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Schopfheim (dpa / lsw) - This lake comes and goes as it suits the weather: In the Black Forest, rain and snowmelt have brought the Eichener See near Schopfheim to light.
It is a temporary lake, the appearance of which is difficult to predict, said Patrick Schmidtner from the Schopfheim Tourist Information Office on Tuesday to the German Press Agency.
The Eichener See is located in a limestone landscape, explained Hartmut Heise, nature conservation warden for the district of Lörrach.
The subsurface of the lake resembles a Swiss cheese, there are countless cavities that fill with water when it rains or thaws.
Due to an impermeable layer at a depth of 48 meters, the water cannot drain quickly downwards.
This "underground tub" sometimes overflows.
Then the sea will appear - for a few months at most.
According to Heise, however, it has disappeared due to drought in recent years.
The Eichener See is currently around 120 meters long, 60 meters wide and an estimated 2.80 meters deep.
It could be a maximum of 150 meters long.
The special habitat also provides a home for rare gill pods that can grow to be around two centimeters long.
Their eggs are waiting in the meadow in times when there is no lake.
"If the water is there long enough, life in the lake will slip back a million times, and of course that is something very, very precious," said Heise.
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