Volcanic Origin

The Siebengebirge is of volcanic origin.

Here were are at at the geological outcrop at Mount Weilberg,, and abandoned quarry. You can see the different rock formations, and geologically trained people can use it to understand how a region was formed and what it has gone through over millions of years. About 30 million years ago, in the Oligocene and into the Miocene, all hell had broken loose.

Volcanic activity in our region

At first, that is to say in a first phase of eruption, lava and large quantities of stones came out of the interior of the earth to the surface. Here, they slowly cooled off. These were the trachyte tuffs, covering an area much larger than today’s Siebengebirge.

Thereafter, in a second phase of volcanic eruption, the trachytes came. However, they got stuck in the thick layer of trachyte tuffs and arched it upwards, forming numerous mountains. Drachenfels, Schallenberg, Geisberg, Jungfernhardt, Lohrberg, Perlenhardt, Wasserfall, Großer Ölberg und Lahrberg came into being.

After that, in a third phase of volcanic eruptions, the latite tuffs and latites appeared. They broke through the layer of trachyte tuffs and on their turn formed mountains. These were Wolkenburg, Bolvershan, Hirschberg, Stenzelberg, Lahrberg, Himmerich, Mittelberg and Broderkonsberg.

Finally, a last eruption phase occurred in the Miocene. Now the lava brought basalt and basalt tuffs. The last mountains to appear were Asberg, Leyberg, Scheerkopf, Petersberg, Nonnenstromberg, the core of Großer Ölberg, Kleiner Ölberg, Dollendorfer Hardt, Rabenley Finkenberg.

In millions of years, wind and weather gave the Siebengebirge its present form.

The early geologists doubted

The early geologists, and even the famous Alexander von Humboldt, could not believe that the Siebengebirge was of volcanic origin. Today we know that our region, the Middle Rhine, was part of a continental fault line system. Along these lines continents may break apart, and volcanic eruptions may occur.

Read more (German)
Viel mehr zu Gesteinen, Vulkanismus im Siebengebirge und Gesteinskunde sehen Sie im Naturparkhaus des VVS und auf seiner Website Verschönerungsverein Siebengebirge.
KuLaDig, Entstehung und Vulkanismus des Siebengebirges