Lindenstumpf

Basalt columns Meiler position

The Lindenstumpf is a mountain in the southern Rhön, about one kilometer north of the Bavarian municipality Schondra and 500 meters southwest of the Federal Highway 7 in the district of Bad Kissingen. The Lindenstumpf has a height of 500 meters above sea level, dominates the area but only about 40 meters. Its summit has a 350 × 200 meters wide and 25 meters deep pit, which goes back to a former basalt quarry. The entire area of about 9.8 hectares was awarded on 8 February 1994 as a protected landscape component. The basalt quarry at Lindenstumpf is recognized by the Bavarian State Office for Environment as Geotop 672R003. The Geotop also one of the 100 Most Beautiful geotopes Bavaria. See also the list of geological sites in the district of Bad Kissingen.

Description

The Lindenstumpf is just one of numerous basalt formation of the Rhön. The Rhön volcanism lasted from the late Oligocene (about 25 mya ) to the early Pliocene (about 5 mya ). The basalt, which is in the former quarry open-minded today, but represents a magma that never came to the earth's surface but cooled in the vent of the volcano Lindenstumpf. The actual volcano was a natural way to a relatively small cone mountain, which also corresponds to that of former vent of the volcano, eroded long before the establishment of the quarry. This vent was cut through the quarry operation and exposed its non wittertes rock. Therefore, there are now clearly distinct basalt columns that were created by the relatively slow cooling of basaltic lava, observed, arranged radialstrahlig and rise towards the center, similar to a charcoal kiln (hence it is also referred by Meiler position).

The Lindenstumpf is surrounded by parallel to the slope extending hedges to read stone walls and intervening meadows. The relatively flat former quarry floor is almost entirely enclosed by the approximately 25 -meter-high artificial escarpment of basalt. Only on the south side there is a few meters wide opening at the time of the freshly fractured basalt was taken away by the. On the former quarry floor there are small alluvial fan and troughs. There, spread dry grass and moss - and lichen- covered surfaces with emerging woody plants. In waterlogged areas are amphibians spawning grounds. Above the escarpment, on the edge of the pit, beech and hornbeam grow.

Basalt mining

In 1965, a basalt quarry with treatment plants for gravel and chippings was established on Lindenstumpf the construction of the A 7 from Fulda to Würzburg. Within two years, about 1.8 million tons of basalt were mined and processed. This corresponds to an average daily capacity of more than 5000 tons. Operator of the plant was a joint venture of highway Deckenlos F21 in Unterriedenberg. Following closure in 1967, the treatment plant was dismantled. As a first envisaged backfilling of the quarry remained under rubble, a witness to the pit of the former quarry.