Laacher See

Laacher See is a volcanic crater lake in the Eifel mountain range of western Germany. It lies about 24 kilometres northwest of Koblenz and 37 kilometres south of Bonn. The oval lake measures two kilometres across and has steep banks rising from its dark waters. A Benedictine abbey, Maria Laach Abbey, stands on its western shore, founded in 1093 by Henry II of Laach. Steam vents called mofettas along the southeastern shore show that the volcano is dormant rather than extinct. Beneath the lake’s surface rests the wreckage of a Halifax bomber shot down during the Second World War. The lake formed 13,000 years ago when a powerful Plinian eruption collapsed the ground. The blast flattened trees up to four kilometres away and sent ash plumes thirty-five kilometres high. Pyroclastic flows covered valleys within ten kilometres, leaving deposits over fifty metres thick near the crater. An estimated six cubic kilometres of magma exploded, blanketing more than 300,000 square kilometres from France to Poland. The eruption dammed the Rhine, creating a temporary lake of 140 square kilometres before the dam burst and flooded downstream. Visitors walk a path around the lake’s rim, where high banks frame views of the water and abbey. The western shore offers close views of the abbey’s Romanesque towers and cloisters. Steam rises from mofettas near the southeastern edge, marking the volcano’s lingering heat. The water level rises and falls because the lake has no natural outlet. Beneath the surface, the Halifax wreck remains intact, a silent reminder of wartime loss. The surrounding Eifel hills provide quiet walking trails and forested slopes to explore.