The Mosbrucher Weiher, also called the ''Mosbrucher Maar'', is a

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 ...

maar A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption (an explosion which occurs when groundwater comes into contact with hot lava or magma). A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow ...

east of the municipal boundary of the village of

Mosbruch Mosbruch 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 Kelberg, whose s ...

in the county

Vulkaneifel Vulkaneifel () is a district (''Kreis'') in the northwest of the state Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the least densely populated district in the state and the fourth most sparsely populated district in Germany. The administrative centre 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 ...

. It is located immediately at the foot of the 675-metre-high

Hochkelberg At the Hochkelberg is one of the ten highest mountains in the Vulkan Eifel in Germany. It is a former stratovolcano, at the southern foot of which lies the Mosbrucher Weiher, an explosion crater lake or maar. Below the summit of the Hochkelbe ...

, a former

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

. The floor of the maar is in the shape of an elongated oval and is about 700×500 metres in size, its upper boundary has a diameter of about 1,300 × 1,050 metres. This makes the Mosbrucher Maar the third largest of the maars in the western

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 ...

region. The

Üßbach The Üßbach (also UeßbachFor its entry in the Geoexplorer the spelling ''Ueßbach'' has to be used. or Üssbach) is a stream, just under long in the Eifel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It rises near Mosbruch in the county of Vul ...

stream flows past and close to the Mosbrucher Weiher.

Origin

According to

pollen analysis Palynology is the "study of dust" (from grc-gre, παλύνω, palynō, "strew, sprinkle" and ''-logy'') or of "particles that are strewn". A classic palynologist analyses particulate samples collected from the air, from water, or from deposits ...

studies, the crater was formed about 11,000 years ago by a volcanic eruption. In the area around the maar there are very few volcanic

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 cont ...

s in comparison to other Eifel maars; only in two places are there greater accumulations of tuff; the rest of the surrounding area is covered only by a thin layer. Either most of the tuffs have already been removed, or the eruption produced very little tuff. After

volcanic activity Volcanism, vulcanism or volcanicity is the phenomenon of eruption of molten rock (magma) onto the surface of the Earth or a solid-surface planet or moon, where lava, pyroclastics, and volcanic gases erupt through a break in the surface called a ...

ceased, water collected in the maar basin and a very shallow maar lake was formed. Because of its low water level it

relatively quickly and, after a few thousand years, became

bog 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 types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...

. As early as

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

- there are still remains of Roman facilities on the Hochkelberg - the remaining water was impounded to create a fish pond. In 1838, water was drained from the pond so that the western outlying areas could be used as

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the ...

. Today, it forms meadowland and

pastureland Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

, while the eastern part retains its bog character. In the 20th century, the 6-metre-thick peat layer of the lake was harvested in order to produce

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

for heating. Peat cutting ceased in the 1950s.

Nature reserve

The bog has created an excellent habitat for rare plants and animals. In 1980, the Mosbrucher Weiher was declared a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

. It was the 100th nature reserve in the state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

. The long-term renaturalisation measure is embedded in the overall project "Restoration and conservation of hillside bogs, raised bogs and intermediate bogs and their adjacent habitats in the Hunsrück and the Eifel", with the ''Stiftung Natur und Umwelt Rheinland-Pfalz'' as the project sponsor.pdf ''EU LIFE+ Natur Projekt "Wiederherstellung und Erhalt von Hang-, Hoch und Zwischenmooren sowie angrenzenden Lebensräumen im Hunsrück und der Eifel."''
(pdf; 127 kB). Description of the project. Visitors to the maar are guided by carefully laid-out gangplanks in order to protect the maar from damage.

References

Literature

External links

{{Coordinate, article=/, NS=50.260931, EW=6.952013, type=landmark, region=DE-RP Maars of the Eifel Nature reserves in Rhineland-Palatinate Vulkaneifel