Morphotectonic setting of maar lakes in the Campo de Calatrava Volcanic Field (Central Spain, SW Europe)

In the Campo de Calatrava Volcanic Field (CCVF, Central Spain), the eruption of Pliocene–Pleistocene maar craters into two clearly distinct types of pre-volcanic rocks allows the observation and comparison of hard-substrate and soft-substrate maar lakes. Hard-substrate maars formed when phreatomagmatic processes affected the jointed, Paleozoic igneous and metamorphic rocks (hard substrate), giving rise to funnel-like maar lake basins. Soft-substrate maars resulted from phreatomagmatic volcanic processes affecting poorly-consolidated Pliocene sediments, forming bowl-like maar lake basins. Pre-volcanic bedrock determined the post-eruptive lacustrine architecture in the craters and favored a higher preservation of hard-substrate maars in comparison to soft-substrate maars. This is because the hard-substrate maars, surrounded by a deep stable crater wall, are more capable of collecting sediments in their basins. These sediments could be preserved for longer than similar deposits in broad, shallow maars with a soft substrate. Ancient soft-substrate maars do not usually preserve their original morphology well and can be identified only by their lacustrine deposits. Carbonate lacustrine/palustrine deposits surrounding a bowl-like depression are the remnants of this second type of maar lake, and allow reconstruction of the original morphology of ancient soft-substrate maar craters. Geophysical (electrical tomography ground surveys) and geomorphologic–geologic mapping techniques were combined with fieldwork and facies analysis in order to locate and accurately characterize the Pliocene–Pleistocene soft-substrate maar volcanic structures of the CCVF.