Outcrop of cinder cone with pressed tertiary clays
View from the Lydia tower over the Laacher See to the south to the lowest part of the crater rim of the Laacher See volcano, behind it is the well known Wingertsberg wall with the profile of the fall and flow deposits of the Middle and Upper Laacher See Tephra
Image: Sven PhilippNear-surface rock units are essential for formation and conservation of soils as substrate for agriculture, as seepage water horizon, and in general as ecosystem element. Geoinformation systems and digital elevation models provide valuable tools for visualization of the present-day situation of landscapes and for quantification of rock units. In times of climate change, reconstruction of processes changing the landscape is important for both hydrochemistry and linear to planar erosion.
Conceptual model of phosphorus input into Lake Laach. Copyright of elevation model and orthophotos: Landesamt für Vermessung und Geobasisinformation Rheinland-Pfalz, www.lvermgeo.rlp.de.
Image: Sascha Rudolph, Sven Philipp
Determination of hydrochemical parameters at a water level.
Image: Sven PhilippAs part of a PhD project, the Applied Geology group is investigating the surface and subsurface catchment of Lake Laach in the Quaternary volcanic field of the Eastern Eifel. Of special interest are the thickness and bedding of fresh and altered low to high permeability volcanic unconsolidated and consolidated rocks, hanging clays and Tertiary clays on a loosened basement of Lower Devonian siliciclastics.The localization of faults will be mapped using geological information and measurements of natural radioactivity, and their contribution to flow paths will be documented using hydrogeochemical and hydraulic data. Groundwater dynamics will be analysed using borehole data together with geophysical and hydrological data. In addition, a hydrogeochemical groundwater model for volcanic pore and fissure aquifers in the Laacher Lake area will be developed based on geochemical investigations and hydrochemical modelling. This will be used to understand the hydrogeochemical signatures in the volcanic aquifers of the eastern Eifel under the influence of volcanogenic CO2, with a particular focus on the geogenic nutrient input of phosphorus to Lake Laach.
In addition geochemical data are applied for the classification of inorganic geochemical anomalies in recent fluvial sediments in volcanic fields in Germany.
Associated: Dr. Michael Pirrung, Dr. Karl-Heinz Köppen (Wasser und Boden GmbH), Sven Philipp (Wasser und Boden GmbH), Sascha Rudolph (FSU)
Projects: FLUVIMAG