During your vacation in the GesundLand Vulkaneifel, visit the Schalkenmehrener Maar, which is located directly at the town of the same name, Schalkenmehren. It is one of the three Dauner Maare and particularly popular in the summer when the natural swimming pool and boat rental are open. When the water is still too cold for swimming, you can admire the view of the maar during a walk around it.
Especially when you visit the GesundLand Vulkaneifel in the summer, a detour to the Schalkenmehrener Maar is a must. Located directly at the eponymous village and opposite the Weinfelder Maar, the Schalkenmehrener Maar is one of the three Dauner Maars and offers a wonderful backdrop for an extensive walk or a long hike.
In the height of summer, the Schalkenmehrener Maar is a popular destination for families with children and anyone looking to refresh themselves in the cool waters. Swimming in the natural swimming pool Schalkenmehrener Maar and boating are possible. After a long day of swimming, the restaurants and cafés in Schalkenmehr offer coffee and cake or a hearty meal.
If you look closely, you can see that the Schalkenmehrener Maar was once a double maar that formed around 20,000 to 30,000 years ago due to volcanic activity. However, the tuffs of the western maar filled the eastern maar crater, so there is nothing left of the second maar today except for the flat moor vegetation that has spread in this area. Take a little discovery tour and observe numerous animal and plant species along the way!
What is a maar, actually?
The term maar is derived from the Latin "mare" (=sea). It is a crater-shaped volcanic type formed by steam eruptions, which is "splashed" into the landscape and often presents a saucer-like shape. A maar forms when rising magma encounters water-bearing rock layers. This leads to massive explosions, and the surrounding rock is torn apart along with the magma into tiny fragments, which are then ejected from the explosion crater. In the area of the explosion site, a cavity forms, transitioning into an explosion shaft. When the rock collapses over the created cavity, the explosion shaft becomes a collapse or maar crater. After volcanic activity subsides, the craters subsequently fill with water. A total of over 70 maar volcanoes have been counted in the Eifel; twelve maars are still filled with water today, while the others have already silted up.
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