Zebín (East Bohemia)
N 50° 27.205 E 015° 22.458
33U E 526571 N 5589112
Zebín, a natural monument and also a distinctive conical neovolcanic hill (399 m a.s.l.) created from a chimney breeze prepared from Cretaceous siltstones, is located in the Jicín basin about 500 m W of Valdice and about 2 km NE of Jicín.
Waymark Code: WM12GXJ
Location: Královéhradecký kraj, Czechia
Date Posted: 05/26/2020
Views: 15
Zebín, a natural monument and also a distinctive conical neovolcanic hill (399 m a.s.l.) created from a chimney breeze prepared from Cretaceous siltstones, is located in the Jicín basin about 500 m W of Valdice and about 2 km NE of Jicín.
Zebín is an erosive relic of a tuff cone, which was created by a phreatomagmatic eruption upon contact of the emerging magma with surface water. Pyroclastics are penetrated by a vein of compact basanite with abundant xenoliths of the mantle. The extensive chalk pedestal is broken by landslides on the northern slope. On the steep slopes overgrown with grassy vegetation there are in places small volcanic rocks and outcrops. There is an abandoned quarry on the western slope. The hill is unforested.
The slopes of the hill were originally covered with plants and woody plants typical of oak-hornbeam forests. Economic activity here has caused the development of dry and semi-step vegetation. Farming was terminated around 1970, as a result of which the slopes are overgrown with hawthorn, blackberries and roses. In recent years, Zebín has been experiencing an invasion of false acacia and uncultivated cherries. These aggressive trees are now displacing the original elm. 47 species of vertebrates were observed in Zebín. The common lizard is the only reptile living here. There are 43 species of birds living in the area, some of which even nest here.
At the top of Zebín stands the Baroque waychapel of St. Mary Magdalene, built around 1700, during the time of the Abbey of the Carthusian Order of St. Bruno in nearby Valdice.
Source: excerpted and translated from
Wikipedia