Kainsbach's limestone tufa terrace
Coordinates: 49 ° 28 ′ 17 ″ N , 11 ° 28 ′ 3 ″ E
The Kainsbach lime tufa terrace is a sintered lime terrace near Happurg in the central Franconian district of Nürnberger Land in Bavaria .
location
The morphologically distinctive freshwater limestone deposits are located about one kilometer west of the Happurg district of Kainsbach (Happurg) on the eastern slope of the Steinbühl mountain .
description
The limestone tufa terrace of Kainsbach is about 4 by 4 meters and overgrown with moss. The water rises from a small spring and has a temperature of around 8 ° C over the course of the year . Then it gradually falls over several smaller sinter basins about three meters further down. In the flatter lower slope, the water runs over a wide area and flows towards the Kainsbach, which then flows into the Happurger See .
Limestone tuffs come in various morphological forms, as large tufa beds, limestone turf channels, tuff cascades or, as here, as sintered terraces. Such natural phenomena only occur at springs whose water has a particularly high lime content. Even small springs can, under favorable circumstances, develop limestone tufa terraces or stone gullies if they only flow continuously. Springs in the shallow karst at the Dogger-Malm border often pour the water rich in carbonate required for this; The limestone-saturated karst water can not pass the water-retaining layer of the regalia in the lying position and emerges at its streak in spring horizons. It experiences a pressure relief, its temperature changes through contact with the new environment at the border to the atmosphere; some of the carbon dioxide dissolved in the water escapes, which ultimately causes lime to precipitate out of the water, which, favored by mosses and other plants, settles in small sinter basins. Certain algae also precipitate the lime dissolved in the water in a biotic process. Algae and moss promote the growth of the terrace.
For this reason, the water below the spring pot does not cut erosively into the subsoil as usual , but on the contrary, its bed gradually grows beyond the surroundings through the lime deposit.
The limestone tufa terrace is designated as a geotope with the number 574R024 by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment . See also the list of geotopes in the district of Nürnberger Land .
Access
The Kainsbach limestone tufa terrace is freely accessible all year round. The best way to get there from Kainsbach or Deckersberg is on foot or by bike. The Jura-Gebirgs-Weg , a hiking trail marked with a yellow cross on a white rectangle, leads directly to the village.
The sensitive, porous tuff limestone must not be stepped on or destroyed. The growth of the porous limestone tuff would thereby be permanently changed and the growth would be severely disturbed.
photos
Source pot
Terrace from above
Sinter basin
Stream
Individual evidence
- ↑ Location of the limestone terrace in the Bayern Atlas (accessed March 16, 2014)
- ↑ Geotope: stream course with limestone tufa terrace west of Kainsbach (accessed on March 20, 2020)
- ↑ OpenStreetMap hiking map ( memento of the original from March 16, 2014 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. (Accessed March 16, 2014)
