Jump from Plaue
| Jump from Plaue | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Main source of the spring |
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| location | ||||
| Country or region | Ilm district ( Thuringia ) | |||
| Coordinates | 50 ° 46 ′ 31 ″ N , 10 ° 53 ′ 17 ″ E | |||
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| geology | ||||
| Mountains | Thuringian Basin | |||
| Source type | Karst springs | |||
| Exit type | Spring caves | |||
| rock | limestone | |||
| Hydrology | ||||
| River system | Elbe | |||
| Receiving waters | Gera → Unstrut → Saale → Elbe → North Sea | |||
| Bulk | 700 l / s | |||
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 31 ″ N , 10 ° 53 ′ 17 ″ E
The Spring von Plaue (also called Plauescher Spring ) is a spring on the southern edge of the town of Plaue in the Thuringian Ilm district and also describes the stream flowing into the Gera.
In addition to the Salzaspring near Nordhausen , it is one of the largest karst springs in the state. The spring discharge at the foot of a limestone rock, which emerges at 13 delimitable points, is consistently approx. 600 to 800 liters per second.
Geological situation
The water consists partly of the precipitation from the higher Gossel plateau belonging to the Ohrdrufer Platte , a large, coherent shell limestone plate in the foreland of the Thuringian Forest . A considerable part, however, comes from the Wilder Gera , which flows around 500 meters over fissured limestone soil near Liebenstein . Likewise, the Tame Gera east of Rippersroda often seeps away completely in dry times . Through several centimeters wide and partly meter long cracks, the water of the river sometimes "disappears" completely in an underground cavity system in the summer months, only to reappear as the Spring von Plaue. Several experiments with salt and food coloring confirmed this. In a test carried out at Liebenstein in 1893 , for example, a ton of salt was thrown into the Gera. The salty water produced in this way only emerged again after several hours and was very diluted. This suggests the existence of a subterranean lake, just like the even pouring, which is almost independent of the weather and the season, but has not yet been located.
Water use and other special features
The clear water of the Spring, purified by the filter effect of the limestone, flows in the urban area of Plaue into the Gera , which is made up of Wilder and Zahmer Gera . From 1852 to 1969 the water in the Plaue Castle Brewery was used to make beer.
The spring of Plaue was declared a natural monument in 1959 . In the 1980s, due to its geological and touristic importance, the German Post of the GDR issued a 10 Pfenning special stamp with the motif of the Spring von Plaue.
