Eckfeld Maar: Window into an Eocene Terrestrial Habitat in Central Europe

Abstract

To mark the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the Rheinische Naturforschende Gesellschaft in 2009 and of the centennial of the Mainz Natural History Museum in 2010, we present a short account of our present knowledge of the Eckfeld Maar after 20 years of continuous research. This paper does not attempt to include all of the detailed results on the geology of the Eckfeld site or its biota. To date, nearly 250 papers and books have been published since the start of our project An up‐to‐date list of these publications can be found at http://www.eckfeldermaar.de.

Paleogene phreatomagmatic volcanism on the western main fault of the northern Upper Rhine Graben (Kisselwörth diatreme and Nierstein–Astheim Volcanic System, Germany)

“…During that time not only the tuff ring and the syneruptive surface but also all juvenile volcanics in the tuffitic sediments surrounding the central argillaceous organic rich crater lake sediments as a coarse marginal facies and presumably also the upper parts of the diatreme tuff underlying these lake sediments had already weathered to clays as it is the case for the 44 Ma old Eckfeld Maar (e.g. Pirrung et al 2003, Lutz et al 2010. Due to the load of the c. 1,700-m thick Post-Eocene sediments, the "oilshale" facies has been compressed, dehydrated (today it consists of up to 90 % of organic matter: Straub 1955) and the weathered volcanic clasts have been altered diagenetically.…”

“…Comparing the log of the c. 60 m described by Straub (1955) with sediment cores that have been drilled in Tertiary maar lake deposits in recent years (e.g. Mingram 1998;Pirrung 1998;Fischer et al 2000;Schulz et al 2002;Pirrung et al 2003;Goth and Suhr 2007;Kaulfuss et al 2008;Lutz et al 2010), it seems at least highly conceivable that drill hole Stockstadt-5 by chance penetrated into the sediments of the early stages of a Late Middle to Upper Eocene maar lake (age assignment is based on palynological evidence analysed by V. Wilde and M. Hottenrott, personal communication, April 2012). Since this "maar-hypothesis" has been proposed for the Stockstadt-5 location, it turned out that the Stockstadt-5 cores are in parts still stored in the core repository of the ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH.…”

A new genus and species of Dermestidae (Coleoptera) from the Eckfeld Maar crater (Middle Eocene, Germany)

“…Following early stages with succeeding volcanoclastic and predominantly siliciclastic sedimentation, the lake became meromictic and the finely laminated bituminous claystone ("oilshale") was formed in the quiet anoxic bottom layer of the lake. The oilshale contains biomarkers and lithified bacteria, algae, a great diversity of tracheophytes, numerous arthropods, few molluscs and a wide range of vertebrates, documenting a highly diverse terrestrial flora and fauna representing an ecosystem towards the end of the middle Eocene (e.g., Neuffer et al 1996;Lutz et al 1998Lutz et al , 2010Wilde & Frankenhäuser 1998;Wappler 2002Wappler , 2003aWappler & Engel 2003, 2006Wappler & Andersen 2004;Wappler et al , 2005Wappler & Heiss 2006;Wappler & Petrulevičius 2007;Petrulevičius et al 2008;Dlussky et al 2008Dlussky et al , 2009). The Eckfelder Maar insect taphocoenosis contains a total of nearly 4700 fossil specimens.…”

“…This deposit has produced a broad spectrum of fossils ranging from organic molecules, micro-organisms, aquatic invertebrates, plants and insects and their varied associations, to a wide range of vertebrates including articulated mammals exhibiting soft tissue preservation and gut contents (e.g., Lutz et al 2010). The new species belongs to the Attageninae of the Dermestidae and is placed in a new genus most probably closely related to the extant genus Attagenus Latreille, 1802.…”

Early volcanological research in the Vulkaneifel, Germany, the classic region of maar–diatreme volcanoes: the years 1774–1865

“…The oldest and best studied one is the Middle Eocene Eckfeld Maar (e.g. Fekiacova et al 2007;Lutz et al 2010 and references therein; see also http://www. eckfelder-maar.de).…”