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Scheibenberg lava flow

Germany

Massive basalt columns at an abandoned quarry at the Scheibenberg. The columns are some 30 meters long. The basalt was quarried until 1936.

Massive basalt columns at an abandoned quarry at the Scheibenberg. The columns are some 30 meters long. The basalt was quarried until 1936.

Geological Period

Oligocene

Main geological interest

History of geosciences

Location

Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany
50°32’14”N, 012°55’26”E

Massive basalt columns at an abandoned quarry at the Scheibenberg. The columns are some 30 meters long. The basalt was quarried until 1936.

Around 1790, the Scheibenberg became a key argument for Neptunism in the dispute about the origins of basalt from water or lava.

Abraham Gottlob Werner taught at the Mining Academy in Freiberg (Saxony), attracting and inspiring numerous German and foreign students, who spread his geological and mineralogical handicraft, his views and ideas throughout the world.
The assumption of an igneous formation of basalt was already widespread when Werner intervened in the discussion and became the most influential representative of Neptunism. Fieldwork at the Scheibenberg convinced Werner that the underlying sediments graded into columnar basalt.
Opposition by Werner’s former student Johann C.W. Voigt (1752–1821) triggered a hot dispute in which Leopold von Buch (1774–1853) and Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) also intervened.

The hill called Scheibenberg in the Saxonian Erzgebirge is the erosional remnant of an Oligocene lava flow.

The hill called Scheibenberg in the Saxonian Erzgebirge is the erosional remnant of an Oligocene lava flow.

  • Geological description

Extensional tectonics at the Eger Graben (Ohre Graben, Czech Republic) allowed for intraplate volcanism some 32 to 28 Ma ago in the Saxonian Erzgebirge. Nephelinitic lavas poured into pre-existing river valleys and solidified as basalt columns. Subsequent erosion, stronger in the deeply weathered rocks adjacent to the lava flows, led to inversion of the relief. Consequently, the remnants of the lava flows are now preserved as hills topped with basalt columns underlain by the basal breccia of the lava flow, river sediments and crystalline basement.
Around 1790, the origin of basaltoid rocks was hotly debated. Vulcanism – following studies by Guettard (1715-1786) and Desmarest (1725-1815) in Auvergne – postulated a magmatic origin for these rocks.
In contrast Neptunism, represented mainly by Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749-1817), explained the origin of all rocks –with the exception of some recent volcanic products– as chemical or mechanical precipitation from the waters of a primordial ocean that once covered the whole earth and which subsequently retreated to the present ocean basins.
As the force and scope of erosion was then usually grossly underestimated, the basalt columns at Scheibenberg were interpreted as part of a sedimentary sequence and became a key argument in this dispute.

  • Scientific research and tradition

In spring 1787 Werner visited the Scheibenberg, where he found basalt resting horizontally upon ‘wacke’, sand, clay and gneiss. This finally convinced him that basalt was precipitated from water and made the Scheibenberg a cornerstone of Neptunism. The controversy even entered popular literature such as Goethe’s Faust II.

Photograph from the early 20th century of a quarry at the Scheibenberg showing the sedimentary rocks immediately underneath the basalt columns. (Image: LfULG; https://www.geologie.sachsen.de/scheibenberg-27293.html).

Photograph from the early 20th century of a quarry at the Scheibenberg showing the sedimentary rocks immediately underneath the basalt columns. (Image: LfULG; https://www.geologie.sachsen.de/scheibenberg-27293.html).

  • Reference

Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft Geologische Vereinigung DGGV (2023) ‘Der Scheibenberg – Digital Geology’, 15 May. Available at: https://digitalgeology.de/der-scheibenberg.

Fritscher, B. (1991) Vulkanismusstreit und Geochemie: die Bedeutung der Chemie und des Experiments in der Vulkanismus-Neptunismus-Kontroverse. Stuttgart: F. Steiner.

Guntau, M. (1984) Abraham Gottlob Werner. Biographien hervorragender Naturwissenschaftler, Techniker und Mediziner. B. G. Teubner Leipzig 1984 (Bd. 75).

Kölbl-Ebert, M. (2001) ‘Abraham Gottlob Werner’s conflicting images: thoughts inspired by special exhibitions for his 250th anniversary’, Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie – Monatshefte, pp. 277–297. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1127/njgpm/2001/2001/277.

Sebastian, U. (2013) Die Geologie des Erzgebirges. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8274-2977-3.

Werner, A.G. (1788) ‘Bekanntmachung einer am Scheibenberger Hügel über die Entstehung des Basalts gemachten Entdeckung’, Bergmännisches Journal, 2(1), pp. 845–907.

  • Author(s)

Martina Kölbl-Ebert.
International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO) & Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Munich, Germany.

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