885 views
On the Scheibenberg in the south-western Ore Mountains near Annaberg, there is a large outcrop in a former quarry that cuts halfway through the summit of the Scheibenberg and provides an excellent view of the interior of the mountain. The famous organ pipes of the Scheibenberg are basalt columns from a basalt flow from the Oligocene. Since the 16th century, the hard basalts in the area around the villages of Schlettau and Scheibenberg have been mined for building purposes, used as road paving or crushed into gravel. In the 19th century, clays found under the basalts were also mined. Basalt columns were quarried on the Scheibenberg until 1936, before the Scheibenberg was placed under protection in 1937. The aim was not to destroy the basalt columns any further, but to preserve them for posterity as an object worthy of special protection. In 2006, the Scheibenberg was declared a “National Geotope”, an award given to a total of 77 geotopes across Germany by the Academy of Geosciences in Hanover eV. In 2019, the geotope was also placed under the protection of the UNESCO World Heritage Mining Region/Krušnohoří. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ James Hutton https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi... Attribution: Henry Raeburn, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Abraham Gottlob Werner https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi... Attribution: German: Lithography from a memorandum from 1848, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Scotese Scotese, CR, 2016. Plate Tectonics, Paleogeography, and Ice Ages, (Modern World - 540Ma), YouTube Animation • Plate Tectonics, 540Ma - Modern Worl... . Goethe: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi... Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Humboldt the EXPLORER. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi... Friedrich Georg Weitsch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Fig. Valley filling and relief reversal etc.: Meschede, M. (2018). GEOLOGY OF GERMANY: a process-oriented approach. Springer Spektrum. Sebastian, U., & Sebastian, U. (2013). The Ice Age and after. The geology of the Ore Mountains, 167-173. Wagenbreth, O. & Steiner, W. (2015): Geological forays: landscape and earth history between Cape Arkona and Fichtelberg. – 4th edition, Springer Spektrum, 203 pp. Meschede, 2023 (unpublished): Fig. was created by Martin especially for the video