Search results for "maar"
showing 10 items of 39 documents
Dating Bulk Sediments from Limnic Deposits Using a Grain-Size Approach
2013
Radiocarbon measurements on bulk subaqueous sediments typically provide ages significantly older than actual time of deposition. This is generally caused by the presence of reworked organic compounds, which are depleted in 14C. To explore this issue of age heterogeneity, we collected 4 organic-rich samples from varying depths in a lake sediment core at the Gemündener Maar (Eifel, Germany), a lake of volcanic origin. We divided each sample into 5 standard grain-size fractions: gravel, sand, silt, clay, and 1 fraction smaller than 0.45 μm. These were cleaned separately using a standard acid-alkali-acid treatment. The highly organic gravel-size fraction provided the youngest 14C ages of all gr…
The ELSA-Flood-Stack: A reconstruction from the laminated sediments of Eifel maar structures during the last 60 000 years
2016
Abstract This study reconstructs the main flood phases in central Europe from event layers in sediment cores from Holocene Eifel maar lakes and Pleistocene dry maar structures. These reconstructions are combined with recent gauge time-series to cover the entire precipitation extremes of the last 60 000 years. In general, Eifel maar sediments are perfectly suited for the preservation of event layers since the deep water in the maar lakes is seasonal anoxic and therefore, bioturbation is low. However, the preservation of annual lamination is only preserved in Holzmaar and Ulmener Maar; the other cores are dated by 14C, magnetostratigraphy, tephra markers and ice core tuning. The cores were dr…
The ELSA tephra stack: Volcanic activity in the Eifel during the last 500,000 years
2016
Abstract Tephra layers of individual volcanic eruptions are traced in several cores from Eifel maar lakes, drilled between 1998 and 2014 by the Eifel Laminated Sediment Archive (ELSA). All sediment cores are dated by 14C and tuned to the Greenland interstadial succession. Tephra layers were characterized by the petrographic composition of basement rock fragments, glass shards and characteristic volcanic minerals. 10 marker tephra, including the well-established Laacher See Tephra and Dumpelmaar Tephra can be identified in the cores spanning the last glacial cycle. Older cores down to the beginning of the Elsterian, show numerous tephra sourced from Strombolian and phreatomagmatic eruptions,…
Fire–vegetation relationships during the last glacial cycle in a low mountain range (Eifel, Germany)
2021
Abstract Lake sediments can provide useful archives to reconstruct past vegetation changes or fire history. To comprehend how vegetation and fire history have correlated during the last 130,000 years, we used two lake sediment records with known patterns of pollen and botanical macro remains and supplemented this data by analyses of lignin-derived phenols as markers for local vegetation inputs and by benzene polycarboxylic acids (BPCAs) as markers for total fire residue inputs (black carbon, BC). The two sediment archives originated from two maar lakes in the Eifel, which is part of the low mountain ranges in central Germany. A lignin-derived phenol index showed woody angiosperms and gymnos…
Multi-proxy dating of Holocene maar lakes and Pleistocene dry maar sediments in the Eifel, Germany
2013
Abstract During the last twelve years the ELSA Project (Eifel Laminated Sediment Archive) at Mainz University has drilled a total of about 52 cores from 27 maar lakes and filled-in maar basins in the Eifel/Germany. Dating has been completed for the Holocene cores using 6 different methods (210Pb and 137Cs activities, palynostratigraphy, event markers, varve counting, 14C). In general, the different methods consistently complement one another within error margins. Event correlation was used for relating typical lithological changes with historically known events such as the two major Holocene flood events at 1342 AD and ca 800 BC. Dating of MIS2–MIS3 core sections is based on greyscale tunin…
The lacustrine sediment record of Oberwinkler Maar (Eifel, Germany): Chironomid and macro-remain-based inferences of environmental changes during Oxy…
2008
The lacustrine record of Oberwinkler Maar (Eifel, Germany) is the northernmost continuous record documenting the Weichselian Pleniglacial in central Europe - a period characterized by multiple abrupt climate oscillations known as the Dansgaard/Oeschger cycles. Here, the results of a high-resolution study of chironomid remains are presented, with a focus on the earlier part of Oxygen Isotope Stage (OIS) 3 (60-50 kyr BP) covering four stadial/interstadial cycles. During the stadials, the chironomid fauna of the former lake was dominated by many coldstenothermic chironomid taxa, indicating a cold, oligotrophic lake. The concentrations of chironomid remains were lower during the interstadials, …
Syn- and post-eruptive mechanism of the Alaskan Ukinrek Maars in 1977
2008
The two alkali olivine basaltic Ukinrek Maars (East Maar and West Maar) and one scoria cone within East Maar erupted within eleven days (March 30–April 9, 1977) on the Alaskan Peninsula, 13 km north of Mt. Peulik, an andesite volcano of the Aleutian Range. The East Maar, with a diameter of 300 m, is located within a small graben system striking N 1100 E, oblique to the Aleutian trench in a distance of 350 km. On these tensional faults two eruption centres occur: The East Maar and a scoria cone on the southeastern margin of its crater bottom. The scoria cone was active more or less during the whole eruption activity of East Maar. The West Maar, with a diameter of 140 m, is located just west …
On the Volcanology of the West Eifel Maars
1987
The Quaternary alkali-basaltic volcanic field of the West Eifel is the classic maar region of the world. Related to the formation of the continental rift zone which extends through Central Europe, ultrabasic magmas rose from the upper mantle through the continental crust and fed 240 small volcanoes. Next to scoria cones with their lava flows, maars are most frequent and represent 25% of the volcanoes. Since 1820 and until 1970 their origin was mostly believed to be related to explosive exsolution of juvenile volatile phases. Since 1970, however, several authors have suggested that the West Eifel maars are phreatomagmatic in origin, i.e. rising magma contacted groundwater in near-surface lev…
Tertiary maars of the Hocheifel Volcanic Field, Germany
2008
In the Hocheifel only three maars are known. The Eckfeld Maar, filled with Eocene lacustrine sediments, is located at the southern boundary of the volcanic field, where the Tertiary peneplain has been eroded only slightly. The ages of the Jungferweiher Maar in the southeast and the Dottingen Maar in the northeast of the Tertiary Hocheifel Volcanic Field (THVF) are unknown and their timing within the THVF is uncertain. In contrast to the surrounding area, the central part of the THVF is deeply eroded. Here, six large diatremes (>600 m) were identified in the area of Kelberg with one exception. So far, no relics of crater sediments have been found within the large diatremes. They probably rep…
FORMATION OF PHREATOMAGMATIC MAAR–DIATREME VOLCANOES AND ITS RELEVANCE TO KIMBERLITE DIATREMES
1975
ABSTRACT Studies of maars and diatremes suggest a specific process in their formation. Magma rises along a fissure and contacts ground– or surface derived water. The resulting phreatomagmatic eruptions give rise to base surge and air–fall deposits consisting of juvenile and wall–rock material. Spalling of the wall–rocks enlarges the fissure into an embryonic vent. At a critical diameter of the vent large-scale spalling at depth and slumping near the surface gives rise to a ring–fault of large diameter and subsidence of the enclosed wall–rocks and overlying pyroclastic debris. This subsidence leads to a maar crater at the surface. Fluidization processes are active in the narrow vent and in f…