A small dry peat bog is being re-wetted
Geology
The Maar has lowered into the ribbon slate chain! This is a transitional layer between the Lower Devonian Siegen and Unterems levels. The Trautzberger Maar tuffs atop it are colored red and contain reddish chunks of sandstone and slate. This is followed by black basalt-lapilli tuffs of the Wartgesberg volcanoes and lastly the deposits of the Sprink maar, evidenced of various geological outcrops in the surrounding area. Ice wedge pseudomorphoses were also observed in the maar tuffs, which, along with the different origins of the tuffs, shows that this maar cone must have arisen in the last glacial period.
Particularities
To gain additional agricultural land, the former wetland in Trautzberger Maar was drained as part of the land consolidation in the early 1960s. This has now been reversed so that flora and fauna adapted to wet habitats can recapture this area. Water logging efforts included capping the drainage, installing a small and securing the bypassing agricultural route. Time will tell whether an open water expanse will form in the long term, as it was before
the first drainage around 1820/30, as the maar was still used for fishing.
The maar is part of the Wartgesberg nature reserve.
Weather
