Mount Leura

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The Mount Leura is a volcanic crater in the geological Newer Volcanics Province in the southeast of the city of Camperdown in western Victoria, Australia. The crater is located 121 km south-west of Melbourne. Volcanic eruptions of this mountain should be carried out 5,000 to 20,000 years ago.

The Mount Leura is part of a larger geological complex, because next to it is another smaller crater, Mount Sugarloaf, and at the foot of Mount Leura is the Laura Maar.

Mount Leura

The crater of Mount Leura rises 313 meters above sea level, about 130 feet above the ground and it's about 100 meters deep. Within the crater rim traces of a second volcanic eruption and other smaller Tuffauswürfe are recognizable. In the crater walls to find more deposits of tuffs, rock debris, and volcanic bombs. These are likely to originate from eruptions along the fissure, which runs in this area in north-south direction.

The tuffs of the Mount Leura perform numerous inclusions of highly heated deep crust and mantle in unusually high concentrations.

Leura Maar

The Leura Maar is a Maar, which is 2.5 km long, 1.7 km wide and 50 meters deep. It originated in a series of volcanic eruptions, probably 22,000 years ago.

Mount Sugarloaf

Mount Sugarloaf is another volcanic crater, which is located on the southwest flank of Mount Leura. He has a perfectly shaped volcano mouth. This form was created in the first stage of the activity of Mount Leura as a small adjacent crater opening a large volume of fragments of lava in a short time, in addition to the main pillar of Mount Leura, hurled into the air. Here a steep crater of volcanic ashes, tuffs, large rock debris and volcanic bombs originated.

Tourism

The Mount Leura can be reached by vehicle. On the summit is a walking path, from there another volcanic elevations can be seen on a clear day. At the foot of the mountain there are picnic tables and seats. Accommodation is available in the nearby town campers Downs.

Others

In the field of volcanoes lived before European colonization, the aborigines of Djargurd Wurrung. The name Leura supposed to mean in their language big nose.

The Europeans used the local rock deposits to build their buildings and roads. In the area of ​​Leura Maar there were numerous quarries that give an insight into the tuff layers and embedded therein xenoliths. There are currently in the northeast of Mount Leura two quarries, the older quarries are closed or are used for storage of earth.