Scientists have managed to establish the exact date of one of the most powerful eruptions in Central Europe over the past 100 thousand years.
Provided by Deutsche Welle
Maria Laach • About 13 thousand years ago, at the end of the Last Ice Age, a powerful volcanic eruption took place in this region on the territory of modern Germany – one of the most powerful in Central Europe over the past 100 thousand years.
As scientists assume, the column of ash then reached a 20-kilometer height. It was spread all over the continent – to the northern regions of Italy and present-day St. Petersburg. The neighboring areas along the Rhine were covered in places with a 16-meter layer of ash and pumice. In total, about 20 cubic kilometers of material were thrown away.
Secrets of the round lake
Later, the picturesque Laacher See was formed in the crater of the volcano. It is located in the Eifel region in Rhineland-Palatinate, about an hour's drive from Cologne.
X-ray of a fragment of a charred tree found at the bottom of the lake
Some time ago, scientists discovered a fragment of a tree burnt during the eruption in sediments at the bottom of the lake. Later, using modern methods of tree-ring analysis, it was possible to establish the exact year of this large-scale natural disaster. It happened exactly 13,077 years ago, which is 126 years earlier than previous estimates.
Laakhskoe lake in the crater of a volcano
Eifel – volcanic region
The results of the study, which involved researchers from the University of Mainz in Germany and the Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape in Switzerland, were published in the journal Nature. The data also provided a better understanding of climate change at the end of the Last Ice Age in Europe and the North Atlantic Ocean. They completely coincided with the results of studies of ice samples in Greenland, recovered from great depths.
Laach Abbey of St. Mary was founded in the German Eifel region over 920 years ago
The Eifel is still an active volcanic region. An article about this was published in 2019 in the scientific journal Geophysical Journal International. As scientists assume, the corresponding processes take place here at about 50 kilometers depth.
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