freshwater lake occupying a volcanic crater (or maar) between the suburbs of Takapuna and Milford on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. The heart shape is a re ...

in the North Shore suburb of

Takapuna Takapuna is a suburb located on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. The suburb is situated at the beginning of a south-east-facing peninsula forming the northern side of the Waitematā Harbour. While very small in terms of population, it ...

. One of the most notable craters misidentified as a maar is

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

Meteor Crater Meteor Crater, or Barringer Crater, is a meteorite impact crater about east of Flagstaff and west of Winslow in the desert of northern Arizona, United States. The site had several earlier names, and fragments of the meteorite are official ...

; for many years this was thought to be of volcanic rather than meteoric origin.

Germany

Eifel maars

In the

Volcanic Eifel The Volcanic Eifel or Vulkan Eifel (german: Vulkaneifel) is a region in the Eifel Mountains in Germany that is defined to a large extent by its volcanic geological history. Characteristic of this volcanic field are its typical explosion crater l ...

there are about 75 maars. These include water-filled maar lakes, but the great majority are dry maars. Both types, lake-filled maars and dry maars, are typical of the Volcanic Eifel. The last eruptions took place at least 11,000 years ago and many maars in the Eifel are clearly older. For this reason many are very heavily

eroded Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust, and then sediment transport, tra ...

and their shapes and volcanic features are not as obvious as those of more recent or even active maars elsewhere in the early. Nevertheless, the maars of the Eifel are well preserved.

= Water-filled maars of the Eifel

= Dry maars of the Eifel

In the Eifel and Volcanic Eifel there are numerous dry maars: *

Mosbrucher Weiher The Mosbrucher Weiher, also called the ''Mosbrucher Maar'', is a silted up maar east of the municipal boundary of the village of Mosbruch in the county Vulkaneifel in Germany. It is located immediately at the foot of the 675-metre-high Hochkelberg ...

(4 km SE of

Kelberg Kelberg is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the like-named ''Verbandsgemeinde'', and ...

) *

Booser Doppelmaar The Booser Doppelmaar ("Double Maar of Boos") comprises two maars that have silted up and, today, form shallow depressions in the countryside. They lie on the territory of the village of Boos (in the collective municipality of Vordereifel), a few ...

(W of Boos; near Kelberg) *

Dreiser Weiher The Dreiser Weiher near Dreis-Brück in the vicinity of Daun in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate is a tub-shaped maar in the Eifel mountains. It is up to 1,360 metres long and 1,160 metres wide. It is the second largest maar in the Eifel. ...

(W of

Dreis-Brück Dreis-Brück is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Daun, whose s ...

, N of

) *

Dürres Maar __NOTOC__ The Dürres Maar is a maar located in the vicinity of the village of Gillenfeld, Germany in the West Eifel mountains about 400 metres northwest of the Holzmaar. The Dürres Maar ist a dry maar, the original maar lake has silted u ...

(SW of

Gillenfeld Gillenfeld is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Daun, whose se ...

) * Duppacher Weiher (near

Duppach Duppach is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' (a municipality), part of a group of municipalities called the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Gerolstein, which is located in the town of Gerolstein'' in the Vulkaneifel district of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, German ...

, NW of

Gerolstein Gerolstein () is a town in the Vulkaneifel district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Gerolstein is a local municipality of the ''Verbandsgemeinde Gerolstein''. It has been approved as a '' Luftkurort'' (spa town). History As early as the Ston ...

) * Geeser Maar (E of

, N of Gees) *

(near

Eckfeld Eckfeld is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Eckfeld lies in the middle of the Vulka ...

) * Eigelbacher Maar (near Kopp, county of

; maar basin: c. 1200 m × 1200 m) *

Hitsche Maar 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 marsh. Name The ...

(NW of the Dürre Maar, smallest Eifel maar; Ø = 60 m) * Immerather Risch (

Middle Low German Middle Low German or Middle Saxon (autonym: ''Sassisch'', i.e. " Saxon", Standard High German: ', Modern Dutch: ') is a developmental stage of Low German. It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented i ...

: ''risch'' = reed bed; N of the Immerather Maar) * Gerolsteiner Maar (NE of

) *

Schalkenmehrener Maar The Schalkenmehrener Maar is a maar roughly 3 kilometres southeast of the town of Daun in the Eifel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is one of the Daun Maars (''Dauner Maare'') or Daun Maar Group and is a double maar, comprising a ...

E (of

Schalkenmehren Schalkenmehren is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Daun, w ...

) * Schönfelder Maar (SW of

Stadtkyll Stadtkyll is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Gerolstein, who ...

-Schönfeld) * Steffelner Laach or "Laach Maar" (near

) * Dehner Maar (near Reuth) * Walsdorfer Maar ("Schilierwiese"; S of Walsdorf; maar basin: c. 1150 m × 1000 m) * Wollmerather Maar (near Wollmerath)

= Broader use of the term ''maar''

= The following volcanic features are often colloquially referred to as a "maar" or "maar lake", although they are not, strictly speaking, maars: * Windsborn Crater Lake and Hinkelsmaar in the Manderscheid Volcano Group near

Bettenfeld Bettenfeld is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography The village lies in the southern Vul ...

, crater lakes of the Mosenberg *

near

Maria Laach Maria Laach Abbey (in German: ''Abtei Maria Laach'', in Latin: ''Abbatia Maria Lacensis'' or ''Abbatia Maria ad Lacum'') is a Benedictine abbey situated on the southwestern shore of the Laacher See (Lake Laach), near Andernach, in the Eifel ...

, lake in a

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

of the Laacher See volcano * Strohner Märchen (south of the

Pulvermaar The Pulvermaar is a water-filled maar that lies southeast of Daun in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Together with the Holzmaar it is one of the Gillenfeld maars. Description A tuff site in the bog formations of the neighbouring Str ...

volcanic pipe Volcanic pipes or volcanic conduits are subterranean geological structures formed by the violent, supersonic eruption of deep-origin volcanoes. They are considered to be a type of ''diatreme''. Volcanic pipes are composed of a deep, narrow cone o ...

which has become a maar * Papenkaule, a

, and the associated eruption site of the Hagelskaule * Elfenmaar near

Bad Bertrich Bad Bertrich is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Ulmen, w ...

, an almost entirely eroded

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...

Rodder Maar Ahrweiler () is a district in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Euskirchen, Rhein-Sieg and the city of Bonn in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the districts of Neu ...

near Niederdürenbach, the origin of which is unclear

Maars outside the Eifel

In Germany there are also several maars outside of the Eifel. A well-known example is the

Messel pit The Messel pit (german: Grube Messel) is a disused quarry near the village of Messel ( Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg, Hesse) about southeast of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Bituminous shale was mined there. Because of its abundance of well-preserv ...

, a former maar lake near

Messel Messel is a municipality in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in Hesse near Frankfurt am Main in Germany. The village is first mentioned, as ''Masilla'', in the Lorsch codex. Messel was the property of the lords of Groschlag from ca. 1400 to 1799 ...

in the county of

Darmstadt-Dieburg Darmstadt-Dieburg is a Kreis (Districts of Germany, district) in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Offenbach (district), Offenbach, Aschaffenburg (district), Aschaffenburg, Miltenberg (district), Miltenberg, Odenwaldkreis, Berg ...

and which is known for its well preserved

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s. In addition in the

Swabian Jura The Swabian Jura (german: Schwäbische Alb , more rarely ), sometimes also named Swabian Alps in English, is a mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending from southwest to northeast and in width. It is named after the region of ...

and the Albvorland (the Swabian Volcano) there are maar-forming volcanoes. Because the over 350 eruption points were only active in the Upper

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

17 to 11 million years ago, all the maars, apart from the dry maar, Randecker Maar and the Molach, are only detectable geologically. In the Ore Mountains near

Hammerunterwiesenthal Oberwiesenthal (; officially Kurort Oberwiesenthal) is a town and a ski resort in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony in Germany. It is situated in the Ore Mountains, on the border with the Czech Republic, 19 km south of Annaberg-Buchh ...

, the Hammerunterwiesenthal Maar formed about 30 million years ago during the Oligocene; the maar measures 2 kilometres from east to west and 1.4 kilometres from north to south.

Rest of Europe

The

Chaîne des Puys The Chaîne des Puys () is a north-south oriented chain of cinder cones, lava domes, and maars in the Massif Central of France. The chain is about 40 km (25 mi) long, and the identified volcanic features, which constitute a volcanic fie ...

in France contains numerous maars;

Lake Albano Lake Albano (Italian: ''Lago Albano'' or ''Lago di Castel Gandolfo'') is a small volcanic crater lake in the Alban Hills of Lazio, at the foot of Monte Cavo, southeast of Rome. Castel Gandolfo, overlooking the lake, is the site of the Papal Pa ...

in the Alban Mountains is a complex maar, and there is also a submarine maar (

Kolumbo Kolumbo is an active submarine volcano in the Aegean Sea in Greece, about 8 km northeast of Cape Kolumbo, Santorini island. The largest of a line of about twenty submarine volcanic cones extending to the northeast from Santorini, it is about ...

) near

Santorini Santorini ( el, Σαντορίνη, ), officially Thira (Greek: Θήρα ) and classical Greek Thera (English pronunciation ), is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from the Greek mainland. It is the ...

in Greece. The

Campo de Calatrava Volcanic Field The Campo de Calatrava volcanic field is a volcanic field in Spain. The volcanic field is in the centre of the province of Ciudad Real, in a region known as Campo de Calatrava. The volcanic field has an area of more than 5000 km2 and more tha ...

in Spain contains numerous maars; a typical example being the maar of Hoya del Mortero at Poblete in the

Province of Ciudad Real The province of Ciudad Real () is a province in the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Cuenca, Albacete, Jaén, Province of Córdoba (Spain), Córdoba, Province of Bada ...

. Active maars were commonplace in

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

and

Lothian Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Sco ...

, Scotland during the

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

period. The location of one such maar was Elie Ness.

Americas

Active maar volcanoes are mainly known outside Europe. In the US there are numerous maar areas, such as Alaska (

Ukinrek Maars The Ukinrek Maars are two volcanic craters on the north side of the Aleutian Range in Alaska that were formed by a phreatomagmatic eruption in 1977. The maars are 1.5 km south of Becharof Lake and 12 km northwest of Peulik Volcano, on ...

Nunivak Nunivak Island ( Central Alaskan Yup'ik: ; Nunivak Cup'ig: ''Nuniwar''; russian: Нунивак, Nunivak) is a permafrost-covered volcanic island lying about offshore from the delta of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers in the US state of Alaska, at ...

in the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Ameri ...

), in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

( Battle Ground Lake), in

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

( Fort Rock basin with the maars of

Big Hole The Kimberley Mine or Tim Kuilmine ( af, Groot Gat) is an open-pit and underground mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and claimed to be the deepest hole excavated by hand, although this claim is disputed. History and size The first diamonds he ...

Hole-in-the-Ground Hole-in-the-Ground is a large maar (volcanic explosion crater) in the Fort Rock–Christmas Lake Valley basin of Lake County, central Oregon, northeast of Crater Lake, near Oregon Route 31. It is about across, a little longer N-S than E-W. ...

Table Rock Table Rock may refer to: Canada * Table Rock, Niagara Falls, a former rock formation ** Table Rock Welcome Centre, a retail center near the site of Table Rock, Niagara Falls United States * Table Rock (Ada County, Idaho), a hill near Boise, Idah ...

), in

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

( Ubehebe Crater), in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

(

Soda Lakes The Soda Lakes are two lakes located northwest of Fallon, Nevada. They occupy two basaltic maar volcano craters which may have erupted in the last 1500 years. The larger lake, called Soda Lake or Big Soda Lake, is somewhat elongated, stretching ...

) as well as the maars of the

White Rock Canyon White Rock is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Los Alamos County, New Mexico. It is one of two major population centers in the county; the other is Los Alamos (the county seat). The population was 5,725 at the 201 ...

, Mount Taylor and Potrillo volcanic fields,

Crater and

Kilbourne Hole Kilbourne Hole is a maar volcanic crater, located west of the Franklin Mountains of El Paso, Texas, in the Potrillo volcanic field of Doña Ana County, New Mexico. Another maar, Hunt's Hole, lies just two miles south of Kilbourne Hole. Kilbour ...

Crater in New Mexico. In Central Mexico, the Tarascan volcanic field contains several maars in the states of

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo (; Purépecha: ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of ...

and

Guanajuato Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city i ...

. In Nicaragua is the maar of Laguna de Xiloa, part of the Apoyeque volcano. From South America, there are known maars in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

(e.g.

Cerro Overo Cerro Overo is a volcanic crater in Chile. It lies at the foot of Chiliques volcano and close to Laguna Lejía, over ignimbrites of Pliocene age erupted by the La Pacana volcano. It is wide and deep and formed through combined explosive-effusiv ...

and Cerro Tujle in northern Chile). Jayu Khota is a maar in

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Middle East and Africa

The maar of Birket Ram lies on the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...

; further south maars occur in Africa (

Bilate Volcanic Field Mario Amare Bilate (born 16 July 1991) is a Russian professional footballer who plays as a striker for ADO Den Haag. Playing career XerxesDZB Bilate broke into the XerxesDZB first team in March 2010 and scored seven goals in the ten games he a ...

and Haro Maja in the Butajiri- Silti-Volcanic Field, Ethiopia, the Bayuda Volcanic Field in the Sudan and

in the

Oku Volcanic Field Oku or OKU may refer to: *Oku, Cameroon, subdivision in the Northwest Region of Cameroon ** Lake Oku, a crater lake on the Bamenda Plateau in the Northwest Region of Cameroon ** Mount Oku, the largest volcano in the Oku Massif, in the Cameroon Volc ...

in Cameroon). In

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

the

Al Wahbah crater Al Wahbah Crater ( ar, فَوْهَة ٱلْوَعْبَة, Fawhat al-Waʿbah), also ''Maqlaʿ Ṭamiyyah'' (), is a volcanic crater, which is about away from Ta'if on the western edge of the Harrat Kishb basalt plateau in the Hejazi region of ...

formed as a result of a maar eruption.

Asia and Oceania

In Japan there are maars in the Kirishima- Yaku Volcanic Field in the

Kirishima-Yaku National Park is a national park in Kyūshū, Japan. It is composed of Kirishima-Kagoshima Bay, an area of Kagoshima Prefecture and Miyazaki Prefecture known for its active volcanoes, volcanic lakes, and onsen. The total area is . History On March 16, 1934 ...

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

(Kagamiike Pond) as well as many on the volcanic island of

Miyake-jima is an inhabited volcanic island in the Izu archipelago in the Philippine Sea approximately southeast of Tokyo, Japan. As with the other islands in the Izu Island group, Miyake-jima forms part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. Etymology ...

Izu Islands The are a group of volcanic islands stretching south and east from the Izu Peninsula of Honshū, Japan. Administratively, they form two towns and six villages; all part of Tokyo Prefecture. The largest is Izu Ōshima, usually called simply Ō ...

(Furumio, Mi'ike, Mizutamari, Shinmio). Koranga Maar and Numundo Maar are in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. Kawah Masemo maar is on

Mount Sempu Mount Sempu is a volcano in the northern arm of Sulawesi, Indonesia, which contains a 3 km wide caldera. A maar, called Kawah Masem, was formed in the south-west of the caldera and contains a crater lake. Sulfur deposits have been extracted ...

volcano in Indonesia. The San Pablo Volcanic Field in the Province of Laguna on the island of

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

in the Philippines contains maars. The

Newer Volcanics Province The Newer Volcanics Province is a geological area which is a volcanic field, formed by the East Australia hotspot across south-eastern Australia. It covers an area of , with over 400 small shield volcanoes and volcanic vents. The area contain ...

in the States of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia, has numerous maars, such as

Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about south-east of the capital Ad ...

Mount Schank Mount Schank is a high dormant volcano in the southeast corner of South Australia, near Mount Gambier. It was sighted by James Grant on 3 December 1800 and named after Admiral John Schank, designer of Grant's ship, HMS '' Lady Nelson''. Mount ...

and

Tower Hill Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher grou ...

, whose complex system of nested maars is enclosed by one of the largest maars in the world.

Foulden Maar Foulden Maar is a fossil site near Middlemarch in Otago, New Zealand. The fossils were deposited in the small deep crater lake of a maar formed by a volcano in the Miocene era, around 23 million years ago. The crater lake existed for a period of ...

is in

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Gallery

Image:Totenmaar weinfelder maar eifel.jpg,

Weinfelder Maar __NOTOC__ The Weinfelder Maar, also called the Totenmaar, is a maar around two kilometres southeast of the town of Daun in the Eifel Mountains, in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Geography The maar lake was formed about 10,500 years a ...

, one of the three maars originally described Image:Maar Israel.JPG, The maar at Birkat Ram, the

Image:Zengena Hayq.JPG,

Zengena Lake Zengena Lake ( am, ዘንገና ሐይቅ) is a crater lake located at in the Awi Zone of the Amhara Region in Ethiopia. It is situated between the towns of Injibara and Kessa, only 200 m from the Addis Ababa-Bahir Dar highway at an elevation ...

, a maar in

Amhara Region The Amhara Region ( am, አማራ ክልል, Åmara Kilil), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people. Its capital is Bahir Dar which is the seat of the Reg ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

Image:Pinacate_volcanic_field.jpg, El Elegante Crater, in

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Arizona ...

México Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Image:BVFMuweilihCrater.jpg, El Muweilih Crater in

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

: Natron-rich clay on the crater floor File:Kilbourn hole aerial 1.jpg, Kilbourne Hole maar in the

Potrillo volcanic field The Potrillo volcanic field is a monogenetic volcanic field located on the Rio Grande Rift in southern New Mexico, United States and northern Chihuahua, Mexico. The volcanic field lies southwest of Las Cruces, and occupies about near the U. ...

of New Mexico File:Kluft-photo-SodaLake-rim-2018-11.jpg, Big Soda Lake in Nevada

Footnotes

References

Seetiefe der Maare bei mittlerem Wasserstand zu ''Ungeklärte Herkunft des Rodder Maars''

Literature

USGS photo glossary: Maar

External links

List of Maar VolcanoesLa Vestide du Pal
{{Authority control Depressions (geology) Volcanic landforms .