Heldburger Gangschar

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The Heldburger Gangschar is a Cenozoic volcanic system in the Franconian parts of southern Thuringia and northern Bavaria. The term Gangschar refers to the fact that few of the volcanoes have retained their characteristic topographical shape, rather their former activity can be detected by filled fissures known as Gänge ("[mineral] veins"). These veins are mostly oriented in south-southwest direction, their cross-section is often less than one metre wide. The Heldburger Gangschar' is named after the small settlement of Heldburg, part of the borough of Bad Colberg-Heldburg. The surrounding area, the Heldburger Land, belongs entirely to the northern part of the volcanic zone. The most impressive of the surviving volcanic cones by far are the twin peaks of the Gleichberge, 641 metres and 679 metres high, in nearby Heldburger Land.

The Cenozoic Era meaning "new life", is the current and most recent of the three Phanerozoic geological eras, following the Mesozoic Era and extending from 66 million years ago to the present day.

Volcanic field Area of the Earths crust prone to localized volcanic activity

A volcanic field is an area of the Earth's crust that is prone to localized volcanic activity. They usually contain 10 to 100 volcanoes such as cinder cones and are usually in clusters. Lava flows may also occur. They may occur as a monogenetic volcanic field or a polygenetic volcanic field.

Franconia Cultural region of Germany

Franconia is a region in southern Germany, characterised by its culture and language, and may be roughly associated with the areas in which the East Franconian dialect group, colloquially referred to as "Franconian", is spoken. Because of this, the region can be roughly associated with the three administrative regions of Lower, Middle, and Upper Franconia in the state of Bavaria. Also part of the cultural region of Franconia are the adjacent Franconian-speaking region of South Thuringia, as well as Heilbronn-Franconia in the state of Baden-Württemberg, and small parts of the state of Hesse.

Contents

Location

The high rocky mountains of the Gleichberge (679 m and 641 m) in nearby Heldburger Land Gleichberge vom Simmersberg aus.jpg
The high rocky mountains of the Gleichberge (679 m and 641 m) in nearby Heldburger Land
Heldburg Fortress in Heldburger Land on the 405-metre-high, hill made of phonolite Veste heldburg.jpg
Heldburg Fortress in Heldburger Land on the 405-metre-high, hill made of phonolite
The 449-metre-high hill of Straufhain with the ruins of the medieval Straufhain Castle at its summit Straufhain bei Streufdorf.jpg
The 449-metre-high hill of Straufhain with the ruins of the medieval Straufhain Castle at its summit

The Heldburger Gangschar is not a self-contained landscape and is distributed mainly over the main physiographic units Grabfeld, Itz-Baunach Hill Country and Haßberge Hills. South of the river Main their former activity is also detectable in the northern Steigerwald and Franconian Jura. Its core zone extends from Hildburghausen to Gerolzhofen.

Grabfeld

The Grabfeld is a region in Germany, on the border between Bavaria and Thuringia. It is situated southeast of the Rhön Mountains. Its highest elevation is 679 metres high in the little Gleichberge mountain range. The Grabfeld gave its name to the Bavarian district of Rhön-Grabfeld and the Thuringian municipality of Grabfeld.

Haßberge Hills mountain range

The Haßberge are a hill range, up to 512.2 m above sea level (NN), north of the River Main in Lower Franconia in the German state of Bavaria. The hills are in the county of Bamberg and divided by the Main valley from their sister hills, the Steigerwald. Both forested hill ranges fall steeply down to the Main. Between the Ebelsbach and Haßfurt the river cuts through the hills in a wide gap, creating an easy route between the Upper Main and the fertile Middle Main region.

Main (river) right tributary of Rhine river in Germany

The Main is a river in Germany. With a length of 525 kilometres (326 mi), it is the longest right tributary of the Rhine. It is also the longest river lying entirely in Germany. The largest cities along the Main are Frankfurt am Main and Würzburg.

Volcanic cones

The following are the best known, preserved volcanic cones, together with details of their height, approximate age and rock in brackets:

Großer Gleichberg mountain in Thuringia, Germany

At 679 m above sea level (NHN), the Großer Gleichberg is the higher of the two adjacent mountaintops known as the Gleichberge east of Römhild in the landscape of Grabfeld and the county of Hildburghausen in the German state of Thuringia. It was formed in the Tertiary volcanic field of the Heldburger Gangschar and is the highest point today of that formation.

Kleiner Gleichberg mountain in Germany

The Kleiner Gleichberg is the slightly lower of the two Gleichberge mountains, east of the village of Römhild in the country of Grabfeld in the county of Hildburghausen in the German state of Thuringia. The Celtic Oppidum Steinsburg is located on the mountain.

Straufhain Place in Thuringia, Germany

Straufhain is a municipality in the Hildburghausen district of Thuringia, Germany.

Older volcanoes such as the Oberleinleiter in the Franconian Jura (31 million years old, olivine-melilite-nephelinite and olivine-nephelinite) are no longer recognizable as such by their topography. Although the latter reaches a height of 505 metres, it is overshadowed by the Jurassic rocks of the Alps.

Literature

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Baunach Place in Bavaria, Germany

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Nevado San Francisco mountain in Argentina

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Zeilberg mountain

The Zeilberg is a hill, 463 m above NHN, in the Haßberge Nature Park and county of Haßberge in eastern Lower Franconia, about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) east of Maroldsweisach. It is one of the few still recognisable volcanoes of the Heldburger Gangschar and gives its name to the Zeilberge, which are the highest part of the Itz-Baunach Hills that are geologically part of the actual Haßberge to the west, but are separated from them by the Baunach valley.

Ash Hill, New Zealand mountain

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The Franconian Keuper-Lias Plains or Franconian Keuper-Lias Lands are a major natural region in the South German Scarplands in Upper Franconia and to a lesser extent in the north, in the Thuringian district of Hildburghausen. As the name betrays, the term embraces both the Keuper landscapes and lias landscapes in Franconia. In addition, the foreland of the Franconian Jura, in which part of the Brown Jurassic occurs, as well as parts of the former volcanic region of Heldburger Gangschar belong to this region.

Heldburger Land

The Heldburger Land was the historical, Saxon, administrative district (Amtsbezirk) of Heldburg and is today the southernmost part of the Free State of Thuringia and the district of Hildburghausen, between the towns of Coburg, Hildburghausen and Bad Königshofen. The region known now as the Heldburger Land is referred to administratively as the Heldburger Unterland, and sometimes in the vernacular as the Heldburger Zipfel.

Heldburg Fortress

Heldburg Fortress is a high medieval hilltop castle in the 16th Century was rebuilt into a renaissance castle. It rises on a former volcanic region to 'Heldburger Gangschar' counted, 405-metre-high volcanic cone, 113 metres above the town of Heldburg in the Heldburger Land, the southern tip of the district Hildburghausen in Thuringia. The Veste Heldburg, once a secondary residence and hunting lodge of the Dukes of Coburg, dominates the little town of Heldburg on the Thuringian border with Bavaria. From it can be seen across the Thuringian border the sister-castle Veste Coburg,, once the residence of the Dukes of Coburg, now located in Bavaria.

Gleichberge German mountain range

The Gleichberge, which mainly comprise the Großer and Kleiner Gleichberg, are a small, inselberg-like mountain range, up to 679 m above sea level (NHN), in the southwestern part of the German state of Thuringia. They rise just east of the little ancient town of Römhild in the county of Hildburghausen.

Pali-Aike volcanic field Volcanic Field of Chile and Argentina

Pali-Aike volcanic field is a volcanic field in Argentina which straddles the border with Chile. It is part of a province of back-arc volcanoes in Patagonia, which formed from processes involving the collision of the Chile Rise with the Peru–Chile Trench. It lies farther east than the Austral Volcanic Zone, the volcanic arc which forms the Andean Volcanic Belt at this latitude.

References

Coordinates: 50°17′19″N10°43′43″E / 50.2886°N 10.7286°E / 50.2886; 10.7286

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.