The Eifel, a low mountain range with an explosive past. Here you can marvel at Germany's youngest volcanoes. Just 12,900 years ago, an eruption caused a real inferno: the eruption of the Laacher See volcano was by far the most powerful to occur in Central Europe in the last million years. The consequences were felt as far away as Sweden and Italy. The geology of the Eifel is unique in Germany and it still influences the cultural history of this region today. -------------- 00:00 The Volcanic Eifel: Between Inferno and Cultural History 08:32 The new tenants of the disused mines 09:54 Basalt: The Black Gold of the Eifel 14:44 Lightweight building material with an explosive past and uncertain future 18:34 The memory of the Eifel maars 23:49 The breath of the volcanoes: The gas bubbles of the maars --------------- 1) The Volcanic Eifel: Between inferno and cultural history The idyllic Laacher See is evidence of a massive volcanic eruption. 12,900 years ago, massive layers of pumice and ash buried the land beneath them. The explosive past of the Eifel is still visible today and provided building materials that the Romans demanded. The layers of pumice had compacted under their own weight and formed tuff. The Romans built their country houses from the easily processed volcanic rock and supplied their soldiers from there. 2) The new subtenants of the disused mines The sunny steep walls of the old tuff quarries attract the rare bee-eaters to the Eifel. The strikingly brightly feathered guests from Italy build their nesting holes in the volcanic deposits. Other flying artists prefer the cool crevices of the historic basalt tunnels. A large colony of up to 70,000 bats hibernates in the four square kilometre tunnel system beneath the town of Mendig. Scientists count 17 species of bats that use this refuge, which is unique in Germany. 3) Basalt: The Black Gold of the Eifel Hidden beneath the pumice and ash cover of the Lacher See volcano near Mendig lie the solidified basalt columns of an older volcano. The Wingertsberg cinder cone once covered the Eifel with meter-high lava slag. Rich in gas bubbles, this basalt is both hard and easy to work. The structure is particularly suitable for the production of abrasion-resistant millstones, which made the region famous far beyond its borders. In Roman times, 17 million hand mills were produced near Mayen. The first large-scale production of kitchen appliances. 4) Lightweight building material with an explosive past and an uncertain future From the famous Maria Laach Abbey Church to the normal residential building. Many buildings in the Eifel are made of tuff and basalt. To this day, the thick pumice layers of the Lacher See volcano are mined to produce building materials. The porous, lightweight natural stone is processed on a large scale into lightweight building blocks and mortar. But the mining of volcanic rock also brings with it a change in the landscape that not all residents are happy about. Many of the local volcanic mountains have already disappeared. And with them, a valuable natural and cultural landscape is lost. 5) The memory of the Eifel maars The Eifel, with its 77 maars and volcanoes, is a UNESCO Geopark. Younger volcanoes have formed around the old volcanoes of the High Eifel, fed by the Eifel plume. They erupted during the last ice age and left behind water-filled explosion craters. The thousands of years old deposits at the bottom of the Schalkenmehrener Maar contain pollen, the analysis of which provides exciting insights into the climatic past of the Eifel. 6) The breath of the volcanoes: The gas bubbles of the maars The highest cold water geyser in the world is located on the banks of the Rhine. The driving force behind the 50-meter-high fountain are gases that escape from the magma chamber beneath the Eifel. The different composition of the gas bubbles that rise in the maar lakes reveals something about their origin and about the magmatic activity in the subsurface. The proportion of helium-3 particles tells the scientists at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research whether the gas bubbles are emerging from cooled or active molten rock. The bubbling water thus helps to better understand the regional geology. #SWR #PlanetSchule --------------- ► All episodes of the series: https://www.planet-schule.de/wissensp... ► Teaching material: https://www.planet-schule.de/wissensp... ► WEB: https://planet-schule.de ► NEWSLETTER: https://www.planet-schule.de/sf/servi... ► FACEBOOK: / planetschule ► TWITTER: / swrbildung