General Characteristics

County (administration): Karlovy Vary Region
District (town): Cheb
Cadastre: Františkovy Lázně a Cheb
Map 1 : 50 000 (sheet No): 1114, 11143
Geological region: Cheb & Sokolov basins and Neovolcanics of the Doupovské hory Mts.
Accessibility: - no traffic restriction ( by car)
Technical object: guarry
Excursion locality: yes
ID : 1430

Geology

Short characteristics of the site: Volcanic hill of a stratovolcano type in the Tertiary Cheb Basin, with an abandoned quarry on the eastern slope. The quarry displays loose tuffs with basaltic bombs up to 0.5 m in length and xenoliths of granite and metamorphic rocks. A gallery was mined in hard basaltic rock in the early 19th century to confirm volcanic origin of the hill. At these times, the hill was visited by many famous naturalists, e.g. J.W. Goethe or Berzelius. It is the youngest volcanic hill in Bohemia, dated to 250 to 400 thousand years. Porcellanites are locally developed. Komorní hůrka Hill, played a crucial role during the controversy between Plutonists and Neptunists over the origin of rocks in the first half of the nineteenth century. This debate ended in 1837 when at the instigation of J.W. Goethe adits were dug into this volcano. It was the first large earth-works with a solely scientific goal and with no commercial mining purposes. The basaltic feeder exposed in the adits decided definitively in favour of the Plutonists after decades of ongoing arguments with the Neptunists.
Regional geologic unit: Bohemian Massif - superficial deposits and post-Variscian magmatites - Quaternary - Quaternary volcanism of Bohemian Massif
Stratigraphy: kenozoikum - kvartér
Subject: geology, volcanology, history
Geological phenomenon: stratovolcano, lava, lava flow, volcaniclastic deposits
Genesis: volcanic
Rock: tuff, basaltoid (basaltic-rock), porcelanite

Territorial conservation

Level of protection: National nature monument
Additional information: See the Digital register of the Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic AOPK ČR
Protection of a geol. phenomenon: A - Protected Area (declared as Geological Locality)
Part of the Geopark: Egeria
Conflicts of interests: estates

References

Babůrek J., Rohrmueller J. (2001): Landschaft und Geologie zwischen Marktredwitz und Sokolov.- In: 2. Marktredwitzer Bodenschutztage, p. 135-138, Marktredwitz. Hradecký P. (1994): Volcanology of Železná and Komorní hůrka in western Bohemia.- Věst. Čes. geol. Úst., 69, 2, p. 89-92.; Rapprich V. et al. (2019): A Crucial Site in the Argument Between Neptunists and Plutonists: Reopening of the Historical Adit in the Komorní hůrka (Kammerbühl) Volcano After 180 Years, Geoheritage (2019) 11:347–358, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-018-0286-z;

Elaboration and Updating

Elaborated by: Hrazdíra Petr, 05.12.02
Updated by: Gürtlerová Pavla 22.06.07, Gürtlerová Pavla 10.11.08, Hrazdíra Petr 15.09.09

Citation

The database Significant geological localities of the Czech Republic: 1430 [online]. Prague: Czech Geological Survey, 1998 [cit. 2024-04-19]. Available from: http:// lokality.geology.cz/1430.

Location in map: