The Pfahl is a 150-kilometre-long quartz

vein Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated b ...

that runs through the northeastern

Bavarian Forest The village of Zell in the Bavarian Forest The Bavarian Forest (German: ' or ''Bayerwald''; bar, Boarischa Woid) is a wooded, low-mountain region in Bavaria, Germany that is about 100 kilometres long. It runs along the Czech border and is con ...

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 ...

. From a geomorphological point of view, it represents a residual ridge that has been formed by weathering and erosion over millions of years.

Formation

The Pfahl consists of

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

that was deposited as a

hydrothermal Hydrothermal circulation in its most general sense is the circulation of hot water (Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, ''water'',Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with th ...

vein about 275 million years ago within the existing fault structure. The Pfahl was probably active as a fault several times. Because the rock of the Pfahl was harder than the surrounding rock, it was left standing like a wall as softer rocks were eroded. Today the Pfahl forms a residual ridge 150 kilometres long and 10 to 40 metres high. The shining white quartz of the Pfahl consists of up to 98%

silicic acid Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one ...

; any yellowish to reddish or grey coloration is caused by iron compounds and impurities (''Pfahlschiefer''). The interpretation of the actual Pfahl fault as a suture is disputed; but it has been confirmed that it separates various magmatic rocks.

Course

The Pfahl begins in the northwest in the

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz, , ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany, and is located in the east of Bavaria. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and numerous ponds and lakes ...

, southeast of

Schwarzenfeld Schwarzenfeld is a municipality in the district of Schwandorf in Bavaria, Germany. The melodic death metal band Deadlock In concurrent computing, deadlock is any situation in which no member of some group of entities can proceed because ...

, passes the town of

Cham Cham or CHAM may refer to: Ethnicities and languages *Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia **Cham language, the language of the Cham people ***Cham script ***Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script *Cham Albanian ...

to the southwest and runs in a southeasterly direction via

Viechtach Viechtach is a town in the district of Regen in Bavaria in 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 p ...

Regen Regen ( Northern Bavarian: ''Reng'') is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and the district town of the district of Regen. Geography Regen is situated on the great Regen River, located in the Bavarian Forest. Divisions Originally the town consisted o ...

, Grafenau and Freyung and into

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, a ...

Mühlviertel The Mühlviertel () is an Austrian region belonging to the state of Upper Austria: it is one of four "quarters" of Upper Austria, the others being Hausruckviertel, Traunviertel, and Innviertel. It is named after the three rivers ', ', and '. ...

. The quartz only outcrops in a few places (and not at all southeast of Freyung); otherwise the Pfahl is only recognisable as a ridge. In

Weißenstein Weißenstein ( sl, Bilšak) is a town in the district of Villach-Land in the Austrian state of Carinthia. Geography Weißenstein lies in the lower Drau valley northwest of Villach. The highest point in the municipality is the Spitzeck at 1517 m ...

near Regen it reaches a height of 758 metres

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

; on this summit stand the ruins of Weißenstein Castle. The quartz formations are most easily visible near Viechtach (west of the town) and here they rise up to 30 metres above the ground. With a few exceptions the Pfahl has survived as a continuous geological formation. Through the Zellertal valley between

Bad Kötzting Bad Kötzting (; before 2005: Kötzting; Northern Bavarian: ''Bad Ketzing'') is a town in the district of Cham, in Bavaria, Germany, near the Czech border. It is situated in the Bavarian Forest, southeast of Cham. Overview Bad Kötzting has the ...

and

Bodenmais Bodenmais is a municipality in the district of Regen in Bavaria in Germany. It lies at one end of the Zeller Valley in the Bavarian Forest. The tourist attractions at the Silberberg mountain include cross-country skiing tracks as well as an al ...

another Pfahl-like slate zone runs parallel to the actual Pfahl and in which the quartz does not immediately outcrop. This 'secondary pfahl' is called the Rundingen Pfahl Zone (''Rundinger-Pfahlzone''). Its southeastern outcrop lies near

Bettmannsäge Bettmannsäge is a village in the borough of Regen in the Bavarian Forest region of Germany. It has a population of about 150. Location Bettmannsäge lies between Zwiesel and Regen on the railway line from Plattling to Bayerisch Eisenstein, the ...

southwest of

Zwiesel Zwiesel ( cs, Svízel) is a town in the lower-Bavarian district of Regen, and since 1972 is a Luftkurort with particularly good air. The name of the town was derived from the Bavarian word stem "zwisl" which refers to the form of a fork. The fo ...

. There is another secondary pfahl in the southeast of the Bavarian Forest, the Aicha-Hals Secondary Pfahl (''Aicha-Halser-Nebenpfahl''), which is responsible for the double bend on the

Ilz The Ilz () is a river running through the Bavarian Forest, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Danube and in length ( including its main source river Große Ohe), during which it travels down a height difference of ~140m. The Ilz is formed a ...

near Hals as well as a bend in the River

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

to the north just behind Passau. There is yet another one between Kirchberg vorm Wald and Gerlesberg.

Natural region divisions

The longest section of the Pfahl runs through the Regen Depression. Here there are several, individual, southeast-running residual ridges that are repeatedly interrupted by basins and transverse valleys. From a

natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecology, ecological point of view, the naturally occurring fl ...

al perspective, the Pfahl is divided into the following sub-divisions as follows (from NW to SE): * to 404 Regen Depression (''Regensenke'') ** 404.2 Pfahl *** 404.25 Thierlstein Pfahl (''Thierlsteiner Pfahl''), SW of

; on the main chain up to 448.9 m, on its southwest uplands up to 469.9 m *** 404.24 Moosbach Pfahl (''Moosbacher Pfahl''), up to 639 m *** 404.23

Pfahl (''Viechtacher Pfahl''), up to 583 m *** 404.22 Patersdorf Pfahl (''Patersdorfer Pfahl''), up to 648 m *** 404.21

March March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of Marc ...

Pfahl (''Marcher Pfahl''), on its southwest highlands up to 784.6 m *** 404.20 Weissenstein Pfahl (''Weißensteiner Pfahl''), at Weißenstein Castle 758 m Southeast and on the far side of the Regen Depression, in the Abteiland, the sections of the Pfahl are geomorphologically less obvious and do not form their own natural regions. One notable geotope there is the Buchberger Leite.

National geotope

In 2006 the Pfahl was added to the list of 77 outstanding national geotopes in Germany.Stefan Glaser: ''Ein langer Schnitt in der Erdkruste Bayerns - Der "Bayerische Pfahl"''. In: Ernst-Rüdiger Look, Ludger Feldmann (Hrsg.): ''Faszination Geologie. Die bedeutende Geotope Deutschlands'', E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, 2006, , pp.64f.

References

Klaus Müller-Hohenstein: ''Geographische Landesaufnahme: Die naturräumlichen Einheiten auf Blatt 165/166 Cham.'' Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Bad Godesberg, 1973. →&nbs
Online map
(pdf; 4.4 MB) Willi Czajka, Hans-Jürgen Klink: ''Geographische Landesaufnahme: The natural regional units on Sheet 174 Straubing.'' Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Bad Godesberg, 1967. →&nbs
Online map
(pdf; 4.3 MB)

Literature

* Bayerisches Landesamt für Umwelt: ''Ein Bild von einer Störung! Großer Pfahl''. In: ''Hundert Meisterwerke - Die schönsten Geotope Bavarias'', Augsburg, 2012, , pp. 72f. {{Coordinate , NS=49/05/2/N , EW=12/51/36/E , type=landmark , region=DE-BY Geography of Bavaria Bavarian Forest Schwandorf (district) Cham (district) Regen (district) Geotopes