Paselstollen

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Coordinates: 47 ° 4 '48.9 "  N , 13 ° 5' 50.9"  E

Map: State of Salzburg
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Paselstollen​
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Salzburg

The Paselstollen is a tunnel that has existed since 1943 near Böckstein in the Gastein Valley , Land Salzburg. It was driven for gold mining and has been used since 1952 as a radon balneology spa under the name Gasteiner Heilstollen . Under mining law, the mine is operated by Erzbergbau Radhausberg GesmbH and used medically by Gasteiner Kur-Reha- u Heilstollen BetriebsgesmbH .

Location and dates

Today's entrance to the tunnel

The tunnel portal is about 2 kilometers west of the Böckstein train station in the direction of Sportgastein , at the foot of the Radhausberg massif at 1290  m above sea level. A. Elevation.

The tunnel was driven almost 2 kilometers (1888 m tunnel length) towards the south, the clear dimensions were: height 3.40 m, base width 3.40 m, and ridge width 3.0 m.

history

The Radhausberg massif is an old gold mining area ; when Austria was annexed in 1938 , the mining rights were transferred from the Republic (Bundesschätze) to the Preuß-AG . In 1940 the Pasel tunnel in Böckstein was attacked in order to drive under the old tunnel on the Radhausberg. As early as 1943, the drive, which was also carried out with the use of around two dozen Polish forced laborers , was stopped due to insufficient productivity. Instead, high rock and air temperatures and a higher than normal concentration of radon were found in the tunnel air . These peculiarities and indications of the healing effects of the tunnel climate in the workforce of the former mining company prompted the University of Innsbruck to begin extensive scientific studies in 1946.

The high level of radioactive background radiation in the Gastein Valley had been known since the beginning of the 20th century; the annual mean concentration in the Gastein tunnel is around 44,000 Becquerel per m³ of tunnel air. For comparison: In buildings, a guide value of 200–400 Bq / m³ is assumed as the upper limit for a radon hazard.

The tunnel is named after Curt Pasel , the secret mountain ridge in the Reich and Prussian Ministry of Economics.

geology

The Gasteiner Paselstollen with its tunnels follows an approximately 25 million year old ore vein , which descends steeply to great depths (up to 3000 m) of the Radhausberg. This vein was created in the course of the Alpidic ore formation by stretching the rock masses, which were folded up by the north thrust of Africa at that time, along the mountain axis. The pressure relief when tearing open the deep duct crevices allows sulphidic metal ores to rise and settle out of the underlying old slates of the Habach formation , which fill the crack to the surface with ores rich in precious metals .

At the end of the last European Ice Age, large masses of melt water seep away along younger, non-mineralized crevices (rot) into the mountain, which slowly water the 3000 m thick gneiss to the dense slate soil (formation of the Tauern window ), where they warm up and become hot water climb back up. The renewed cooling during the ascent into higher (= colder) rock layers slowly creates a large-scale and long-term water cycle that dissolves the trace elements of gneiss ( radium , fluorine and chromium ) and enriches them in the water over thousands of years . The radium dissolved in the hot water breaks down further into radon and the fluorine, in combination with water, creates strong acids that ultimately attack and decompose the metals in the ore vein.

Only the strong, sometimes up to 1000 m deep erosion deepening of the alpine valleys after the end of the Ice Age allows the masses of meltwater, trapped in the gneiss of the Radhausberg for a long time, to escape in the form of hot, radon-containing springs at the deeper north-eastern valley floor. As with a filled bucket, which overflows at its edge (=  source horizon or altitude of the sources), only that amount of water emerges from the sources that regularly flows into the overall system due to the annual snowmelt / precipitation in the extensive catchment area (this deep structure is called Mallnitzer Mulde ).

The advanced dissolution of the precious metal ores in the passageway was stopped at the level of the oldest (first) valley floor, as the thermal water could no longer rise higher in the mountain due to its earliest source outflow. This ultimately made the historical gold and silver mining possible later along the outcrop of the ore vein over 1000 m above the valley floor, down to depths of approx. 400 m ( Radhausberg / Hieronymushaus mine , Knappenbäudelsee )

It was not until the 1940s that attempts were made to drive the 2 km long horizontal Paselstollen under the Radhausberg and its ore vein just barely (200 m) above today's valley floor. Instead of the ores that were hoped for, however, only hot radon-containing water vapor was found, which had risen from the depths via the empty duct crevice (from the current spring horizon approx. 200 m below) and warmed the surrounding rocks to approx. 40 ° C.

Health resort

Representation in the Montanmuseum Altböckstein

Today, the health resort is operated by Gasteiner Kur-, Reha- und Heilstollen Betriebsgesellschaft  mbH, a consortium of local, regional and supra-regional healing and tourism facilities and individuals in the industry. He is scientifically supervised by the Paracelsus Medical Private University in Salzburg (Gastein Research Institute).

In the Gastein Healing Gallery, chronic diseases of the musculoskeletal system, the respiratory tract and the skin are treated with radon and hyperthermia . The therapy area of ​​the tunnel is divided into five different stations, which differ in terms of heat (37–41.5 ° C) and humidity (75–100%). The entrance takes 90 minutes, of which approx. 60 minutes are spent lying down in the therapy area. 14,000 patients are treated there annually.

The effective radioactive radiation dose of a 3-week course with 10 applications in the tunnel is around 1.8 mSv . The natural annual radiation exposure from radon and other inhaled nuclides is between 1 and 10 mSv per year worldwide (UNSCEAR 2008). The EU states define an additional exposure of 1 mSv per year as the upper limit for persons who are not exposed to radiation for work or as a patient; the radon tunnel is therefore a control or monitoring area in accordance with the Radiation Protection Ordinance. There is currently no scientifically founded recommendation for radon therapy. The spa entrances are recognized as treatment by the Austrian social insurance for Bechterew's disease, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis.

literature

  • Ferdinand Scheminzky : The Badgastein-Böckstein thermal tunnel. Tyrolia, Innsbruck 1965. Therein a. a .: Christof Exner : The geology of the thermal tunnel and its surroundings ; Karl Zschocke: Gold mining in the Hohe Tauern and the excavation of the Radhausberg underground tunnel (Pasel tunnel, thermal tunnel, healing tunnel) in Böckstein near Badgastein.
  • Josef Zötl, Johann E. Goldbrunner: The mineral and medicinal waters of Austria: Geological foundations and trace elements. Gabler Wissenschaftsverlage, 1993, ISBN 978-321182396-5 ; Chapter healing springs in the border area of ​​the Northern Limestone Alps of the Grauwackenzone and in the inner-Alpine Tertiary. 5.2. The healing water areas in the Tauern window , pp. 81–97 ( limited preview in the Google book search).

Web links

Commons : Paselstollen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Karl Zschocke: Annual report on the excavation of the Radhausberger underground tunnel for 1940. Böckstein, February 7, 1941; History of Gastein gold mining. The construction of the Paselstollen (Radhausberg Unterbaustollen or Heilstollen). Work report, Böckstein, January 3, 1943. Both published in Der Radhausberg. Journal for mining research on Gastein gold mining ( 1940 and 1943 as a web document, both mfzr.org)
  2. ↑ See meeting of the trade union council of the Rathausberg trade union on August 2, 1938 . Minutes (on mfzr.org)
  3. ↑ F. Scheminzky: The thermal healing cave of Badgastein-Böckstein - its history, research and healing power.
  4. ↑ for example H. Mache: About the radioactivity of the Gastein thermal baths. Meeting reports d. Kais.Akad.Wiss., Mathem.-naturwiss.Kl., Abt. IIa, 23, Vienna 1904, p. 13;
    in detail Joseph Braunbeck: The shining double-headed eagle: Nuclear things from Austria-Hungary . Leykam Buchverlagsgesellschaft, 1996, ISBN 978-370117333-4 , especially chap. VII. Hoping and disappointing , p. 110 ff ( limited preview in the Google book search)
  5. ↑ Information on radon . The Austrian Radon Project (ÖNRAP), Harry Friedmann , Faculty of Physics-Nuclear Physics, University of Vienna
  6. ↑ Heinz Dopsch, Hans Spatzenegger, Oswald Reiche: History of Salzburg. Volume 2 City and Country. , 1991, p. 2626
  7. ↑ Gasteiner Kur-, Reha- und Heilstollen Betriebsgesellschaft mbH in Böckstein . Commercial register data Creditreform / firmenabc.at
  8. ↑ The Gastein Research Institute introduces itself , information sheet (pdf, on gasteiner-heilstollen.com, accessed February 10, 2013; 103 kB)
  9. ↑ Markus Ritter: List of indications for radon therapy . Institute for Physiology and Pathophysiology, Research Institute Gastein (pdf, accessed February 10, 2013)
  10. ↑ Report on springermedizin.at, May 3, 2012 ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.springermedizin.at
  11. ↑ Radon as a remedy - therapeutic effectiveness, biological mechanism of action and comparative risk assessment Peter Deetjen, Albrecht Falkenbach, Dietrich Harder, Hans Jöckel, Alexander Kaul, Henning von Philipsborn. Publishing house Dr. Kovac 2005, ISBN 3-8300-1768-5 .
  12. ↑ UNSCEAR-Report 2008, p. 339, table 12 (PDF; 12.8 MB)
  13. ↑ Austrian Radiation Protection Ordinance, § 14  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.lebensministerium.at  
  14. ↑ HTA for radon therapy in musculoskeletal diseases. Update 2012. (PDF; 618 kB)  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Main Association of Austrian Social Insurance Institutions, February 2012@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.hauptverband.at  
  15. ↑ VAEB health facility , accessed on October 24, 2016.