The Weiselberg is a hill in the

North Palatine Uplands The North Palatine Uplands (german: Nordpfälzer Bergland), sometimes shortened to Palatine Uplands (''Pfälzer Bergland''), is a low mountain range and landscape unit in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and belongs mainly to the Palat ...

near Oberkirchen in the

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...

county of St. Wendel. The Weiselberg is covered in forest, especially on its upper slopes and is a habitat for rare species of plant. It was made a nature reserve in 1950.

Geography

Location

The Weiselberg is located in the southeastern part of the

Saar-Hunsrück Nature Park The Saar-Hunsrück Nature Park (german: Naturpark Saar-Hunsrück) was established in 1980 and covers an area of just under 2,000 km² in the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland. The authority responsible for the nature pa ...

immediately west of the village of Oberkirchen through which flows the

Blies The Blies () is a right tributary of the Saar in southwestern Germany (Saarland) and northeastern France (Moselle). The Blies flows from three springs in the Hunsrück near Selbach, Germany. It is roughly 100 km long, ending in the French c ...

tributary of the

Oster Oster ( uk, Осте́р ; russian: Остёр, Ostyor) is a city located where the Oster River flows into the Desna, in Chernihiv Raion, Chernihiv Oblast of Ukraine. Oster hosts the administration of Oster urban hromada, one of the hromadas ...

which rises on the north-northwest of the hill. Oberkirchen itself is in the municipality of

Freisen Freisen is a municipality in the district of Sankt Wendel, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated approximately 12 km northeast of Sankt Wendel, and 20 km southwest of Idar-Oberstein. The public transportation in Freisen/Oberkirchen is th ...

. To the west-northwest rises the Leichweilerbach, a left-hand headstream of the ''Betzelbach''. To the south is the ''Weiseler Born'', the source of the Oster tributary, the ''Wilmesbach''. The northern

hill spur A spur is a lateral ridge or tongue of land descending from a hill, mountain or main crest of a ridge. It can also be defined as another hill or mountain range which projects in a lateral direction from a main hill or mountain range. Examples of ...

of the Weiselberg is the roughly -high Mittelberg, whose terrain transitions into the hill of Hochrech.

Natural regions

The Weiselberg lies in the

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 ecological point of view, the naturally occurring flora and ...

al major unit group of the Saar-Nahe Uplands (No. 19) on the boundary of the major units of the

(Glan-Alsenz Uplands and Hill Country, ''Glan-Alsenz-Berg- und Hügelland''; 193) with its sub-unit, the Kusel Upland (''Kuseler Bergland'', 193.3) in the east and the Prims-Nahe Upland (''Prims-Nahe-Bergland'') (Upper Nahe Hills ''Oberes Nahebergland''; 194) with its sub-unit, the Hirstein Upland (''Hirsteiner Bergland'', 194.2) in the west.

Geology

Geologically, the Weiselberg belongs to the

. Its summit dome consists of volcanic rock (

vulcanite Vulcanite is a rare copper telluride mineral. The mineral has a metallic luster, and has a green or bronze-yellow tint. It has a hardness between 1 and 2 on the Mohs scale (between talc and gypsum). Its crystal structure is orthorhombic. Vulcanit ...

) of the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...

(''

Rotliegendes The Rotliegend, Rotliegend Group or Rotliegendes (german: the underlying red) is a lithostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) of latest Carboniferous to Guadalupian (middle Permian) age that is found in the subsurface of large areas in wes ...

''), about 280 million years old. A vulcanite is formed, when

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 ...

rises through the earth's crust and breaks out onto the surface of the earth. As it is weathered the soft rock surrounding it is eroded and the hard volcanic rock is left behind. The hill is made of rock typical of its kind and which is named after it: weiselbergite ( type locality), which was first described in 1887 by Karl Heinrich Rosenbusch. It is a deep black and light blue magmatic rock with isolated pieces of

feldspar Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) felds ...

which give the appearance of the sky at night. According to Tröger it is a

dacitic Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyol ...

vulcanite with about 66% glass content.

Agate Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in Anci ...

s are found within the rock. 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 ...

agate was being excavated on the surface of the hill. From the 15th century, during an agate boom period, the green rock was mined using

adit An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, ventilated, and minerals extracted at the lowest convenient level. Adit ...

s. The Weiselberg is a magmatic

volcanic plug A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcanic object created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if rising volatile-charged ma ...

. Its most striking rock formation is the ''Steinerne Schrank'' ("Stone Cupboard"), a wide rock face which looks like a large cupboard. On the southern slopes of the Weiselberg lies a

basaltic 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% of a ...

blockfield, the ''Steinernes Meer'' ("Rocky Sea"). Originally, magma rose from the earth's interior. It gradually solidified under the earth's surface to form mostly pentagonal column formations, which is typical of slowly cooling basalt. Their shape was caused during cooling by shrinkage of the magma, similar to cracks in the drying mud of a puddle. Over a period of millions of years, the surrounding softer rock was eroded. The blockfield visible today was formed during the

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

around 10,000 years ago by

solifluction Solifluction is a collective name for gradual processes in which a mass moves down a slope ("mass wasting") related to freeze-thaw activity. This is the standard modern meaning of solifluction, which differs from the original meaning given to it ...

of the weathered rock columns. 1982 mapping showed that the rock columns in the area of the summit dome have a so-called ''Meilerstellung'' ("milling position"). This is usually caused by the fact that a lava lake in the crater of a volcano solidifies relatively quickly. The high glass content in the rock also indicates that the original magma was very near to the surface and cooled fast. The columns then formed perpendicular to the crater walls.

Protected areas

The majority of the Weiselberg is protected by the ''Weisselberg''

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 ...

( CDDA No. 82884; established in 1950; 74.2 ha in area), the ''Weisselberg''

Special Area of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and a ...

(FFH No. 6409-305; 78 ha) and the ''Weisselberg'' bird reserve (VSG No. 6409-305; 78 ha). On the hill are parts of the protected area of the County of St. Wendel and Municipality of Freisen (CDDA No. 390232; 1976; 11.4797 km²).

References

Otmar Werle: ''Geographische Landesaufnahme: Die naturräumlichen Einheiten auf Blatt 148/149 Trier/Mettendorf.'' Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Bad Godesberg 1974. →&nbs
Online-Karte
(PDF; 4,5 MB) W. E. Tröger: ''Spezielle Petrographie der Eruptivgesteine'', Verlag Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 1935. ''Weiselberg-Gipfeltour in Oberkirchen''
retrieved 11 October 2015, auf bostalsee.de

Sources

* W. E. Tröger: ''Spezielle Petrographie der Eruptivgesteine'', Verlag Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 1935 * ''Der große ADAC Natur-Reiseführer'', ADAC Verlag, Munich, 1991,

External links

{{Commons category, Weiselberg

at wanderbares-saarland.de
Naturschutzgebiet Weiselberg
at agrarkulturerbe.de Sankt Wendel (district) Mountains and hills of the Saarland Volcanic plugs of Europe