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Stone Age volcano in Bavaria: Researchers want to “prove young volcanic eruption”

2022-10-02T20:19:06.069Z


Stone Age volcano in Bavaria: Researchers want to “prove young volcanic eruption” Created: 2022-10-02 22:09 By: Felix Herz The last volcanic eruption in Bavaria is said to have been millions of years ago. But there are growing signs that it wasn't nearly that long ago. © Panthermedia / picture alliance / dpa / Mercury collage For a long time it was assumed that the last volcanic eruption in Ba


Stone Age volcano in Bavaria: Researchers want to “prove young volcanic eruption”

Created: 2022-10-02 22:09

By: Felix Herz

The last volcanic eruption in Bavaria is said to have been millions of years ago.

But there are growing signs that it wasn't nearly that long ago.

© Panthermedia / picture alliance / dpa / Mercury collage

For a long time it was assumed that the last volcanic eruption in Bavaria was many millions of years ago.

But that's probably not the case, researchers say.

Selb – volcanic eruptions are only known in Bavaria from television.

They rarely have any impact on the Free State at all - apart from air traffic.

Years ago, for example, Eyjafjallajökull erupted in Iceland, which had consequences for flights throughout Europe.

But in Bavaria, it was thought for a long time that the last volcanic eruption was millions of years ago.

In the meantime, however, the knowledge that there were still active volcanoes in north-east Bavaria in the Stone Age is condensing.

Stone Age volcano in Bavaria: Researchers carry out investigations in Upper Franconia

According to Roland Eichhorn, head of the Geological Service at the State Office for the Environment (LFU), the area in which volcanoes have been active in the recent past is larger than initially assumed.

"Now we hope to be able to detect a very recent volcanic eruption," explains Eichhorn about the upcoming research.

On Thursday, September 29th, the LFU started drilling near Selb (district of Wunsiedel) in Upper Franconia.

According to Eichhorn, the new drilling site was found using improved methods.

This is about 40 kilometers north of the last drilling sites when past volcanic activities were examined in 2015 in Bärnau or Neualbenreuth (Tirschenreuth district) in the Upper Palatinate.

The surprise: around 280,000 years ago there was volcanic activity there - from a geological point of view, that was "just yesterday".

Upper Palatinate: Volcanoes and the search for a nuclear repository

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Researchers take samples: volcano investigations are important in several ways

It was around 29 to 15 million years ago that there was volcanic activity in the border triangle of Bavaria, Saxony and the Czech Republic.

According to the hypothesis, these were reactivated in the Stone Age.

To check this, the researchers are collecting samples from the drilling, which is expected to last two weeks.

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These are interesting in several ways.

Not only do they provide information about volcanic activity in the past, according to Eichhorn they are also a "climate archive".

Climate changes can therefore be studied well and precisely using these samples.

In addition, the drilling and research help in the search for a location for possibilities for the final storage of nuclear waste.

(fhz)

All news and stories from Bavaria can now also be found on our brand new Facebook page Merkur Bayern.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-10-02

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