Stavelot Massif

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The Stavelot Massif is a geological massif in the Belgian Ardenne (geologically a part of the Rhenish Massif). Most of the massif crops out in Belgium, but a small part lies across the border with Germany.^[1]

The massif consists of early Paleozoic (late Cambrian and Ordovician in age) metamorphic rocks, mostly quartzites and phyllites. In other parts of the Ardennes they form a basement which is covered by only slightly metamorphosed late Paleozoic limestones and sandstones, that only saw a low degree of metamorphism. On the other hand, the early Paleozoic rocks were deformed and metamorphosed to a higher degree during the Caledonian orogeny (about 450 million years ago).

Both the Caledonian basement and the low grade cover rocks were deformed again during the Hercynian orogeny (about 350-280 million years ago). This phase of deformation created a large northeast-southwest oriented anticline that runs across the Belgian part of the Rhenish Massif (the ). In the core of this anticline a number of massifs of early Paleozoic rocks crop out. The Stavelot Massif is one of the larger, other Caledonian massifs are the , the and the .

The higher competence of the Caledonian basement rocks made them more resistant to erosion. The massif therefore forms a plateau in the topography. This plateau is called the High Fens and encompasses the highest summits of Belgium.

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