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 crater lake, which may also be called a maar.[1]
Maars range in size from 20 to 3,000 m (66 to 9,800 ft) across and from 5 to 200 m (20 to 700 ft) deep.[2][3] Most maars fill with water to form natural lakes. Most maars have low rims composed of a mixture of loose fragments of volcanic rocks and rocks torn from the walls of the diatreme.[3]
Etymology
The name maar comes from a
Maar lakes and dry maars
Maar lakes, also referred to simply as maars, occur when groundwater or precipitation 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 mountains of Germany.
A dry maar results when a maar lake dries out, becomes
Distribution
The largest known maars are found at Espenberg on the Seward Peninsula in northwest Alaska. These maars range in size from 4,000 to 8,000 m (13,000 to 26,000 ft) in diameter and a depth up to 300 m (980 ft). 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 magma comes into contact with permafrost. 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.[5]
Maars occur in western North America,
One of the most notable craters misidentified as a maar is Arizona's Meteor Crater; for many years this was thought to be of volcanic rather than meteoric origin.[7]
Examples
Germany
Eifel maars
In the
Water-filled maars of the Eifel
Dry maars of the Eifel
In the Eifel and Volcanic Eifel there are numerous dry maars:
- Mosbrucher Weiher (4 km SE of Kelberg)
- Boos; near Kelberg)
- Daun)
- Dürres Maar (SW of Gillenfeld)
- Duppacher Weiher (near Duppach, NW of Gerolstein)
- Geeser Maar (E of Gerolstein, N of Gees)
- Eckfelder Maar (near Eckfeld)
- Eigelbacher Maar (near Kopp, county of Daun; maar basin: c. 1200 m × 1200 m)
- Hitsche Maar (NW of the Dürre Maar, smallest Eifel maar; Ø = 60 m)
- Immerather Risch (Middle Low German: risch = reed bed; N of the Immerather Maar)
- Gerolsteiner Maar (NE of Gerolstein)
- Schalkenmehrener Maar E (of Schalkenmehren)
- Schönfelder Maar (SW of Stadtkyll-Schönfeld)
- Steffelner Laach or "Laach Maar" (near Steffeln)
- 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:
- Hinkelsmaar in the Manderscheid Volcano Group near Bettenfeld, crater lakes of the Mosenberg
- Laacher See near Maria Laach, lake in a caldera of the Laacher See volcano
- Strohner Märchen (south of the Pulvermaar), volcanic pipe which has become a maar
- Papenkaule, a volcanic crater, and the associated eruption site of the Hagelskaule
- Elfenmaar near Bad Bertrich, an almost entirely eroded stratovolcano
- Rodder Maar near Niederdürenbach, the origin of which is unclear [10]
Maars outside the Eifel
In Germany there are also several maars outside of the Eifel. A well-known example is the
Rest of Europe
The
Active maars were commonplace in Fife and Lothian, Scotland during the Carboniferous period.[11] The location of one such maar was Elie Ness.[12]
Americas
Active maar volcanoes are mainly known outside Europe.
In the US there are numerous maar areas, such as in Alaska (
In Central Mexico, the Tarascan volcanic field contains several maars in the states of
Middle East and Africa
The maar of
Asia and Oceania
In Japan there are maars in the
Koranga Maar and Numundo Maar are in
The
Gallery
-
Weinfelder Maar, one of the three maars originally described
-
The maar atBirkat Ram, the Golan Heights
-
México
-
El Muweilih Crater, a maar in Bayuda volcanic field, Sudan:[20] Natron-rich clay on the crater floor
-
Hunt's Hole in the Potrillo volcanic fieldof New Mexico
-
Big Soda Lake in Nevada
-
Lake Rotokawau in New Zealand
See also
- Tuff ring– Volcanic eruption involving both steam and magma
- Tuff cone– Landform of ejecta from a volcanic vent piled up in a conical shape
- Caldera – Cauldron-like volcanic feature formed by the emptying of a magma chamber
Footnotes
- ^
Notes:
- According to German Wikipedia's "Maar" article, in 1544 in his book Cosmographia, Sebastian Münster (1488–1552) first applied the word "maar" (as Marh) to the Ulmener Maar and the Laacher See.[unreliable source] 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 ; [they] have no streams flowing in but many flowing out ; one calls them "maars" and [they] 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 [Geological studies on the middle Rhein] (Mainz, (Germany): Kupferberg, 1819).
- In 1825, George Julius Poulett Scrope (1797–1876) introduced the term "maar" into English. See: Scrope, G.P., Considerations on Volcanoes (London, England: Philipps, 1825), p. 166.
- 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 [Geology 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.
- The American Heritage Dictionary states that the word "maar" derives from the Latin mare (sea), as does the German language Universal Lexikon.
References
- ^ ISBN 0-631-20473-3.
- S2CID 128423499.
- ^ .
- ^ ISSN 0377-0273.
- ^ C. Michael Hogan (2008) Pali Aike, The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham [1]
- ^ Treiman, A. (6 September 2003). "Meteor Crater I". The Great Desert: Geology and Life on Mars and in the Southwest. Lunar and Planetary Institute. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
- ISBN 978-3-510-65127-6.
- ^ Seetiefe der Maare bei mittlerem Wasserstand
- ^ Wilhelm Meyer. "Die Geologie". Heimatjahrbuch 2006 (in German). Kreis Ahrweiler. Archived from the original on 2016-05-25. Retrieved 2016-01-21. zu Ungeklärte Herkunft des Rodder Maars
- ISBN 978-1780465418. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
- . Retrieved 16 September 2022.
- S2CID 129220670.
- .
- ISSN 0453-4360.
- ^ "History & Heritage". Tower Hill (Worn Gundidj Corporation). Retrieved 9 March 2020.
- ^ "Tower Hill". Victorian Resources Online. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
- ^ Hancock, Farah (2019-05-10). "Dunedin's 'Pompeii' to be mined to make pig food". Newsroom. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
- ^ Beanland, Sarah (1981). The Rotokawau eruption (Thesis).
- .