Weiselberg

Coordinates: 49°31′21″N 7°14′36.9″E / 49.52250°N 7.243583°E / 49.52250; 7.243583
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Weiselberg
St. Wendel, Saarland (Germany
)
Parent rangeNorth Palatine Uplands
Geology
Age of rock280 MYA
Mountain typeVolcanic pipe
Type of rockdacite

The Weiselberg is a hill 569.5 m above 

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

hill spur
of the Weiselberg is the roughly 520 m-high Mittelberg, whose terrain transitions into the hill of Hochrech.

Natural regions

The Weiselberg lies in the

Saar-Nahe Uplands (No. 19) on the boundary of the major units of the North Palatine Uplands (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.[2]

Geology

Geologically, the Weiselberg belongs to the

Rotliegendes
), about 280 million years old.

A vulcanite is formed, when magma 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:

Roman times 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 adits.[4]

The Weiselberg is a magmatic

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 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.[4] The blockfield visible today was formed during the ice age around 10,000 years ago by solifluction
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

References

  1. ^
    Federal Agency for Nature Conservation
  2. Die naturräumlichen Einheiten auf Blatt 148/149 Trier/Mettendorf. Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Bad Godesberg 1974. → Online-Karte
    (PDF; 4,5 MB)
  3. ^ W. E. Tröger: Spezielle Petrographie der Eruptivgesteine, Verlag Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 1935.
  4. ^ a b 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