maar
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun A local German name originally applied to certain small crater-lakes in the recently extinct volcanic region of the Eifel, near Bonn, on the Rhine. The craters were believed to have resulted from explosive outbreaks, without emissions of lava.
- noun Technically, any crater which has been produced by an explosion unaccompanied by lava.
Examples
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Also called “tuff cones,” maars are shallow, flat-floored craters that scientists interpret have formed above diatremes as a result of a violent expansion of magmatic gas or steam; deep erosion of a maar presumably would expose a diatreme.
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The crater in an active volcano is kept open by intermittent explosions, but in a volcano which has become dormant or extinct the vent may become plugged, and the bowl-shaped cavity may subsequently be filled with water, forming a crater-lake, or as it is called in the Eifel a Maar.
Note
The word 'maar' comes from a Latin word meaning 'lake'.
