Lonauer waterfall

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Lonauer waterfall

The Lonauer Wasserfall , also Lonauwasserfall , is located on the southwestern slope of the Harz Mountains in the area of ​​the city of Herzberg ( district of Göttingen ) in Lower Saxony . This approximately 10 meter high, largest natural waterfall in the western Harz ( see also: List of waterfalls in Germany ) consists of smaller cascades and two main steps of 2 and 6 meters high. The flow rate of the Lonau at the waterfall (mean 0.32 m³ / s) is subject to strong fluctuations; monthly mean values ​​between 0.015 m³ / s (July 1934) and 1.15 m³ / s (January 1938) were measured.

Location and accessibility

The waterfall is located in the northeast of Herzberg, about 130 meters above the confluence of the Lonau and Sieber . The mouth and waterfall of the Lonau can be reached via a footpath that branches off from Hüttuferstraße. The road connects Lonauer Strasse (part of the district road K 410 ) with Andreasberger Strasse (part of the state road L 521 ). The northern karst hiking trail leads directly past the waterfall.

Origin and geology

In the alternation of the cold periods (sometimes with glaciation of the Hochharz ) and the shorter warm periods, the rivers graveled up the valley floors and then cut themselves again. In the last glacial period, the Vistula glacial period , the Lonau and Sieber still flowed a good 2 kilometers apart in a westerly direction. Then both rivers dug in again, the larger Sieber, however, stronger, so that the Lonau at some point broke to the left to the nearby Sieber, which flows a few meters deeper. The difference in altitude increased further because the Sieber runs over easily clearable limestones of the Zechstein , whereas the Lonau runs over the thick-banked Grauwacken of the Kulm . At the rock boundary a slope of the Lonau formed. From there, the Lonau cut like a ravine along turned-in clay schists, which dip about 45 °, to the point where it meets these soft layers from the side. Today it forms the 45 ° down, approximately 6 meter high main fall at this layer boundary.

literature

  • Firouz Vladi : The Lonau waterfall near Herzberg am Harz. Unser Harz, H. 7, pp. 123-125, Clausthal-Zellerfeld 1996.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Firouz Vladi : The Lonau waterfall in Herzberg / Harz , information sheet from the Lower Saxony State Office for Soil Research on the Geotope Day 2002

Coordinates: 51 ° 39 ′ 46 ″  N , 10 ° 20 ′ 54 ″  E