Lateglacial to Holocene rapid crater infilling of a MIS 2 maar volcano (West-Eifel Volcanic Field, Germany): environmental history and geomorphological feedback mechanisms

Abstract

We document the Lateglacial to Holocene sedimentation and vegetation history of a small, infilled crater landform in the West-Eifel Volcanic Field (WEVF; western Germany). We analysed geomorphological landform change, sedimentological and geochronological data, pollen, and plant macrofossils of a 16-m-long sediment core from the Eichholz Maar (EHM). The EHM erupted between ∼20 and 15 ka ago (MIS 2). Lacustrine siliclastic infilling was completed about 7500 years ago. Lateglacial rates of sedimentation are generally 2 to 5 times higher than in other maar lakes of the WEVF. Local factors, therefore, overprint the relative efficacy of the climate-controlled variance of sedimentation rates at the Lateglacial/Holocene transition. The predominance of local factors relates to inherent geomorphological process–response mechanisms that were triggered by the EHM eruption. Rapid crater infilling and its completion by the mid-Holocene are attributed to a combination of small storage capacity and geomorphological activity. A late Boreal interval of significant lake-level fall can, however, be attributed to a period of continental-scale climate change as recorded in other European lacustrine settings. Our findings highlight the importance of utilizing geomorphological information to reveal the relative significance of local controls as opposed to climate control when investigating small-sized lake settings with active sediment supply systems.