Die Trolle - merkwürdige Gestalten warten auf Dich

The loop trai

Starting and final point of this loop trail is a parking for cars beside the Naheweinstrasse K41, that leads through the Trollbachtal from Münster-Sarmsheim up to Burglayen. The route is about 2.6km and resolves 50m height. It leads through a trail, but it is unsecured and therefore may be muddy after rainfalls. There's no need to leave the trail to resolve the questions.

Who are the Trolls?

The name Troll originates from the Nordic mythology. It describes a fiend or giant, that often harms people. Trolls are the masculine counterpart of fairies and pixies. It is in doubt if the Trolls here ever harmed any people. Without a doubt any visitor can see, that the Trolls here are formative to the landscape of the lower Trollbachtal with their dark, giant debris.

What do the Trolls consist of?

The Trolls of the Trollbachtal are not the mythic creatures, but the relics of an ancient alluvial fan. It is a series of auburn and green-grey breccia, that contains among sandy-silty to argillaceous parts rough quartzite-, limestone-, slate-, quartz- and sandstone components. Breccia is a rock composed of angular fragments of minerals or rocks in a matrix (cementing material), that may be similar or different in composition to the fragments (a conglomerate by contrast is a sedimentary rock composed of rounded fragments or clasts of pre-existing rocks). Intermediate the beccia are thin sandstone strata. These are interpreted as alluvial deposits. Seldom these strata contain tracks of tetrapods.

Where do the Trolls come from?

The origin of the material is in the Hunsrueck. The lower strata is dominated by pure quartzite of the lower Taunusquartzite of the Hunsrueck and slated quartzite with glimmer of more north-west origin. The upper strata consist of quartzite-, metadacite- and metabasalt components from the southern Hunsrueck. All components were transported from the Hunsrueck in south-eastern direction into the Saar-Nahe-Basin, one of the greatest intramontane basins in Europe. The Trollbachtal is peripheral region of today Saar-Nahe-Basin, that in-situ is an area of 40km * 100km. The sediment strata achieve a thickness of about 8000m here.

How old are the Trolls?

The Trolls are built of material that originates from the Devonian (417-358 MBP). During the Rotliegend (302-257 MBP) these rocks have been eroded and were put into the Saar-Nahe-Basin. The sediments of the Rotliegend have been almost eroded in the Trollbachtal – but not the Trolls. They resist until present because of their abrasiveness caused by silica acid solution that impregnate the rocks.

Which circumstances caused the formation of the Trolls?

The devonian rocks in Rheinland-Pfalz are part of the Rhenohercynian zone of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. During Devonian a flat ocean was located here, in which thick sediments from the Old Red Continent in the North were deposited. At the turn from Devonian to Carboniferous (358 MBP) the geological evolution in Middle Europe was dominated by the collision of continents and islands. During these processes the Renish Slate Mountains arose and the ocean disappeared. Along weak zones intramontane basins were built, like the Saar-Nahe-Basin here. The climate changed from tropical-humid near to Equator to desert like hot and arid near to 30° North. Under these circumstances debris flow was transported through the canyons in the mountains during strong thunderstorms and has built thick alluvial fans when it reached the basin. The greatest of these alluvial fans cover about 15km into the Saar-Nahe-Basin. After a short main transport there flew enough water to deposit the small stratus between the rough parts. Intermediate to these events the alluvial fans were almost dry and so erosion, alteration and pedogenesis took part.

Sources:

• Landesamt für Geologie und Bergbau Rheinland-Pfalz (Hrsg.): Steinland-Pfalz. Geologie und Erdgeschichte von Rheinland-Pfalz. Mainz. 2005.

• Geologisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz: Geotope in Rheinland-Pfalz. Mainz. 1999.

• Landesamt für Geologie und Bergbau Rheinland-Pfalz (Hrsg.): GeoTouren. Mainz. 2007.

• Wikipedia. http://de.wikipedia.org

Questions:

1. What's the elevation of the Trolls?

2. What's the size of the rough parts of the Trolls?

3. How many Trolls are located in the Trollbachtal?

Don't look for information boards near the trail, you won't find one. All questions can be answered by observations in situ.

Log validation:

1. To claim this cache as found you have to write an email containing as subject the GC-code of this cache, a valid return address and as body text the answers to the questions to GeoMops@web.de. You will receive an answer with the permission to log if your answers are correct within a few days.
   
   

2. Attach a picture of you in the foreground and a Troll in the background to your log.
   
   

Logs without permission and / or picture will be deleted.

I hope you will enjoy this cache - have fun!