Rhenish Massif

Rhenish Massif
272px
Highest point
Peak	Großer Feldberg
Elevation
Geography
Countries	Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France
States/Provinces	North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse
Parent range	Central Uplands
Geology
Orogeny	Variscan (Hercynian)
Age of rock	Devonian Carboniferous
Type of rock	metamorphic rock

The Rhenish Massif (German: Rheinisches Schiefergebirge: Rhenish Slate Mountains) is a geologic massif in western Germany, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg and northeastern France.

The Rhenish Massif consists of the Belgian and French Ardennes, the German Eifel and east of the river Rhine the Sauerland and Siegerland. The Mosel and Hunsrück hills form its southwestern part, the Westerwald, Lahn-Dill area and the Taunus occupy the southeastern part. The massif is divided in two by the Middle Rhine Valley (Rhine Gorge), a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Geology

Geological sketch of the Rhenish Massif

Geologically the Rhenish Massif consists of metamorphic rocks, mostly slates (hence its German name), deformed and metamorphosed during the Hercynian orogeny (around 300 million years ago). Most of the massif is part of the Rhenohercynian zone of this orogeny, that also encompasses the Harz further east and Devonian rocks of Cornwall (southwestern England).

Most rocks in the Rhenish Massif were originally sediments, mostly deposited during the Devonian and Carboniferous in a back-arc basin called the Rhenohercynian basin. In some places in the Ardennes, even older rocks of Cambrian to Silurian age crop out as massifs overlain by Devonian slates. These older rocks form smaller massifs of their own (Stavelot, Rocroi, Givonne and Serpont). In the eastern Rhenish Massif some very limited outcrops in the Sauerland show rocks of Ordovician and lower Siliurian age. Further Ordovician rock exposures are part of the southern Taunus.

The second rock type are Tertiary and Quaternary igneous rocks, which most prominently occur in the Vulkaneifel, the Westerwald and the Vogelsberg. The volcanic rocks have been linked to a mantle plume that, due to its low density and buoyancy, uplifted the entire region during the last few hundred thousand years, as measured from the present elevation of old river terraces.

Mountain and hill ranges

The mountain and hill ranges within the Rhenish Massif - some with maximum height in metres above sea level (NN)) are given below:

West of the Rhine from north(west) to south(east) Ardennes (652 m) Eifel (747 m; 27-28), subdivisions include: High Eifel Vulkan Eifel Ahr Hills Zitter Forest Fore-Eifel Moselle Eifel South Eifel West Eifel Islek Schnee Eifel Schneifel Belgian Eifel Rur Eifel High Fens Hunsrück (816 m; 24), subdivisions include: Bingen Forest Idar Forest Lützelsoon Osburger Hochwald Schwarzwalder Hochwald Soonwald

East of the Rhine from nort(west) to south(east) Süder Uplands (843.2 m; 33) Ardey Hills (274 m) Iserlohn Heights (546 m) Plackwald (581.5 m, Arnsberg Forest Nature Park) Bergish Uplands Ebbe Mountains (663.3 m) Lenne Mountains (656.1 m) Saalhausen Hills (687.7 m) Siegerland Rothaar Mountains (incl Hochsauerland, 843.2 m) Kellerwald (675 m, eastern outliers in the West Hesse Highlands; 344) Westerwald (657 m: 32) Siebengebirge (460 m, zum Middle Rhine region; 292.4) Montabaur Heights (545 m) Gladenbach Uplands (609 m) Taunus (881,5 m; 30), subdivisions include: Fore-Taunus High Taunus Lower Taunus Western Lower Taunus Idstein Basin Eastern Lower Taunus

References

• Walter, R. et al.: Geologie von Mitteleuropa. 5. Auflage, Schweizerbarth’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1992. ISBN 3-510-65149-9 (German).