Stolpen volcano (Stolpen Castle hill) (Stolpen)

 hill, extinct volcano, invisible, do not draw title

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The ~30 Ma Stolpen Volcano near Dresden (Saxony) is situated at the western margin of the Lausitz Volcanic Field. It forms a small isolated basaltic hill, the famous Stolpen Castle Hill, penetrating the granodioritic basement of the Lausitz Block and is worldwide the type locality for the term ‘basalt’, as coined by Agricola (1546). The volcano has always been interpreted as subvolcanic crypto- or lava dome.
New geological mapping, dip measurements of the basaltic columnar jointing and the first evidence of scoria for the Stolpen Volcano allow for a new interpretation of the volcanic edifices. On this basis the structure is best described as a maar crater volcano filled by a 110 m thick basanitic lava lake. According to genetic classification, it is a complex monogenetic volcano formed in three phases: (1) a phreatomagmatic diatreme phase with a maar crater, (2) a scoria cone phase with the final basanitic lava lake filling, and (3) a post-volcanic phase with neotectonic uplift, denudation and exposure of a basaltic hill since c. 1.3 Ma. The volcano reconstruction indicates an ongoing change in the eruption style from phreatomagmatic (phase 1) to eruptive and, finally, effusive processes (phase 2) without significant gaps between the eruption episodes. The only difference appears to be caused by a variable water supply during the magma ascent and volcanic eruption